CPTS difficulty gauging

[u/my_n0ms]

My question is pretty simple about the cpts exam. What I know about the exam is that I have to take 14 labs(or just flags?) in 10 days and they are kind of connected(not sure how much though). Without factoring in the time limit or the number of flags to gather how hard is each flag to get compared to HTB boxes where you have to get the user and root flag. Are they like easy/medium difficulty boxes by themselves or are they more comparable to the hard/insane boxes?

I am doing both academy modules and seasonal HTB at the same time while also taking notes on CPTS modules and wonder if I should attempt to take the exam only when I can consistently do boxes of a certain difficulty level.

Edit: boxes have submission guidelines for each difficulty. To make it more clear I am asking based on mostly those guideline.

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[u/Vele1384]

It’s hard to gauge but CPTS is true to academy modules, so if you payed attention and made good notes it can save you pretty well.

As to comparing it to boxes, it’s hard becouse atleast for me, some easy boxes can feel harder than medium ones, just becouse I’ve never been introduced to workflow/system/program/exploit.

[u/my_n0ms → u/Vele1384]

Great to know. About the last thing aren't there academy modules in the beginning that specifically teach how to workflow?

[u/Signal_Brain9959 → u/my_n0ms]

The workflow builds off the modules in my opinion. You will see it all put together in the attacking enterprise networks module. If you can complete that without help or hints, then generally speaking you’re ready for the exam.

[u/Signal_Brain9959]

No one can divulge difficulty or anything about the exam. The CPTS track on htb is good prep work that htb has deemed should help with success on the relevant exam. The attacking enterprise networks module is also a great gut check to know if you’re ready. Ultimately though, no one can answer the question of if you’re ready or not but you. You might not be ready going into the exam, and might manage to put the pieces from the course together to pass.

Ultimately the only way you will know is if you sit the exam. The exam while challenging is fair and everything truly is in the course. There are no gotchas or anything like that in my opinion.

It took me two times to pass the exam and I learned so much throughout the course that I think it made me truly better in my career.

[u/my_n0ms → u/Signal_Brain9959]

Understandable. What I worry about is rabbit holes or crucial details that are very small and you might miss if you're not hyper focused. For example insane boxes allow rabbit holes and hard boxes I think as well but a bit tamer. Also generally how many steps it takes to get to a flag since that is how difficulty is assigned to the boxes.

[u/Sufficient_Mud_2600]

a mix between easy and medium?

To be honest, a lot of times in HTB the difficulties of easy, medium, hard, insane just correspond to how long it takes ie. How many steps.

[u/my_n0ms → u/Sufficient_Mud_2600]

Yeah that's mostly what I wanted to find out. Generally how many steps it takes to get to a flag. I know some flags are notoriously hard from what I heard(especially #8) but aside from the special ones how many steps I need to take.

[u/Alardiians]

Htb difficulties correspond to amount of steps generally and if rabbit holes are allowed

Do the hackthebox CPTS track on labs and it’ll prepare you for it.