Which type of block is utilized to fetch or compute information for use within a Terraform configuration?

The answer is data because this block is specifically designed to retrieve external information and make it available for use within a Terraform configuration. Data blocks enable you to access information that is not managed by Terraform itself, such as information about existing infrastructure, cloud service configurations, or data from APIs. By using data blocks, you can incorporate this external information into your Terraform resources, allowing for dynamic configurations based on the current state of your infrastructure.

For example, if you want to reference a specific Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that already exists in your AWS account, you would use a data block to look up that AMI based on given criteria rather than creating a new resource for it. This functionality allows you to create more flexible and reusable Terraform configurations that can adapt to different environments and scenarios.

In contrast, resource blocks are utilized to create and manage infrastructure components, provider blocks define the cloud services or infrastructure platforms you are working with, and output blocks are used to display information after the execution of your Terraform apply. Each of these serves a different purpose, highlighting the specific role that data blocks play in accessing and working with external information within a Terraform setup.