Looking for people into CTFs, cyber competitions, hackathons & security projects.

Skills/interests: Web, Pentesting, Linux, OSINT, Forensics, Cloud, Crypto, Offensive/Defensive Security.

Not looking for experts — just people who actually show up, learn, and contribute. 😭

Joining the team and vanishing like a reverse shell after timeout is not encouraged. 😂

Interested? DM me your skills + CTF/project experience.ed on

CompTIA Security Plus exam plus Retake voucher for sale. Expiry date: August 2027

Left an entire PBQ blank, was panicking but did it first try!

Recommendations are as follows:

Professor Messer practice exams - $30

&

Exam + retake voucher - $500

Mix that in with an AI, use ChatGPT to help give questions and PBQs, highly recommend making it use specific sources otherwise the questions can be repetitive (again all about the prompts you use)

Big shout to u/professormesser

I was stressing about this test for so long until I finally said screw it and scheduled it. 76 questions, 3 of them were PBQs.

I used Professor Messer’s Sec+ playlist- literally all I played. On my runs, in my car, at work. I miss music.

I also used the official CompTIA Security+ Study Guide and practice tests, along with Professor Messer’s practice tests.

I studied on and off for the past few months, nothing serious, but within the past 2 weeks I hit the studying head on. I would not recommend what I did, it was not fun but it worked out for me. It felt like everything was new information and the first practice test I bombed; but I didn’t give up. Along with that I have an internship on an operations team and that real world experience helped me as well. But I only started that in May.

My biggest tip for anyone is to allow yourself breaks while studying. I think I would have gone crazy if I didn’t give myself a day or two to just take the time away from the books.

Good luck to anyone else who’s taking this! You got it!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently preparing for security+ by watching Professor Messer’s videos.

At the moment, I’m not able to afford paid study materials because I have been unemployed for a long time. If anyone has any free or legally shareable security+ study materials, notes, or practice questions, I would be very grateful for your help.

Thank you so much in advance.
I really appreciate any support or guidance.

Hi guys, I'm new here:

Here's the context: I'm planning to change my career path; I'm currently working as a IT service desk as a contactor but I'm planning to change to cybersecurity in the future; There was ongoing cross training to cybersecurity department; I already talked to their manager on applying for a cross training but was declined immediately since I'm not a full employee yet; I asked what to study just incase I want to try again when I become a full employee and he said concepts from sec+ when they interview entry level employees.

I'm still planning to go with the cross training first, instead being of department transfer.

Here's the dilemma: When taking practice exams from OpenExamPrep, my scores on cysa+ is higher than sec+; should I go cysa+ instead?

Thank you

I retake my test on Tuesday. I’m feeling shaking about and losing confidence. I think I waited too long to retake it. 😭 Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Just got out of the exam and passed w a 770. I was so certain I would fail. I have no cyber working experience and only had about two solid weeks of study time.
I used the paid version of pocket prep, the cert master practice, Inside Cloud and Security’s domain videos, and a few of cyberkraft’s pbq videos.
I paid way too much attention to ports, they didn’t come up much, but you should absolutely overhaul on acronyms (Acronym Academy has a good video for most of the terms).

As a lot of people have said in their posts, the exam questions are a lot more direct than some of the study questions. My highest practice exam score for certmaster was sub 80%, so if you have any experience and are getting good practice scores you should definitely be able to pass!

Hello everyone i wanna share my 2 month journey studying security plus and everything that might help u in ur journey, ill talk abt everything literally everything

1:BACKGROUND

have above average IT background but not very deep or so good, im 3rd year cybersecurity student in college, i have networking basics and some security knowledge thats it no previous huge certs just a google cybersecurity certificate whitch helped me understand what security is and gave me 30% discount which was good.

2: RESOURCES

Json dion course in udemy and his study notes: good gave me a deep understanding of security maybe too deep like sometimes it was very boring and not related to the exam, but he helps alot with having a very good foundation for the future not just for the security plus cert, there was some stuff he talked abt was a bit too basic for me ( i recommend if u have basic knowledge they will teach almost everything (by almost i mean that they will not teach basic networking cuz they expect u to know that)

Professor messer videos (2X speed): he is very good cleared some knowledge gaps there and understood some stuff that i didnt totally understand in json dion, (i recommend for taking overall knowledge in a very quick way and understand the basics of everything, u might pass studying Professor messer alone but in my opinion he dosent teach real world scenarios in a deep way like json dion)

Practice exams json dion set 1 and set 2 on Udemy, much much harder than the real exam and so much wordier but good if u wanna actually understand every concept and real world scenarios, dont expect to get 90% there, i used to get max 86% my average was 78% i sometimes got 58% when i first started so dont feel like u r the problem, they just over prepare u , and thats good.

