TLDR: The CDE cert by EC- Council overall wasn't worth it from any front. I had bad feels after paying $1,399.00 and seeing the study material. Now that I've taken the test those feelings were confirmed. It will not add any value to you in the DevSecOps space. I have provided certs and learning platforms that will add value below. Again, sorry for the negativity but I really had to get this off my chest. --- While editing a friend sent me a link to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/pj93s3/lets_avoid_the_ceh_eccouncil/ --- ## What is the cert? Ok so this is completely about the Certified DevSecOps Engineer certification. I have no experience with the Certified Ethical Hacker, but I will not be recommending any certs from this company ever. ## Test details You get 4hrs to answer 100 multiple choice questions. To get labs, study course, and the cert voucher it cost $1,399.00. ## Now it goes downhill... Here is my initial Review: [[EC-CDE Initial Review]] So I'm just going to get to it. I had to calm down just to write this. This cert was a waste and I'm going to try to present that in a clear and emotional-less manner. As I mentioned in my initial review things felt off, but I couldn't really place it. When I was doing my research I couldn't find anything negative about this cert (🚩). To be fair I couldn't find anything about it outside of a discord server I was in (🚩). When I was reading the brochure I had a sense that this cert would be a lot more focused and together. For the price I expected high quality material since I did ask those questions on the phone. They even mentioned labs which was a new one so I was a bit impressed, but you only get lab access for 6mos then you have to pay again (🚩). I took about 3 weeks to decide to take a chance on this cert because it was a lot of money and I really had never seen another class, voucher, lab combination at the price. When I started the training I really struggled to connect the dots. I had been in devops for 2yrs at the time. This cert was supposed to be a badge that I know what I'm doing in the space and the videos were so old that I immediately knew that I messed up. I didn't even know what to do about it. It took me about 30 days to even login to the platform and start (I was working alot). Once I did login I gave the following feedback: > I had somewhat of a different expectation of the labs. I thought there would be virtual boxes with accounts to use and not me needing to put personal accounts on VMs. Because of this alone I absolutely stopped doing the labs....heck I never finished the training. With the labs I just didn't want to risk forgetting to delete resources or delete my account. You might think I can't give a valid review if I didn't finish the training and such, but I want to remind you that I'm actively working in DevOps. I wasn't expecting talking through agile and non up-to-date software. These are all things I mentioned and gave suggestions for in my initial review and still stand by it. I honestly checked out after about 4-5 videos because we just weren't talking about anything that would help me prove that I was "in the devops streets". I needed to just take the cert test and call this a loss, but finding time was hard until I quit my job. What I realized upon starting the test is that the topics on this were so broad it was unrealistic. From Jenkins plugins to Git to containers to security programs. This was a MESS. This cert would add no real value to get you through the door. I wouldn't even let someone in the building with this because of it's broad scope. There is no real way to prove you have actual knowledge in these technologies. Anyway let's talk more about the test experience... ## The Test Oh man, this test was a shit show (sorry). There are two different platforms to sign up on. The instructions are lackluster and honestly I felt very uncomfortable about the whole thing. The software they have you install is just straight up malware. I don't mind the access to the usual (camera, mix, and speakers), but access to take control of my computer the whole time is uncomfortable. The proctor started searching for things on my computer without saying anything and that made me super uncomfortable to the point that I took this whole test extremely pissed off and over it (I should have just sat there and calmed down honestly). At the end as I was exiting out of everything to feel better and be able to scrub my computer I had to re-install an app. The app locked up my computer. This whole things was really stupid. Instead of having this horrible 2 platforms just pay Pearson Vue to do a remote test. At least they are up front and just kill background processes that mess with their browser. At least their proctor pays attention (maybe they hear a sound or something) to when you finish the test so you can promptly uninstall their software. Honestly I don't even know if my test counted after having a freak out after that 2nd install and having my computer mess up. I swiftly removed all the apps and deleted the downloads. The last thing to say about this test is there were things spelled wrong/actually had no correct answer. They need to actually sit down and review the test. This test is so all over the place that I was like "guuuurrrrrlll what?!". They need to re-write the scenarios and review their answers. Honestly at this point I really wish they would have given me my money back after my initial feedback. Again, live and learn. I'll stay far away from EC-Council and at this point all the other reviews online match this point of view. --- I want to end this by saying I'm so sorry this was EXTREMELY negative for this blog space. This was just...the worst experience ever. Tots my fault for taking the risk and such but man at that price tag it's just crazy frustrating. ## Cert Recommendations - Linux+ - basic sys admin skill test - Security+ - basic security knowledge (without hands-on application) and good for govt jobs - Terraform Associate - go to Infra as Code platform - CKA - Kubernetes administration - CKAS - Kubernetes security - Red Hat Certified Specialist in Developing Automation with Ansible Automation Platform - go to configuration management tooling - RHCSA - red hat sys admin ## Study Platform Recommendations - KodeKloud - all things devops - TryHackMe - multiple course paths in devops and security - Udemy - pick courses with a common tool you see on devops jobs - Rad Hat Developer - learn all the Red Hat things and make the biggest bucks - ChatGPT (half a joke) - ask it to explain things like your 5 or from whatever perspective you come from