I passed the Hack The Box Certified Penetration Testing Specialist (CPTS) exam, a 10-day, VPN-based real-world pentest covering AD, web, pivoting, and privilege escalation. The lab was stable, realistic, and required a professional report. Prep with HTB Academy, retired machines, IppSec videos, and careful methodology made success possible.

I completed the TryHackMe PT1 exam, a 48-hour, hands-on entry-level pentesting cert covering Web, Network, and AD. The exam offered practical learning and flag-based progress, but faced unstable environments and inconsistent difficulty. Prep with THM paths, HTB boxes, and eJPT/eCPPT notes helped me succeed.

I recently passed the eCPPTv3 exam, a hands-on black-box penetration test focused heavily on Active Directory. The official training was insufficient, so I supplemented with HackTheBox, TryHackMe, and YouTube videos. Despite exam environment issues and broken tools, careful preparation, note-taking, and persistence led to success.

I recently completed the eJPTv2 certification after preparing with INE’s Penetration Testing Student course, TryHackMe labs, and HTB machines. This hands-on exam tests core pentesting skills like enumeration, exploitation, and web testing. In this post, I share my study strategy, practical tips, exam approach, and key resources for success.