Introduction

This is a review of the Certified AppSec Pentester – CAPen certification and exam by The SecOps Group.

I took this exam to test my web application security skills as well as to bolster my qualifications on my resume. This was also recommended by Jason Haddix on social media and I decided to get it since it was on sale for 80% off.

I also wanted to note that it took me 2 attempts to pass this exam. I failed the first time and retook this exam about a month later after reworking my methodology and approach to the exam. I will say that this exam was more on the intermediate side, and can be challenging if you have minimal experience hacking web apps. The exam scenarios were realistic and at times challenging.

Unique Selling Point of these Exams and Certifications

One of the key differences this exam had amongst the rest was the focus on exams vs courseware and training. The SecOps Group only provides exams and certifications and as far as training, only provides a syllabus of topics that will be covered on the exam.

I’ll go over some tips to pass in the next sections, but the courses from the Practical Web Pentest Professional (PWPP) from TCM Security helped me the most in terms of the labs and prep for the exam, as a lot of the topics in the syllabus are covered in that training. So if you already passed that exam, in my opinion, you are ready to go take the CAPen exam. More on this later…

For more information on the CAPen exam, please visit their exam page directly on their site: https://secops.group/

I thought that this was interesting because it would force you to research online from various sources, and also it didn’t prevent you from exploring other platforms. 

There were also no restrictions on what tools you can use on the exam, unlike the others that prevent you from using automation. I thought this was more realistic since in real life, threat actors don’t have these restrictions and penetration testers are often allowed to use whatever tools are in their arsenal to accomplish the task on the job (based on personal experience).

Also, due to not having any courses and training, it reduces the cost for the certification which makes it very appealing to individuals wanting a hands-on practical exam experience and validation for their skills. 

The Exam

Much like my CNPen exam review, the duration was 4 hours and 15 minutes to give you time for setup of your VPN and access.

As stated earlier, it took me 2 attempts to pass. Luckily when you buy the exam voucher, you get 2 attempts and there is no expiration date so you can take it anytime.

My methodology was a bit off on the first attempt and I messed up some rather obvious answers. I was able to pass the 2nd time by focusing on my enumeration and looking through source code and overall understanding the business logic of the applications. It’s not enough to know OWASP basics, you need to understand how the application functions and know how to chain attacks in order to execute a successful exploit. 

In my opinion, this exam was very realistic and challenging. I was actually surprised that I was able to complete the cloud challenge in the most unexpected way, (this is mentioned in the syllabus btw – so there are no spoilers here). I also found that copy pasting payloads and automated tools did not have the intended effect on the exam scenarios – if you want to pass, you need to learn how to execute these attacks manually to bypass the WAF.

Tips to Pass

You can read about my methodology in my previous post here:
https://hiddendoorsecurity.com/2025/07/05/how-to-crush-web-app-penetration-tests/

Disclaimer: As mentioned above, if you have already taken the training and passed the Practical Web Pentest Professional (PWPP) from TCM Security, a lot of the topics and labs have overlap which helped me pass the exam. I’ve taken multiple other exams in the past but the topics and labs from that training have helped me the most.

The best way to pass is to make sure you follow a solid web pentesting methodology. You can use the OWASP WSTG checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything, but if you take a look at the syllabus, you can cross off some of the items from the WSTG checklist and just focus on the vulns that are mentioned on the syllabus.

It can feel like a lot of pressure to finish this exam under 4 hours, but the way the exam is structured there’s almost no rabbit holes if you use common sense. If your payloads don’t seem to work, take a step back, look at the app behavior again and try something different. There are some nuances to how each challenge is solved – but if you pay attention to how the app behaves with the payloads you send, you can rule out what doesn’t work and try something else. You can definitely fuzz or copy paste payloads, but there is some thinking involved to solve some of the challenges.

Most of all, enumerate, enumerate, enumerate. Check all the endpoints, read the page source code, fuzz directories etc.

Conclusion

I highly recommend taking this exam if you want to challenge yourself, if not gauge where your web hacking skills are at. I wanted to do this for my resume but also see where I was at in terms of my skills and knowledge on specific bug classes. SecopsGroup is well-known (they’re at BlackHat conducting certification exams in-person as well), and are promoted by several prominent bug bounty hunters in the industry. If you want to get certified by a well-known organization with a reasonable pricing on their certs, I’d recommend taking their exams.  

For more information on taking the CAPen certification and exam, please visit them directly at their website here: https://secops.group/