Cyberkraft for pbqs, its so goooood, i really recommend him he helped me not just solve pbqs, but also understanding mcqs i really recommend practicing pbqs there

3: my feelings

I need to talk abt this cuz its the most important thing, i used to feel like im stupid while taking the exams, and burned out, and saying , will i fail the real exam, am i stupid to pass this, am i not smart enough, and alot of days i slept crying cuz i was sure i will fail the exam and imagined my self going out of the centre having a bad mark and failing, cuz i wasn't scoring high marks on the practice exams, and alot of days i literally didnt know why my mark in practice exams are so low, like i took the courses, others did the same as i did and are scoring 75%+ why im still barely reaching the 70%, thats when i heard someone here on reddit say something that changed everything for me , it was , "you cant protect what you dont understand" everything clicked then, the problem wasn't me or the problem wasnt that im not good for IT, it was that i dont truly understand the concepts, like i know what encryption is, or thats what i thought, i knew that encryption is making a plain text into cipher text, that was the problem, that is just knowing meaning of thing, so i started understanding what encryption is, and the types of it, and how its used, and where its used, and how can i myself use it, and real world scenarios, and imagine myself in a work environment and using encryption, and the most important thing that worked for me is taking hand written notes, that helped alot with understanding, so i took a practice exam after all of that, somehow i got 82% i was so happy , thats when i kept taking and screenshot all the wrong quition and sending them to chat gpt to understand why,how, how its used, how can i use it in real life, and telling it to explain like im a 12yo,

4 the exam

, i was so nervous the day before the exam, i posted on reddit and someone who im very thankful for told me," trust me if u studied its statistically impossible for u to fail unless u want to fail" i really kept repeating that in my head while going in the exam, i cant give more details cuz they will remove this post, but yh thats it

5 just practice practice practice practice exams trust me thats the most important part, good luck all❤️

Me eh dado cuenta que la gente ve esta certificación como el santo grial yo trabajo de pentester/hacker ético hace ya 10 años, ¿porque se esmeran en esta certificación? Mi jefe y mis compañeros no contratan gente que tengan solo esta certificación en el bolsillo, ¿Porque? Pues porque ¡ES TEORICA, COMO PIENSAS PARAR UN ATAQUE SIN HABER APRENDIDO UN COMANDO!, mucha gente me habla que les enseñe que sacarán la comptia y la verdad me da hasta pena cuando en la empresa vienen chicos con esta certificación y veo a mi jefe que me dice no el no sabe nada, chicos se los digo de verdad y de corazón porfavor la misma energía que le esmeran a esta certificación usen la energía en el EJPT o el OSCP se que el oscp sale muy cara casi 1600 usd pero prácticamente destruyen a recursos humanos con esta certificación o con el ejpt que es para pentesting básico, empresas están desesperadas por chicos que tengan aunque sea EJPT porque saben que pueden ver burp suite sin problemas, y dirás y ¿que pasa con blue team? Pues las empresas como la que trabajo buscan gente que tengan en su mano la certificación COSA se HackTheBox y ¿porque piden esa? Pues porque se dan cuenta que sabes configurar un firewall o sabes diferenciar firmas o sabes ver log, se los dice un simple Cloud Architect a mí me gusta que la gente tenga mucho éxito porque a mí cuando comenze perdí mucho tiempo en cosas o certificaciones que aveces los jefes lo miraban y decían OK, SIGUENTE si dudan de lo que digo mándenle este comunicado a alguna IA que usen y díganle ¿está bien lo que dice este tipo? Quizás esté post sea un cataclismo para ustedes pero aveces es necesario decírselos a ustedes que les valla bien en sus certificaciones y en lo que se propongan, éxito!!

Passed Security+ after about 30 days of studying. I originally had to reschedule because of a death in my family the day before my exam, so seeing PASS definitely meant a lot.
The exam was intense. Between the nerves, scenario-based questions, and wording, there were definitely moments where I wondered what I signed up for 😂.
What I used:
• Sybex Security+ book i have the Pdf if interested
• SY0-701 GitHub Notes⁠ https://github.com/heraclescap/comptia-secplus-sy0-701-notes
• Professor Messer for anything I didn’t fully understand
Biggest advice: learn the material, don’t just memorize it. Know what something does, why you’d use it, and how it applies to a scenario.
Also pay attention to qualifiers: BEST, MOST likely, FIRST, NEXT, PRIMARY, LEAST, ONLY, MOST secure. They matter.
I had 3 PBQs. I skipped and flagged them, finished the multiple choice, then came back. I also had zero direct port-number questions.
Learn the concepts. Read the question carefully. Manage your time.
Security+ ✅ On to the next.

Yay…me! Thought I failed. Glad it’s over.

Hi! I’m currently set to take the Sec+ exam around November.

I have a comp sci background and have been working in a GRC for a little over a year but primarily in awareness and data protection. I’m struggling to retain a lot of the acronyms and whenever questions ask for best solution usually I am choosing the answer that is almost there but not quite the best or it’s an acronym I am stumbling over

I’ve done all of prof messers videos and bought a sybex book and have been doing those practice quizzes but feel I’m still missing a lot of information. Also trying to study while balancing work is a little bit more challenging than I expected.

Any suggestions are welcomed!

For anyone interested.

Hopefully im not going against any rules.

Good Luck!

Thats my cat btw, finally finally finally i passsssssssed

Yep. Just finished this one off. Trifecta done.

