I Played Beginner-Level Security CTFs For 30 Days - Here's What I Learned

An often overlooked part of CTFs is taking notes! Taking what you learned and restating it in your own words, and saving all that information in a file (or your favorite note taking app) is crucial to improving

as a pro ctf-player: awesome to see you getting into ctfs. However, I would recommend not keeping to beginner levels for a whole 30 days, instead trying to push the envelope with harder challenges - thats where you learn the most! keep it up

Writeups are awesome to learn. That's not cheating, that's learning!

Write-ups are not cheating as long as your learn from them. When i first started I used write ups very often, I am slowly using them less and less now though. Very good video BTW!

What matters most is 1. the approach is understood and 2. the person learns. Using writeups is what lots of people do - just make sure you as the reader get why the write-ups work.

Awesome, cool that you were just honest, and practical about using all the good resources to just get it done, rather than racking your brain through the night attempting the puzzle on your own. Just get it done!

It's refreshing watching a video where someone says they didn't know something. Very relatable! Like i know what CTF is but have never tried it so it was interesting to hear your perspective of giving it a go. Nice video!

hey grant ! i'm watching you almost for 3 years ..since your "Finals Week" and "Day in the life of CS student" videos those were really legendary videos....and you really inspired me in my CS career ....and just Thank You So Much buddy i think you should make more videos like those

This is great! Happy to see you learn 😄

IT WORKED, THANKS I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOREVER, BUT NO TUTORIAL COULD EXPLAIN IT AS YOU DID

watching you for the last 3-4 years, 2022 you look so mature and knowledgeable! Great to learn something new :)

I’m glad you spoke about documentation. Nothing else says you can do something better than recording yourself doing it.

You really show how to do things! Keep it up amazing !!!

Great content! I recently also start learning about ethical hacking, but I did not dive in headfirst into CTFs. I took a more conservative approach, but completed relevant learning paths (mostly on Try Hack Me) and once I felt that I understood the labs and all, then switched to its CTFs Note-taking (at least for me) is crucial, and is the sole reason I started to publish write-ups! It helped me better understand what I am doing in each step of each CTF. Hope that you are still practicing!

Well done! I see using write ups as learning by a more experienced mentor.

This was so helpful!! Thank you

do more of this!! this is amazing

Thanks for the honest edit. 👏

CTFs are a great way to learn and I find the knowledge you gain to really build on itself.

I think alot of us are hard on our selfs when it comes to referring to writeups on some of these challenges. I don't consider it "cheating" anymore, I used to feel this way when I started ctf challenges but in reality these write ups just expand your knowledge and ability pool. You look at the bigger picture, not just being unable to crack challenge X, but now next time you come to a similar situation you may already know how to tackle that problem because of a previous write up, or at very least know how to find the solution. I've used techniques I learnt in write-ups in real world situations, that I wouldn't be able to have solved with out having prior knowledge of a similar situation and the real world situation doesn't have a write up or solution available. I think its good to set boundaries on how and when you refer to a write up, just to give your self a chance to experiment and learn, and avoid tapping out as soon as you are confronted with a difficult problem.. Documentation of your progress is also an amazing skill to learn. Not only is it required for reporting purposes in the real world but being able to re-trace your steps incase you need to regain access to a system, try different approaches at different stages or repeat the process as evidence. Good note taking and documentation is a valuable discipline.