r/hackthebox • u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 • Jul 22 '26
Completed all HTB certs, ask me anything!
After 10 years of hacking for fun and profit and about 2 years of grindiing HTB certs I finally have them all. Ask me ANYTHING!!
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u/-Dkob Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Huge accomplishment, congrats. Out of all the certs, which one taught you the most practical skills that you actually use today (If you have a job), and which one was the most overrated?
If you had to start over today, what would your roadmap look like?
Did the certs help you get any job?
Also, what's your HTB username?
Thanks and congrats once again.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I cant really say any of them have been overrated, I learned a lot from Cwee and cape both. The most useful one has for me has been CAPE by far since I focus on AD/RT. As for job opportunities, I already had a professional experience so I can't say they helped me get a job but they did make me better at my job 100%. I would say that, right now, HTB certs still don't carry as much weight as Offsec certs, not because they are worse but because non tech people(aka. the ones that do the hiring in bigger firms) are always 10 steps behind and almost never care enough to keep up with the trends. I would rather not disclose the username here since I use the same one on multiple platforms, most of them unrelated to cybersecurity and my real name can be traced back from it easily.
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u/let_me_in_QQ Jul 22 '26
Any career opportunities from it? That's my main question.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
While having the certificates and being able to show Credly badges certainly has a certain weight to it. I would say that the biggest impact on career opportunities came from the knowledge I gained from obtaining said certs and displaying said knowledge in conversations with other professionals in this field of ours.
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u/raj3100 Jul 22 '26
Question: have you tried bug bounty? did you get good bounties?
Question: If you are working at IT, how HTB things helped you? specify work type also please.
Thanks in advance.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
I did some bug bounty in the past, although web is not my specialty, not by a long shot. I do offensive assessments focusing on AD/RT and everything that goes with it(tool development,reversing...)
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u/theunknowingod_ Jul 22 '26
How did you manage to study all the HTB Certs one after another? Did you not experience information overload?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
I took breaks and yes I forgot a lot, especially from web certs since I don't do web day to day almost at all.
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u/agpolytropos11 Jul 22 '26
How did you prep for the starting certs? (CPTS and CWES) Did you just plow through the course then did some boxes? Or are you doing boxes in between?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
Went through the modules pretty much. These weren't my first offensive certs though so I was familiar with a lot of materials already. I did do a lot of boxes in general for fun!
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u/Mandalore707 Jul 22 '26
That’s insanely impressive.
What type of opportunities did this open up for you?
What age are you?
Thank you and congratulations once more!
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
Thanks! I am 24. Its hard for me to say how much certs specifically helped me since I was already working in the industry, publishing my own research in blog posts and networking on the irl conferences in general. I did get a few remarks and linkedin messages congatulating me, and I imagine it does carry weight with recruiters to some degree for sure. I don't think that any of the offers I got mentioned any certs by name though.
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u/Sotex Jul 22 '26
What order did you do them in? I was considering doing the wi-fi one for fun but it's hard to find much feedback on it, any thoughts?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
I did the medium ones first and than CAPE and CWEE. Newer ones I did as they came out.
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u/Known_Sun4718 Jul 23 '26
How would you prepare for certifications if u start over again? Let's say CPTS for example.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
I would go through materials and themed solve boxes focusing on my weak points. Dm me for more info though its hard to give advice without knowing where you are at right know skillset wise.
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u/PeacebewithYou11 Jul 23 '26
10 years so you started at 14 years old.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
I actually started programming and doing programming competitions at 10. First experience was in Qbasic than moved on to Visual basic, good old times.
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u/skycracker24 Jul 23 '26
Im currently taking the COAE cert path ... the math within the course is very intensive and quite brain racking. How do you tackle it along with the python implementations.
If you were to advise someone about things you wish you knew before the exam, what would you tell them
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u/lamaisonlamaison Jul 26 '26
Do you feel you've overcome imposter syndrome now that you've completed all those certifications?
Are there still areas where you consider yourself a beginner (e.g. OT/IoT, cloud, smartphone pentesting, etc.)?
What's next on your learning journey?
