CCD Certification — Updated Review, Exam Experience, and Practical Guidance

Hey there! Welcome back to another video. Today is a bit special because I’m doing something I’ve never done before — a second review of the same certification.

[embed]

Why a Second Look?

I always aim to be fair in my reviews. After my first review of the CCD certification, something unexpected happened. The CCD team reached out to me.

I’m a fair person and… the CCD team all of them they reach out to me and they thanked me about the review… and they assured me that they’re going to work very hard to fix all of the issues.

Even though my first review wasn’t very positive, the team was gracious. The founder of CCD, along with their support team and growth manager Ahmed, got in touch. They thanked me for my honest feedback and made a strong commitment to fix the issues I had pointed out.

What’s Different Now?

I’m happy to say that most of the problems I found in my first review have been fixed. The certification has improved a lot. While there are still a few small things to work on, it’s now a very good certification overall. In the following sections, I’ll walk you through all the changes and improvements they’ve made.

What’s Changed: Fixes, Release Timeline, and How to Track Updates

A few weeks after my first review, I’m happy to report that CCD has made incredible progress. They’ve fixed 99% of the issues I mentioned earlier. I’m genuinely impressed with how much the certification has improved.

Current State of the Certification

While I hesitate to use the word “perfect,” I can confidently say it’s now a very good certification. They’ve addressed most of my previous concerns, though there are still a couple of small points that need work. I’m confident they’ll tackle these remaining issues after this review.

Timeline and Updates

This video is being recorded on September 3, 2025, and will be released on September 5, 2025. Here’s something important to note:

If you watch this video one month later… most probably those issues… will be fixed.

How to Stay Updated

Since YouTube doesn’t let us update videos after publishing, I’ve set up a better way to keep you informed:

1. I’ve created a blog post on my website
2. All future updates will be posted there
3. You’ll find the link in the video description
4. This ensures you always have access to the latest information

What’s Coming Next

In the following sections, I’ll cover:

• Things I really like about the certification
• Areas that still need some improvement
• A detailed look at the exam experience

The exam discussion will be particularly interesting because CCD’s approach is quite different from other certifications like EC Council, GIAC, or Security Blue Team. I’ll share what makes it unique and what you should expect when you take it.

Stay tuned as we dive deeper into each of these aspects, starting with the improvements they’ve made to the labs and their new walkthrough system.

Labs and Walkthroughs: Tools, Expectations, and New Additions

One of the biggest improvements in the certification is the lab environment. Let me share what’s new and why it matters.

Complete Lab Walkthroughs

Now they added walkthroughs to every lab… it has all the tools that you might need.

The lab environment now comes with detailed walkthroughs for most exercises. When you access the lab, you’ll find folders on the desktop containing all the tools you might need. This makes it much easier to follow along and learn.

Extra Tools for Research

Some tools in the lab aren’t covered in depth in the course modules. They’re included for those who want to dig deeper and do more research. I noticed these tools appear in the walkthroughs, suggesting that CCD wants to encourage independent learning beyond just the course material.

New Bonus Labs

They’ve added about 4–5 new labs that come with a special bonus. Here’s what you should know:

• Complete these labs to earn a 5% bonus on your final exam score
• These bonus labs don’t have walkthroughs (for good reason)
• If they had walkthroughs, it would be too easy to just copy-paste for the bonus

My Recommendation

I strongly encourage you to do these bonus labs. They’re excellent practice and mirror what you’ll see in the actual exam. While they might be more challenging without walkthroughs, that’s exactly what makes them valuable for your learning.

Bonus Labs and the 5% Exam Credit — Why Some Students Stopped

Let’s talk about an important issue that came up with the bonus labs and exam credit. I want to share a real student’s experience that highlights some concerns with how these changes were rolled out.

A Student’s Story

I recently received a message from a student named Mitch (with his permission to share). His story shows how adding new requirements mid-course can affect students. Here’s what happened:

I decided to stop the CCD course… I was quite disappointed and I decided to go elsewhere for other certification.

Mitch had put in lots of time and effort into the course. He studied hard and even looked for extra learning resources. When he was almost done with all the coursework, CCD suddenly added new bonus labs. These labs were worth a 5% bonus on the final exam score. This late addition really frustrated him, and he decided to quit the program entirely.

The Impact of Late Changes

This situation brings up an important point. When CCD added these new labs, they didn’t consider students who were already far along in the course. These students suddenly faced extra work they hadn’t planned for. While the 5% bonus is helpful, adding it late in the process caused problems for some learners.

