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My Honest Opinion About TryHackMe's Jr. Penetration Tester Certificate

My Honest Opinion About TryHackMe's Jr. Penetration Tester Certificate

Seven months ago, I decided to broaden my knowledge of penetration testing. I was looking for something that explained the subjects clearly, allowed me to practice what I learned, and, of course, had a flexible schedule. After searching the web, I found the “Jr Penetration Tester” path on TryHackMe. This post is my honest review of the pros and cons after completing this certification.

Flexible Timing?

Like many other online courses, this path allows you to take it at your own pace. However, since it requires a subscription, the longer you take, the more you have to pay to maintain access. Perhaps offering a one-time fee for the entire certificate would be more efficient for users.

Practical but Buggy

This certification is highly practical. Almost everything you learn is applied directly on a virtual machine provided by TryHackMe. However, some challenges have issues. The main problem is that while the servers are updated, the questions in some rooms are not updated accordingly. As a result, you might struggle to find the correct answer—not because you’re wrong, but because the question is outdated. In such cases, you can report the issue, but to move forward, you may have to search for answers online. This is a frustrating experience because, at that moment, you’re motivated to solve the challenge, yet instead of enjoying the satisfaction of solving it, you’re left stuck due to outdated content.

Consistency Could Be Better

This roadmap contains a lot of valuable information for a junior penetration tester. However, the structure and flow between modules could be improved. Sometimes, moving from one module to the next feels like a huge leap, creating gaps in knowledge. In some cases, you’d expect an introductory explanation before diving into a module, but that doesn’t always happen. While the consistency within each module is solid, the overall roadmap lacks a well-structured progression.

Topics Covered

This roadmap covers a wide range of topics, which is one of its strongest aspects. Some key topics include:

  • Career paths in cybersecurity
  • Introduction to penetration testing
  • Working with Burp Suite
  • Computer networks and using Nmap
  • Metasploit and its applications
  • Finding vulnerabilities
  • Privilege escalation in both Linux and Windows

Is It Worth It?

The answer is YES! This roadmap is an efficient learning resource and introduces valuable concepts about different attack vectors across multiple layers of a computer system. However, at times, I felt like a “script kiddie” because many exercises involved simply copy-pasting commands to get an answer. I would have preferred more challenges that required step-by-step reasoning rather than just executing pre-defined commands in a terminal.

Overall, despite its flaws, the “Jr Penetration Tester” path on TryHackMe is a great learning experience, especially for beginners looking to get hands-on with penetration testing.

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.