Table of Contents
Introduction
No company will entrust their site or software with engineers who know nothing about penetration testing too.
With food, you could easily taste it for yourself, but if penetration testing was so easy that employers could do it by themselves, it would not be from the most in-demand skills.
Penetration testing is the practice of testing computer systems, software, networks and web applications for vulnerabilities which can be exploited by hackers.
Penetration testing is a critical component of cyber security and is one of the most in-demand skills related to cyber security in the world right now. But if you want to learn about, and be certified in penetration testing, what platform is best?
CompTIA's PenTest+
Only a few certifications can rival CompTIA penTest+ in terms of global acceptance and relevance.
The CompTIA PenTest+ certification is a vendor-neutral, globally recognized certification of intermediate-level penetration testing knowledge and skills. It focuses on the latest pen testing techniques, attack surfaces, vulnerability management, post-delivery and compliance tasks.
CompTIA PenTest+ is the only penetration testing exam taken at a Pearson VUE testing center with both hands-on, performance-based questions and multiple-choice, to ensure each candidate possesses the skills, knowledge, and ability to perform tasks on systems. PenTest+ exam also includes management skills used to plan, scope, and manage weaknesses, not just exploit them.
CompTIA’s penTest+ is particularly recommended due to the frequent updates CompTIA release in order to meet new demand in the cyber security world.
CompTIA updates its certifications every three years to keep up with evolving technology, so your skills are relevant and you stay up to date on the latest technologies.
When CompTIA updates exams, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from the industry participate in workshops to write and review the content, ensuring that the exam domains, objectives and questions validate the skills needed on the job today.
Cyber security experts from the following companies contributed to the update of CompTIA PenTest+:
RxSense
John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
U.S. Army
Target Corp.
General Dynamics IT (GDIT)
Ricoh
Job Roles That Require Pen Testing Skills
Penetration Tester
Vulnerability Tester
Security Analyst (II)
Vulnerability Assessment Analyst
Network Security Operations
Application Security Vulnerability
About PenTest+ (PT0- 002)
PT0-002 is CompTIA’s latest update to their penetration testing exams. It is an update to PenTest + (PT0-001) see the differences between 001 and 002 here.
PenTest (PT0-002) will be released in October 2021 and it will certify that the successful candidate has the knowledge and skills required to plan and scope a penetration testing engagement including vulnerability scanning, understand legal and compliance requirements, analyze results, and produce a written report with remediation techniques.
Time and questions: The certification exam will consist of a total of 85 questions, some performance based, and others multiple-choice. The questions must be answered within 165 minutes.
Pass mark: The passing score is 750 (on a scale of 100-900)
Prerequisite: There is no strict prerequisite for the PenTest+ PT0-002 certification exams, but PenTest+ is intended and strongly recommended to follow CompTIA Security+ or equivalent experience and has a technical, hands-on focus.
Price and language : The examination will be taken with $370 and is available in English and Japanese.
How To Prepare For The Exams
There are two main ways to prepare for CompTIA exams: either through self-study, or through instructor-led trainings. You need to evaluate yourself first and see if you are find it easy going through materials on your own or you need an instructor to take you through the thick and thin of it.
Use The Official Site
 Visiting CompTIA’s official site often is a necessary part of the preparation process. On the site you find the latest blogs and news, a glossary of terms, resources for in-depth information on various topics, and sample questions.
Sometimes, people miss out on little key information about the exam because they do not visit the official site; the site provides you with the latest and most trustworthy information and so it should be visited often.
Gather Resources
After you have rummaged the official website to have enough information about the exam domains and objectives, you would find it easier to filter resources and see which ones align better with your need.
There’s a plethora of resources out there to help you study, and CompTIA publishes its own official study guides, but they come for a price, sometimes close to $100. There’s also a wide variety of free, freemium and paid online content, including YouTube videos, video courses and more.
Practice Test
If you are self-studying, the importance of practice tests can not be overemphasized. You constantly need these tests to ensure that you are on the right track, and know what you need to work on.
Taking practice tests is a great way to identify where you are in your studies and provide you a sense of what you still need to study. Therefore, when you begin preparing for your online assessment tests, it is prudent to choose the most appropriate practice tests online. Try the sample practice test which will help you to assess your actual performance in the real exam conditions.
Find An Instructor /Take A Course
 Not everyone is comfortable with reading on their own: as a matter of fact, most people are not.
When you study on your own, there is a high possibility of going into the exams with a little bit of fear: “what if I had missed out on some important details? what if I had focused on the less necessary parts? what if..what if…?”
By registering for a course or with an instructor, you can bypass that fear.
Instructor-led training is a learning methodology where the instructor would conduct a training program for learners: this could be physical or virtual. In this type of training, the instructor shares his knowledge with the learner.
The main difference between instructor-led trainings and online courses is that with instructor-led trainings, there is the benefit of the learner getting interaction with the instructor and asking the instructor about their doubts and mistakes.
Community
CompTIA certification holders have a strong community you can learn from, interact with, ask for support from and give back to.
You have a community of like-minded people; people who have gotten the certifications you are working towards and can guide you towards making the best use of it when you get it and also the best way to get it.
If used wisely, the community could in fact be a bigger blessing than the certification itself, as you create connections that may have a huge impact on your career.