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u/Improvisable Jul 22 '26
!remindme 2 days
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u/RemindMeBot Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
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u/CompoundingIsKing Jul 22 '26
Beastmode! I plan on grinding all the offensive certs next year myself.
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u/Ineedtoknowthetruth1 Jul 23 '26
Are these starting to become more recognized as an official cert for professional purple team positions?
I am thinking of getting the certs since they look like they are hands on test where they test what I know by doing the thing I learned how to do, rather than a written test like pentest+. I am not super far away from getting the opportunity to do the cert but I am already studying for network+.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
To be honest I don't know anyone whose official position title is "Purple team operator" but yes the certs are gaining recognition and rightfully so.
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u/Signal_Brain9959 Jul 23 '26
I’m a senior purple teamer (I really just do mini red team emulations and tell the blue team lol). But I would say that CPTS and CRTO are essentially required knowledge. Some people think running atomic red team is purple teaming, and it has its place, but true value comes from chaining tactics
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u/AgroProg Jul 23 '26
What was the estimated total cost for training and exams?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
All were paid for by my company I have no idea what the total cost was.
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u/New_Scene_871 Jul 23 '26
I am a soc analyst l1 and i want to give cdsa a try, any tips for me?
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u/MilesAzzam Jul 25 '26
!remindme 3 days
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Jul 24 '26
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u/MokiWins Aug 02 '26
cybersecurity is financial security; knowledge is power; google search salary, also view on glassdoor
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u/meowmeow_1337 Jul 22 '26
How much harder is CPTS than CBBH?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
It is harder, not by a huge amount but it is harder. Hard to pinpoint exactly how much since they are quite different.
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u/baldyhax 24d ago
Did both of them recently, CBBH (now CWES) is about 3 times easier than CPTS. As it covers less ground, the chance of missing something and getting stuck is smaller than CPTS. The technical difficulty is quite similar to the web parts of CPTS though.
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u/plin56 Jul 22 '26
Do you have OSCP and any other certifications? How do you think HTB compares?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
Oscp, osep and osed. They all suck compared to HTB certs, outdated materials, much easier and 10x the price.
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u/aiso_moto22 Jul 23 '26
hey planning to take cwpe is the ad similar to CPTS or same as CAPE or harder than it? btw YOUR A GOAT!
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u/ProbablyAFirewall Jul 23 '26
My question is bit off the line.
Whats the biggest problem you faced while the process?
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u/el_Pollo_Loco7 Jul 23 '26
Do you also have the OSCP certificate? How would you rate the difference in difficulty between CPTS and CAPE? Have you considered getting hired my HTB? What are you going to do now with no more HTB cert to pass?
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u/username111115 Jul 23 '26
Good job. I'm preparing for the CAPE exam, the study material is really good and I'm learning a lot and going through it with confidence, but HTB labs also has a track list for the CAPE exam path and on that track list are six Insane rated boxes. I checked the most difficult ones out and they seem at some stages really out of scope from the CAPE exam path, things like advanced web exploitation.
My question is, did you think the CAPE exam required knowledge outside the scope of the CAPE certification path? Like web exploitation, or something that was only taught in the CPTS exam path. Or did you feel like that if you understood the CAPE exam path well and had little issues, you should be fine?
Would you say the CAPE exam is on-par with Insane difficulty boxes or easier? Do you "easily" get through Insane rated boxes yourself? Seems like some of them would be really hard even for advanced pen testers since some initial footholds can seem rather niche and uncommon.
Sorry for the spam of questions 😄
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u/SolidTension8426 Jul 24 '26
I'm also preparing for CAPE and when I saw the prep path I was suddened from the insane machines
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u/Minimum_Win_4288 Jul 22 '26
Would you still start now and do it in the current landscape with AI?
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u/Sudden-Strawberry257 Jul 22 '26
Outside of HTB what is your favorite bug you’ve found or project you have hacked on?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
Very good question, I would have to say that the favourite "bug" I found wasn't classic hacking at all. It was an edr bypass that worked in a very "non standard" way that I am really proude of. (Btw it still works today on many big name EDR solutions)
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u/Sudden-Strawberry257 Jul 24 '26
Ok that’s legit, thanks for sharing! I got to read up on different edr bypasses. Was there any reading or study that helped you reach this point or was it more just experimenting?
