CJCA: HTB Certified Junior Cybersecurity Associate

What CJCA is and who runs it

The HTB Certified Junior Cybersecurity Associate (CJCA) is Hack The Box’s entry-level certification, taken through HTB Academy. Unlike most beginner certs it is fully hands-on and covers both sides of the house: offensive security basics, defensive security basics, hybrid attack simulation and detection, core IT knowledge, and reporting. HTB aligns the underlying path with NIST and MITRE ATT&CK. It’s aimed at people starting out who want a practical, foundational credential rather than a purely multiple-choice one, and it doubles as an on-ramp into HTB’s harder tracks.

Cost and what’s included

A standalone CJCA exam voucher is $105 ($124.95 including VAT), which is cheap by certification standards. It is also bundled with HTB Academy’s Silver Annual subscription at $490/year and the Gold Annual at $1,260/year — both now include a CJCA voucher on top of their other exam vouchers, per HTB’s own changelog. The subscription route gives you the full Junior Cybersecurity Analyst learning path plus the voucher, so most people preparing seriously go that way rather than buying the exam alone.

Time: the exam and the report

The exam runs for five days, and your report is due within that same window. It’s a realistic hands-on environment: you enumerate, analyse, exploit, and then document your findings — there are no multiple-choice questions. You submit the report as an unencrypted PDF or a ZIP, up to 20MB. Both the practical work and the professional report are assessed, so a strong hands-on result won’t carry a weak write-up. As with other HTB exams, grading is manual, and a failed attempt with a submitted report earns feedback and a second try.

How hard it is, honestly

This is a junior exam, and reviewers treat it as such — not as intense as CBBH or CPTS. The real challenge for most people isn’t the exploitation — it’s writing a commercial-quality report to HTB’s standard, which is unusual at entry level. Reviewers have called it one of the most content-rich exams they have taken. Expect a steady, learnable difficulty if you complete the path, not a wall.

Is it worth it — and for whom

CJCA fits career-changers, students, and SOC-curious beginners who want to prove practical skill across both attack and defence. Its report requirement builds a habit most entry certs ignore. The honest caveat comes from reviewers themselves: as a standalone purchase it isn’t the most cost-efficient, and some suggest aiming straight for intermediate certs like CPTS, CBBH, or CDSA if you can. If you already have solid fundamentals, you may want to skip past it.

How to prepare

Complete the Junior Cybersecurity Analyst job-role path to 100% — HTB requires full completion before you can take the exam. Because it spans offensive and defensive material, don’t rush the blue-team and reporting sections that beginners tend to skim. Practise writing up findings clearly, since the report is graded alongside the hands-on work. If you’re already on the Silver or Gold annual plan, the voucher is included, so work through the path at a pace that lets the concepts actually stick.

SourcesStart cybersecurity with HTB CJCAHTB Academy subscriptions