Which command initializes the working directory and installs required providers for a project?

• A. terraform init
• B. terraform apply
• C. terraform destroy
• D. terraform validate

Answer: (A)

Initializing the working directory and fetching the necessary providers is the setup step Terraform performs before planning or applying changes. The command terraform init reads your configuration, downloads the required provider plugins, initializes modules, and sets up the backend that stores state. This prepares the project so subsequent operations have the plugins and state backend they depend on.

Other commands don’t perform this setup: applying changes requires an initialized project and a plan, destroying resources executes deletions defined in configuration, and validating checks syntax and references without fetching providers or changing state.