Video: Everything You Need to Know About CompTIA PenTest+

So, the CompTIA PenTest+. A lot of you have asked me about the certification. Let’s talk about it.

What’s good, YouTube? It’s your boy, Du’An. So CompTIA contacted me and asked me to partner with them to bring you everything you need to know about the CompTIA PenTest+ new certification exam. In this video, what I want to do is give you everything you need to be successful in achieving the CompTIA PenTest+ certification exam and just give you everything you need to be successful in your IT career. That’s always my goal. So with no further ado, let’s hop into it.

[Editor’s Note: While CompTIA did ask Du’An to review this IT certification, his opinions are his own.]

The new CompTIA PenTest+ exam is through CompTIA, which has the best online training courses for certification in a variety of security fields. CompTIA also certifies the leading IT professionals with the skills they need most to be successful in information technology.

As I mentioned before, the exam code for CompTIA PenTest+ is going to be PT0-001. That’s the exam code you’re going to need if you’re looking to take this exam.

If we go to Indeed right now, you type in PenTest+, you’re going to find 56 jobs. Now, it’s a brand new exam, so a lot of recruiters and companies may not know about it yet, but if you look the Security+, there’s over 500,000 jobs, almost 600,000 jobs in America right now, so it will pick up steam.

What Skills Does CompTIA PenTest+ Cover?

If you’re wondering about the PenTest+, it’s basically a offensive certification rather than the CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+), which is its counterpart, is a defensive certification when it comes to security. You’re going into organizations, penetration testing, and looking for vulnerabilities, and reporting them to the agencies that you’re working for.

Some other keynotes from the CompTIA PenTest+ is it’s an intermediate-level security certification for IT professionals tasked with hands-on penetration testing to identify, exploit, report and manage vulnerabilities on a network.

CompTIA PenTest+ includes hands-on, performance-based questions to ensure that each candidate possesses the skills, knowledge and ability to perform tasks on systems. It covers hands-on penetration testing and vulnerability assessment and management skills used to plan, scope and manage weaknesses, not just exploit them.

The CompTIA PenTest+ is unique because it requires a candidate to demonstrate hands-on ability and knowledge to test devices in new environments, such as cloud and mobile, in addition to traditional desktops and servers.

Now, to me, just right off the bat, for those of you that are really interested in penetration testing, I do believe that this certification will be a valuable certification in the long run. In the short run, it’s going to give you a whole bunch of skills and knowledge, I believe, to get you in the industry. Because let’s talk about this.

When you look at other CompTIA certifications, when you look at the Security+ and the CASP+, which is a CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner certification exam, and then you also look at the CySA+, this will be right up with those certifications, I believe, in the long run, and the reason why I say that is that for one, the CySA+ is defensive and the PenTest+ is offensive.

DoD 8570 and CompTIA PenTest+

But the thing about those other three certs that I mentioned is that they’re all on the DoD 8570certification list, meaning that they’re approved for you to have those certifications to get a DoD [Department of Defense] clearance job or a security job in the DoD, which goes across not only DoD, but pretty much in the security field period. So with it being a counterpart to the CySA+, I believe this certification will be valuable.

Okay, so when we talk about the DoD 8570 and what’s approved for baseline certifications for you to work with in a DoD security environment, there’s a list of CompTIA certifications that are on there.

In multiple areas, the Security+ is on this list. The CASP that we mentioned before is on the list. The CySA+ is already on the list. In multiple domains within the DoD, it’s approved. So with those certifications already being approved for DoD, I don’t see a reason why the CompTIA PenTest+ won’t also make it on this list. It just hasn’t been listed publicly yet because it’s so new, just implemented in July. So this certification will be a good certification to have, I believe, not only now because of the information it provides, but also in the near future.

But as I mentioned before, it’s such a new certification. The first thing I recommend that you do is come over to CompTIA’s website. Link will be in the description. Take the practice exam and also get the objectives so you can have that to prepare for the exam, and then research this information, but I’m going to go ahead and tell it to you.

Things to Know About CompTIA PenTest+

I gave you the exam description before:

• There’s 85 questions on the exam, maximum
• It’s performance-based and multiple-choice questions
• The length of the test is going to be 165 minutes
• You need a passing score of 750
• It’s $349 USD for this exam
• Usually after three years, the exam retires

They recommend that you have a minimum of three or four years hands-on experience for this certification.

It does say that it’s an intermediate certification, rather than the core skills, which I guess they’re saying that the Security+ is going to be the entry-level certification. Then intermediate’s going to be the PenTest+ and the CySA+, and then the advanced is going to be the CASP+.

CompTIA is really trying to map this out, and that’s good. It gives you a clear path, and I also talk about the certification roadmap. I’m sure they’re going to update that and add this to it, so be on the lookout for that from CompTIA. So sign up for the newsletter so you can have that. I always talk about looking at that roadmap because it not only has CompTIA’s certifications on there, but it has other organizations also, which is awesome.

What Jobs Can I Get with CompTIA PenTest+?

So some of the job titles you can have with this PenTest+ certification is going to be:

• Penetration tester
• Vulnerability tester
• Security analyst
• Vulnerability assessment analyst
• Network security operations

I hopped on Indeed and I looked for some jobs all across America, so here are some jobs that are currently out there for the PenTest+. This looks pretty cool. PenTest capture the flag cyberstudy, and it’s $100, $160 an hour. That looks pretty cool. That looks really cool. If you do do it, let me know in the comments section below.

How to Prepare for CompTIA PenTest+

So some resources that are out there for the PenTest+, if I hop on Amazon right now, these are the books that I found out there. Some of them haven’t been released yet. I have a link in the description tool, but since they’re so new, they really don’t have reviews, so you can be the first to review the books, and sign up for these books that are out there.

And then if I hop on Udemy, I didn’t find too many courses on this, but there is one course that looks like it has 269 ratings. I have a link for this in the description also by Jason Dion. So if you all do check out this video course on Udemy, please let me know in the comments section below so I can let people know, and also leave a review so more people can have information about what’s out there for this PenTest+.

[Editor’s Note: Check out the CompTIA training products available for PenTest+, including CompTIA CertMaster.]

Now, I hope I provided you all the information that you need to be successful with the CompTIA PenTest+ exam. It’s a brand-new exam, so whenever you’re approaching a new exam, make sure you study the exam objectives very closely and not just the study material that you’re using. Because any time you take an exam, not just a brand-new exam, but the exam topics, objectives are always what you want to follow and make sure that you structure your study sessions and labbing sessions after.

I have a very detailed video that I’ll post the link here on how you can use OneNote with your exam objectives to make sure that you don’t miss anything, and you cover all your information, and you can take your notes on the go.

Anyway, I wish you all much success. Thanks again for CompTIA for partnering with me on this video, sponsoring this video. You all are awesome and thank you all for your support.

If you like this video, hit it with a thumbs up. Subscribe to my channel. Share this video, and if you got comments about this PenTest+ exam, please leave them in the comments section below. I thank you all for your support and I’ll catch you on the next one. Peace.