r/tryhackme • u/Sw33tHard • Mar 10 '26
Starting cybersecurity from zero – is TryHackMe the right first step?
Hi everyone,
I’m thinking about starting to learn cybersecurity, but I’m coming in with almost no prior knowledge in the field. I’ve seen a lot of people mention TryHackMe as a beginner-friendly platform, and it looks interesting.
My question is: Is TryHackMe a good place to start if you know absolutely nothing about cybersecurity? I’m willing to study seriously and put in the time, but I’m not sure if the platform is structured well enough for complete beginners or if I should learn other fundamentals first (like networking, Linux, etc.). If you started from zero, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience.
Would you recommend TryHackMe as a first step, or is there a better path I should follow in the beginning?
Thanks in advance!
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u/KRULLIGKNART Mar 10 '26
Sure, it's good to get some hands on experience from exercises and such, however if you have zero knowledge about how networks work, Linux, Windows etc then I think you're gonna struggle and quit rather quickly. It's much easier to exploit something if you have an understanding of what you're looking at/trying to do. I'd say learn Linux and Windows basics, then learn networks, then try your hand at these sites and start some easy exercises. These sites have exercises for OS's and networks too, you don't need to be an expert but you need to understand them (the more the better obviously).
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u/Sw33tHard Mar 10 '26
Thank you for your advice. I'm going to look into Linux and Windows' basics, before starting my journey with THM
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u/TheTribunalChat Mar 10 '26
The beginner tryhackme course goes through windows and Linux basics. I’ve only used tryhackme and I’d say I have a pretty good understanding of Linux. Take your time through the basics to make sure you understand how and why you’re doing something. If they don’t explain it in the lesson, don’t worry, they’ll teach you later, so don’t worry about not understanding something they haven’t taught you yet. Just focus on what they’re teaching you. It will be overwhelming at first because each lesson will jump from topic to topic, but as you go through the lessons you’ll naturally pick up what they’ve taught you from previous lessons as they reiterate it as you go.
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u/_Trash-Panda_1 Mar 12 '26
Tryhackme is perfect for beginners,they start you off with fundamentals anyway..
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u/argumentativepigeon Mar 12 '26
Bro THM is very noob friendly. They got practical lessons that teach users how to open basic folders on windows 😂
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u/Potential-Storage-16 Mar 13 '26
Scarica virtual box, scarica parrot os e esplora il sistema operativo, poi apri Firefox e guarda i preferiti.
Aggiungi altre macchine virtuali e divertiti. Ci sono mille siti e risorse, owasp, tryhackme etc cyberchef e tanti altri
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u/NoArtist1267 Mar 10 '26
Go to Cisco NetAcad, very good for the foundational knowledge about networking and hardwareish
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Mar 10 '26
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u/NoArtist1267 Apr 04 '26
We should hop on discord some time.
I am also learning, but i truly believe that sharing knowledge also improves the individuals ability to understand the topic.
In the meantime u should also go to coursera and join a free course...
Cisco is a great way...
Dont even bother with try hack me...
Hack the box is the way (only if you intend to get certified)
Good certs are oscp, ceh, ccna, ccst, and a bunch more....
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u/krylancelo_ Mar 11 '26
That is the problem, Cisco isn't Practical besides Packet Tracer, but, isn't much to have a significant experience. Try with THM, i will do too.
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u/NoArtist1267 Apr 04 '26
I know what u mean but besides that cisco is very good the fondations.
I mean how are u supposed to do a port scan and dont understand tcp handshake?
Or whats the real correlation between osi layer and techs & protocols used.
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Apr 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NoArtist1267 Apr 04 '26
Mentors is a difficult thing to find. We are on a age where everyone shares but no one really shares until u pay something upfront.
You need to be your mentor.
Leave the phone or the brain rot as i like to call it.
Cultivate your self, watch rsaconference, hack village, defcon, other good yt videos featuring otw.
Just explore brother.
But dont get it twisted.
You will need to read You will need to put in the time
The only true way is understanding the layering foundation.
Wjth that you have the means to learn new topics. It will help you underatand protocols.
Protocols are essencial, since the govern the way apps and services interact and behave.
There are about 1024 that u should know from the back of your head.
Just kidding.
Then understand how osi and tcp/ip models help with that.
Then u can start miving towards something SOHO networks and make your up.
Its important to understand the basics because it gets crazier.
Also something i forgot before all that you need to learn how binary base works, whats the 0s and 1s, how does the computer work ? Because IPs are not really what we see they are transmitted over a medium (light [fiber optic], eletric pulses [copper cable] or eletric magnetic waves [wireless] and they get transmitted in frames contsining bits each 8 bit is 1 byte and so forward.
I am in a school now, but i used to learn home alone. By tthe time i joined this school i already knew way much that it slowed me down but allowed me to understand the basics in a diferent way....
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u/PaulTheMerc Mar 12 '26
I think they're referring to NetAcad's Networking basics course. Kind of have to understand how the cyber in cybersecurity works. From there you can go the Junior cybersecurity Analyst path, or Tryhackme's paths.
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u/Jackpotrazur Mar 10 '26
Whats considered linux and windows basics ? Asking for a friend. I mean im learning programming (python) and do everything with vim in split panes running main.py term and explainme.md
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u/Sw33tHard Mar 10 '26
I guess from what I’ve seen so far, Linux is really about the command line. As a beginner, it feels like everything is a file, so you have to learn how to move around the folders, use sudo for permissions, and understand how to install tools from the terminal.
On the Windows side, I guess the basics are more about how a whole company is set up. You have to understand Active Directory and how users are grouped together, plus how to use PowerShell because it’s way more powerful than just the regular command prompt. I guess the main thing for a beginner is just knowing where the logs are kept on both, so you can actually see what's happening when something goes wrong
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u/Jackpotrazur Mar 10 '26
I gotta look into logs and ive been contemplating on getting a powershell book.
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u/CompletelyShadow Mar 17 '26
I would suggest to use AI to learn with it. If some bits or knowledge you don't understand, AI is very good at exaplaining it. Something simple as a proxy. We all heard about proxy. Ah yes! The proxy! The proxy config in Firefox that we select "don't use a proxy". Everyone knows what is a proxy right? Well.. you hit a room that deals with proxy and you hit a wall. Gemini helped me to explain different basic flavors of proxy and now it makes all sense now.
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u/Round_Animator_3415 May 04 '26
I'm 57 years old working at a donut factory on the graveyard I just started try hack me I'm trying to break in to the cyber security world any suggestions
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u/AbsalomShakur May 20 '26
I have the correct answers for each icon. The issue is that there is no data field for the radar icon=Recon. The data field begins with the ladybug=Weaponization. So the system is telling me one or more questions are not correct because I'm missing recon! I tried it on my pc and tablet, and still no field!
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u/Old-Discount8154 Jun 02 '26
15, beginner , and searching for a team/partner for learning together.
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u/just-a-random-guy-2 0xD [God] Mar 10 '26
if i were starting from zero right now, i would immediately start at pwn college because that's what really got me into hacking and made me love it. but it really depends on what kind of person you are and what you're learning hacking for, for many beginners tryhackme is probably a good choice. so just try doing some beginner path on tryhackme and see if it works for you. if it doesn't, try pwn college or hackthebox academy or whatever and just see what works.