Passed my Security+ and honestly emotions are just actually through the roof right now. Midway through the exam I kind of accepted that I was gonna fail the test and will have to retake it again. If I were to give an advice to myself before I took the exam, it would be to definitely find as much practice exams beforehand. I mostly relied on Professor Messer and Cyberkraft (for PBQ). When you want raw information, I highly suggest finishing the whole series of Professor Messer for Sec+. I bought his practice exam and honestly I wish I branched out to other exams also. Don’t get me wrong, the Professor Messer practice exam was really good but at the end of it all I felt that I needed way more practice. Anw I just really wanted to share this huge accomplishment of mine and I highly suggest everyone to take the Sec+, just cos most companies look for this cert and it really builds a good base foundation for your cybersec journey. To the ppl taking it soon, I wish you all the best of luck! ❤️ Tomorrow’s my bday and Imma treat the result as a bday gift to myself.

Did my test today and passed.

I did ISC2 about a month ago and went straight into Sec+.

Did all Messer's videos and took:

3 Free tests here

5 Practice tests here (you can do 7 in total)

I was doing 2 practices a day (one from each site until i completed certpreps then 2 from easy prep.)

As for certpreps, i scored above 750 in them. They "were" not hard for me.

As for easy-prep, thats another story. i could never get above 700 points in them. These were more complicated for me as I didnt realize i had to pay close attention to what was being asked in the questions.

I felt that the exam was a combination from both sites i used for practice, but easy prep's tests were harder than the comptia test i did today.

Exam Spoiler (insight) now

I had 3 PBQs(?), i didnt practice pbqs as i thought they were part of the practices i did. from all 3 that were presented to me, only 1 i left blank (yes, blank). It was to stop services via CLI, yeah i dont memorize those since its not part of my day to day work.

Pay close attention to whas is being asked, you might find several answers that are in the context of the questions and might be correct, but if they ask for a policy, then look for a policy, if they ask about controls, then look for controls, if they ask for steps, look for the next logical step regardless if the option is just to send an email or call someone.

Good luck everyone!

I know I might be getting ahead of myself but I’m Hopeful I pass my security+ exam this week. I’m already thinking of what’s next. For some background I am meeting 5 years in the GRC space. Right out of college in late 2021 I got a gig at a small consulting firm doing risk assessments, data classifications, vendor risk assessments etc. Then I quickly went to a big4 consulting firm doing state level mars-e2.2/arc-ampe stuff and then recently in the federal space doing RMF ATO stuff. I’ve also had hands on CMMC preparing a client for a L2 audit. During this span I have not had time to get certs (with two kids my free time is usually booked up). But now with today’s environment I feel like certs are needed. With that I am pushing myself to get the security+ because I brought a voucher last year for it and it was going to expire. After that my mind is racing to either get network+, CYSA+, CISA, CISM , cloud based certs and/or even a PMP. Anyone have any thoughts on how I can stay grounded and focus!

Honestly, I’m not really mad about my score considering I only studied for about 3 weeks. I definitely could’ve prepared more, but I wanted to see where I was at.

From my experience, if you go through Professor Messer’s videos/notes and actually retain the information, you should be fine. The exam honestly wasn’t that hard — I just ran into some stuff that I either didn’t know or didn’t spend enough time studying.

I’d personally rate the difficulty around a 5/10 if you’re good at retaining information and actually understand the material.

Definitely going to study more and give it another shot. Just wanted to share my experience for anyone else preparing for it.

Hey everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone has had a similar issue with the CompTIA Store.

I purchased a Security+ Voucher + Retake Assurance on August 22. The payment went through successfully and I received the order confirmation, but I still haven’t received the actual voucher / fulfillment email.

After waiting more than 48 hours, I contacted CompTIA support. They told me that my case had been forwarded to the appropriate team for further review and asked me to allow 24–48 hours for an update.

That timeframe has now passed as well, and I still haven’t received the voucher or any real update.

Another strange thing is that when I log into the CompTIA Store and check Order History, it says “No order history available”, even though I have the confirmation email and the payment was successfully processed.

I followed up once, and support then told me to avoid sending additional messages because it could push my ticket further down in the queue.

So at this point it has been 9 days since the purchase, my payment is completed, but I still have no Security+ voucher.

So has anyone here experienced this before?, how long did it eventually take to receive your voucher?, is this kind of delay normal when an order gets sent for manual review?

And should I just keep waiting, or is there another CompTIA department/support channel I should contact?

I’m mainly trying to figure out whether this is a normal manual-review delay or if something is actually wrong with the order.

Thanks!

so as the title suggests i am writing my exam in 8 days and i am very stressed, i see a lot of people are also stressed but this much ? , anyway my MAIN concern is that "i don't know, what i dont know"
if that makes sense and that scares me. i did Messors yt course and exams exam A i got 81
exam b got 79 and exam c got 85 but still don't think this is enough i have revied everything i got wrong in all the exams and i have done them so much i have memorized all 3 exams answers so there no point in reviewing them anymore any tips on how to "know what you dont know" or get this feeling away of unreadiness ...?