Web Application Penetration Tester eXtreme (eWPTXv3) Review
Disclaimer
Everything I share here is based entirely on my own personal experience. Others may have had very different experiences with this certification. My observations are subjective and should not be taken as absolute facts or as representative of anyone else's opinion. I am not affiliated with or speaking on behalf of the certification provider.
What is eWPTX?
The Web Application Penetration Tester eXtreme (eWPTX) is a certification that evaluates your ability to identify, exploit, and chain advanced security vulnerabilities in complex web applications. It focuses entirely on advanced, hands-on skills that simulate real-world attack scenarios against modern web technologies.
eWPTX Exam Overview
Learning Materials
When I was searching for something to push my web penetration testing skills to the next level, eWPTX kept popping up. I even found some older blog posts where people said it helped them understand very complex concepts and that it truly deserved the "eXtreme" in its name.
The course starts with Intro to Advanced Web Application Penetration Testing, which turned out to be my favorite module. The way they explained penetration testing methodology really stood out to me, not just following a checklist, but understanding what you're testing and why. That part was excellent.
Note: The materials are in video format, with a person going through them and explaining them. You also have an option to download the materials in text format.
The rest of the course (Authentication & Session Management, Advanced Injection Attacks, API Penetration Testing, Filter Evasion & WAF Bypass, and Server-Side Attacks) was still well explained, but for me, it didn't feel as advanced as I expected from something labeled "eXtreme." If you've done PortSwigger Academy labs, I'd compare most of it to their apprentice level, with some practitioner-level topics mixed in.
I'm not saying they didn't explain things well, their explanations were phenomenal, but I felt I was learning fairly basic concepts. To sum it up, the teaching style is fantastic, yet the material itself didn't feel truly advanced or extreme.
Exam Format
You get 18 hours straight, no pauses, to perform the penetration test and answer 45 questions. Questions are either multiple choice or short-answer, often tied directly to findings from your test. Everything is done inside INE's online exam platform through their virtual machine, and you can restart it if needed.
Unfortunately, as I said you can't pause the exam or anything similar, so yeah, even if you want to rest for a little bit, your 18 hour count continues.
Exam is not proctored, so you are free to use your notes or other resources. Also, you do not need to complete all modules at 100% before starting the exam.
Once you give answer to all of the 45 questions, you can submit your responses and after that you will immediately get results. The passing score is 75%.
Exam Experience
Personally, I found the no-pause format challenging mostly because you can't take a break and relax for a little bit. I mean, you can, but that 18-hour count won't give you peace at all, and even if you want to rest, you couldn't because of it.
The environment worked smoothly for me, and I finished in around 8 hours with a score of about 84%. I am mentioning environment because some people were saying that their environment wasn't stable at all, and that it was a real pain to work.
For me, the exam leaned more towards testing research skills, how quickly you can look things up, than deep application of the course material. Some questions could be answered by simply searching online. This doesn't make it bad, but it's something to be aware of.
Exam itself wasn't too hard and wasn't too easy either. I was able to finish it in around 8 hours, and I scored around 84%, if I remember correctly.
Personal Advice and Final Thoughts
If your goal is to gain web application penetration testing knowledge, I'd honestly recommend going through PortSwigger Academy's material. But if you want a recognizable certification, eWPTX is worth considering.
My advice to anyone taking the exam would be to go through all of the materials in this course, and specifically focus on all the labs provided. Write them down in detail, and focus on what is done in each lab. For example, if a guy in the video says "Let's search this thing up on Google", write down that he searched for that specific thing on Google.
I think this certification has a lot of potential because, as I mentioned, they explain things in a phenomenal way. I would like to see that same teaching style applied to truly advanced topics. The word "eXtreme" is in the name, so it should live up to it by being advanced and challenging, teaching concepts that are genuinely hard to grasp. The exam should be designed so that only someone who has thoroughly covered and understood the material can pass.
Also, get rid of the current situation where you can easily exploit things just by searching the version of the software up on the google. I wouldn't call that extreme and advanced at all, everyone can read the exploit and follow the instructions on how to replicate it.
Also, another improvement would be to remove questions that can be easily answered by AI or a quick Google search.