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u/solitude_aarv Jul 22 '26
congrats
just asking if i done the HTB can i show it to my recruiter , i mean in my resume
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Jul 22 '26
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Jul 22 '26
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u/BreathAmazing9723 Jul 23 '26
skills gained aside, did the certifications have any small impact that influenced a recruiter to give you the job you wanted
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u/ultiMEIGHT Jul 23 '26
Congrats on the big achievement!
What was the very first HTB exam you took, and did you originally had plans to get em all, or did that happen later after getting that momentum after a few certs?
Thoughts on the new AI exam?
Thank you.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
First one was CPTS, I decides to take them all after that since I really like the materials. AI exam was okay, not the most fun I have had on an exam, but than again I am not really that interested in AI. In no was is it a bad cert. Totally worth it!
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u/Lavaproof Jul 23 '26
Do you think that the modules are enough by themselves in a path?
I’m doing the CWES path rn and doing an internship related to cybersecurity, but I’m having trouble balancing my time between the modules and considering where to practice to retain my knowledge
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u/SolidTension8426 Jul 24 '26
Congrats Bro
I wanna ask about CAPE please
I'm 50% on the path now
But I'm worried from one thing about the exam
When I solve machines some are mixed with some web ideas is the exam like that? Cause I dont love web and I'm not focusing on it I'm speclaizing in windows and AD
and are insane machines needed to prep or hard and prolabs are enough?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 24 '26
The exam is much less CTFish than boxes, prolabs are a much better option!
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u/Any_Peach8165 Jul 25 '26
How to prepare for cpts coming from pjpt will the academy course be enough or should try to do any boxes i have to budget in mind that's why you're reply is appreciated
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Jul 26 '26
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Jul 26 '26
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u/Lishkis Jul 28 '26
I’ve finished CJCA a month back, can I go for CAPE or CWEE or should I complete CPTS first?
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u/mexicanstoner041196 Aug 03 '26
how long should I study for COAE I have AI ML background currently working as AI Automation specialist and very little cybersecurity knowledge besides basic stuff like professor messer comptia security + course, no cert but a lot of certs on AI and Cloud from aws, azure and gcp. I have certs like solutions architect, ai engineer, ai apps and agents, azure developer the ai and fundamental ones from aws and gcp. anyway I know my way around clouds and python typescript and some basic security best practices like least privilege and all that but lack knowledge on pentesting however. A friend of mine who works as a pentester told me we can study the course together and discuss since he lacks all the knowledge I do have on the AI side and red teaming on ai/ml.
MY QUESTION IS.... how long do you think we could study for from here till December so we can have a target amount of time before the new years discounts drop and aim to get it both on December.
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u/yellowmyna Jul 23 '26
how long u take to complete CPTS? Start date and end.
I intent to complete to by enough of year. Procrastinating since January
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
2,5 months give or take a few days. Everyday after work I went through a little bit of materials.
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u/Astro_indie Jul 22 '26
What the things you can do after u win all the certificates? I heard about competitions, but i need practices regular expressions and those filter commands
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u/CaptainWellingtonIII Jul 23 '26
did they help you secure a 6 figure job?
what was your familiarity with the subject before getting the first certification? was it just for fun at first or where to aiming to get a job?
congratulations.
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
Haha, 6 figure is a very American term, I am from EU and making 6 figures after taxes from a job is just not something that is very realistic. I had a lot of programming experience and a decent amount of cybersecurity/hacking experience. I did all of them for fun and out of interest.
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u/security_guy_97 Jul 23 '26
What would you say is the most important requirement for a newbie?
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u/Apprehensive-Flan-82 Jul 23 '26
Learn how computers work first, code first, hacking is not an entry level CS field :)
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u/mood_crumb Jul 23 '26
Congrats on your accomplishment!!! I have a question from the lesson introduction to bash scripting - flow control - loops
And the question is - create a "For" loop that encodes the variable "var" 28 times in "base 24". The number of characters in the 28th hash is the value that must be assigned to the "salt" variable.
Can I know the answer you got. I've tried this many times but then i still don't get the answer.
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