Date: March 15, 2021
Author: h3dg3h0g
Whoami
For context, here is the experience I had when I started the course.
- Computer science university student
- Worked 1 year as a web developer
- Played 3 or 4 CTFs
How much time does it take to complete the course ?
The eLearnSecurity Junior Penetration Tester (eJPT) certification exam is meant to be taken after taking the free Penetration Testing Student (PTS) course by INE.
As written on INE's website, the course is supposed to take around 40hrs to complete. Personally, it took me about 40hrs without the programming chapter since I already knew C++ and Python pretty well.
I would say it should take around 50hrs for a beginner to complete the full course.
What do I need to prepare for the exam ?
Unlike a lot of other certifications, like the OSCP for example, you only need to complete the PTS course for the eJPT exam. And I mean you will be well prepared for it.
In my case, I only took the PTS course and got 97% at the exam, so no need for any HackTheBox or TryHackMe boxes.
How hard is the exam ?
As I recall, here is how the exam works:
- You get a VPN access into a network (just like the INE labs)
- The exam consists of choice-answer questions about things you should find in the network
- For example: How many users are there in the home directory of the Linux machine ?
- You have 2 days to complete the exam
- You have unlimited access to all resources, including the INE labs and slides
I personally finished the exam in about 9 hours, which means time should not be a problem.
Another great thing is that if you ever get stuck, you can still take a guess and answer randomly.
I would say that, if you fully completed the PTS course, the eJPT exam is fairly easy.