A Suggested Solution

Here’s what I think CCD should do: They should give a certificate of completion to students who finished the training before these new labs came out. Right now, if someone asks me if I did the CCD course, I have no way to prove it without taking the exam. A completion certificate would help show the work these early students put in.

Looking Forward

This experience teaches us something important about course management. While it’s great that CCD keeps adding improvements, they need to think about how changes affect current students. A simple completion certificate could have helped keep students like Mitch motivated and acknowledged their hard work.

Portal UX: Navigation, Video Settings, and Broken Links

Let’s talk about some user experience issues I’ve found in the CCD portal. While the content is great, there are a few things that could make the learning experience even better.

Navigation Issues

The biggest usability problem is with the page navigation. Here’s what happens:

When you finish, you should have the next button… The next button should be at the bottom, not at the top.

When you’re reading a page, you scroll down to finish the content. But guess where the “Next” button is? It’s at the very top of the page in the taskbar. This means after finishing each page, you need to scroll all the way back up to move forward. It would make much more sense to have the “Next” button at the bottom of each page where you finish reading.

Video Player Settings

The video player has a small but annoying issue. It doesn’t remember your playback settings. This means:

• If you prefer watching videos at 2x speed
• You have to manually change the speed for every single video
• Your settings don’t save between sessions
• It’s a small thing, but it adds up when you’re going through lots of videos

Broken or Missing Links

I’ve noticed some problems with the walkthrough links:

• Some module pages have incorrect links
• The malware lab links sometimes open module pages instead of walkthroughs
• Some links might be broken or point to the wrong content

Suggested Improvements

Here’s what I think would make the portal better:

1. Move the “Next” button to the bottom of each page
2. Add a “Previous” button for easier navigation
3. Make the video player remember user settings
4. Fix or update broken links
5. Gray out unavailable links or mark them as “coming soon”

These changes would make the learning experience smoother and more user-friendly. While these are relatively minor issues, fixing them would really improve the overall quality of the platform.

Content Quality: Time Estimates and a Critical Typo

Let’s talk about two important issues I found with the content quality: time estimates and a technical typo that needs fixing.

Misleading Time Estimates

One big issue I’ve noticed is about the time estimates for completing pages. Here’s the problem:

95% of the pages in the entire modules… say they need 15 minutes to finish… some of them you need 30 seconds man.

This creates several problems:

1. Many pages show 15-minute estimates when they only need 30 seconds to complete
2. When you add up all these inflated times, it makes modules look much longer than they are
3. Students might think a module will take 6–7 hours when it really needs just 45 minutes
4. This can lead to procrastination — when students see huge time estimates, they’re less likely to start

Why This Matters

Think about it this way: If you know a module will take just 45 minutes or an hour, you’re more likely to say, “Okay, it’s just an hour — let’s do this!” But when every page says 15 minutes, and you multiply that by many pages, it looks overwhelming.

Suggested Fix

The solution is simple:

• Use realistic time estimates (5, 10, or 15 minutes)
• Actually time how long each page takes
• Update the estimates to reflect real reading times

Important Technical Typo

I found one technical typo that needs fixing. It’s in the Malware Analysis module, specifically:

• Location: Dynamic Analysis section, third page
• Issue: The word “ransomware” has an extra ‘e’ inserted in the middle
• Correct spelling: “ransomware” (R-A-N-S-O-M-W-A-R-E)
• Incorrect spelling currently shown: “ransomware” with an extra ‘e’ after “ransom”

This might seem minor, but it’s crucial to fix technical terms. We don’t want students memorizing incorrect spellings of important security terms. I hope the CCD team will check all technical terms across the platform to ensure accuracy.

Why Technical Accuracy Matters

When teaching technical content, accuracy is essential because:

• Students often memorize terms exactly as they see them
• Technical terms need to be consistent with industry standards
• Incorrect technical terms can cause confusion in professional settings
• It affects the credibility of the certification

These issues are fixable, and addressing them would further improve the overall quality of the certification.

Exam Experience — Environment, Structure, and Tone

Let me share my thoughts about the CCD exam experience. I have mixed feelings — I’m impressed by the exam but disappointed I won’t be able to take it myself due to time constraints and energy levels after the earlier portal issues.

A Smooth and Practical Experience

The exam environment is exceptional. When I previewed it, I was genuinely impressed by how smooth and fast everything runs. This is rare in certification exams and lab environments.

The exam… it’s so smooth… the questions they are not hard, they are straight to the point… it doesn’t feel really like an exam, more than a nice investigation.

Real-World Investigation Style

What makes this exam special is how it mirrors real-world incident response. Instead of feeling like a traditional exam, it’s structured like an actual investigation. Think of it like getting a call at work about a potential malware incident — except here, you have more time to work through it carefully.

