I’m now certified as a Certified Defensive Security Analyst (HTB CDSA)!

date

Oct 7, 2025

slug

htb-cdsa

author

status

Public

category

🏆 Achievement

updatedAt

Oct 8, 2025 08:45 AM

After what feels like endless grinding for a few months, I finally got my Certified Defensive Security Analyst (HTB CDSA) certification from Hack The Box! Ngl I thought I was going to fumble the exam since I had to travel to Singapore (and back) for OWASP® Foundation's AppSec Days Singapore 2025, and I also had a performance at COSMIC on the same week. I remember only sleeping about 2 hours a day just to get everything done as well HAHA

So if you're new to HTB certifications, basically you would be required to finish a set of courses, before being eligible to take the exam itself. Personally, I really enjoyed the HTB courses (it’s been my most favourite learning platform for a while, so maybe I’m biased lol), especially the Attack & Defense purple module. It just tells you the attack, detection, and mitigation all at once, no filler, which was just simply *chef kiss* 🔥

For anyone planning to take the CDSA exam: Finishing the required courses alone is already quite sufficient. When I was stuck, I just revisited the concepts taught and managed to make some progress. (But then, this is from someone who has played quite a lot of blue team CTFs in the past)

Although I got the certification for free after winning a Hack The Box CTF long-long ago, I feel that it's really worth its value, and who knows, I might try out other HTB certifications as well :D