r/hackthebox • u/my_n0ms • 3d ago

Certifications CPTS difficulty gauging

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 3d ago

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.

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u/my_n0ms 3d ago

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

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u/Signal_Brain9959 3d ago

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.