Exam Structure and Time

The exam is well-organized with:

• 48 hours (2 days) to complete
• Four main sections including threat hunting and disk forensics
• Open-book format
• Access to all necessary tools
• Ability to reference course modules

Question Style and Approach

The questions are:

• Clear and straightforward
• Sometimes technically tricky (but not linguistically confusing)
• Focused on practical skills
• Designed to test real understanding

You can use all available tools and even do some research during the exam — just like you would in a real investigation. While some questions might need careful reading, they’re testing your technical knowledge, not trying to trick you with complex wording.

A Different Kind of Challenge

This isn’t your typical certification exam where you just memorize and repeat information. Instead, it tests your ability to investigate and solve problems using all available resources — exactly like you would in a real cybersecurity role.

Exam Details, Tools Provided, and Reliability

Let’s dive into the details of the CCD exam environment and what you can expect. The CCD team has clearly put a lot of effort into creating a comprehensive and practical exam experience.

Exam Environment Setup

When you start the exam, you’ll find a well-organized desktop environment with:

• Pre-populated folders for each module (disk forensics, threat hunting, etc.)
• Access to Elastic/ELK for log analysis
• All necessary investigation tools readily available

You have all the tools available for you… it’s an open book which means… you can jump back to the module… The idea is just the exam feels like a real investigation.

Lab Stability and Success Rate

The lab environment has proven to be quite stable. While some students reported occasional crashes (which is normal for lab environments), there haven’t been any major issues. In fact:

• Most students report a smooth exam experience
• The community feedback has been largely positive
• Many candidates have successfully passed the exam
• No reports of serious technical problems

Open-Book Format

One of the best features of the exam is its open-book nature. During the exam, you can:

• Reference course modules
• Use all provided tools
• Conduct research as needed
• Work through problems like a real investigation

Final Verdict

After seeing all the fixes and improvements, I can confidently say this certification is worth pursuing. The CCD team has created an exam that truly tests practical skills rather than just theoretical knowledge. The environment is stable, the tools are comprehensive, and the format mirrors real-world cybersecurity work.

CCD vs BTL1 — Why CCD’s Always-Accessible Course Is a Key Differentiator

Let’s talk about why CCD stands out when compared to BTL1 (Security Blue Team Level 1). There’s one major advantage that makes CCD the better choice for most people.

Lab Access Explained

The only limitation is with the hands-on labs:

• Lab access expires after 4 months
• This is understandable because:
• Labs run in cloud environments
• They require active RDP servers
• There are ongoing hosting costs
• But you rarely need to redo labs after completing them
• The core information and learning materials are what matter most

Comparing with BTL1

While BTL1 is a good certification, it has a significant drawback:

• This makes it harder to reference what you learned
• You can’t go back to review specific topics
• It’s frustrating when you need to refresh your memory on certain concepts

Why This Matters

Think about real-world scenarios:

• You might need to review email security procedures six months later
• A new malware incident might require you to check past notes
• Your team might need quick reference to specific tools or techniques
• Continuous learning and reference are crucial in cybersecurity

Who Should Take CCD and Final Recommendations

Let’s wrap up by talking about who should take the CCD certification and share some final thoughts.

Perfect for Defenders and Analysts

It’s called certified cyber defender… There’s the word defender in it… So it’s a blue team certification.

First, let’s be clear — CCD is for defenders, not hackers. If you’re looking to become an ethical hacker, this isn’t the certification for you. CCD is specifically designed for:

• SOC analysts
• Incident responders
• Security team members
• Junior and mid-level defenders

Key Learning Areas

The certification covers crucial areas that security professionals deal with daily:

• Email security (DMARC, SPF)
• Malware analysis
• Digital forensics
• Security investigations

Why Choose CCD Over BTL1

While both are good certifications, CCD has some advantages:

• Goes deeper into email security
• Provides lifetime access to materials
• Covers a broader range of security topics
• Perfect for team training and reference

Real-World Application

I’ve personally recommended CCD for my team members, especially juniors and mid-level analysts. The always-available resources make it invaluable for:

• Quick reference during investigations
• Refreshing knowledge
• Team training
• Ongoing learning

Final Thoughts

If you’re interested in learning more about CCD or have questions:

• Check the comments section below
• Reach out through social media
• Visit my blog for regular updates
• Stay tuned for more security content

Remember, this certification isn’t about becoming a hacker — it’s about becoming a better defender. The skills you’ll learn are practical, immediately applicable, and will serve you well throughout your cybersecurity career.