CompTIA PenTest+ 21-Day Study Plan (PT0-003)
A fast, focused 21-day roadmap to pass the CompTIA PenTest+ exam — built around the five PT0-003 domains, from engagement planning through reconnaissance, attacks and exploits, and reporting.
Start Free Practice →Your week-by-week roadmap
Engagement Management
Set the foundation: scoping, rules of engagement, legal and compliance considerations, and professionalism throughout an engagement.
- Learn scoping documents, SOWs, and authorisation
- Review legal/regulatory constraints
- Domain mini-exam + review misses
Reconnaissance & Enumeration
Master passive and active recon, OSINT, scanning, and enumeration to map the target attack surface.
- Practice nmap, OSINT, and enumeration workflows
- Identify services, versions, and entry points
- Hands-on lab + mini-exam
Vulnerability Discovery & Analysis
Find and validate weaknesses — scanning, manual analysis, and prioritising what is actually exploitable.
- Run and interpret vulnerability scans
- Validate false positives manually
- Prioritise by exploitability
Attacks & Exploits (35% — biggest domain)
The heart of the exam: network, application, wireless, cloud, and social-engineering attacks. Spend the most time here.
- Drill web, network, and wireless attack techniques
- Practice tool selection per scenario
- Two domain mini-exams
Post-exploitation & Lateral Movement
Cover persistence, privilege escalation, lateral movement, and cleanup after initial access.
- Review privilege escalation and pivoting
- Practice persistence and cleanup steps
Reporting + Full Mock
Finish with reporting and communication, then sit a full-length timed mock (up to 90 questions, 165 minutes) and review every miss.
- Practice writing findings and recommendations
- Full timed mock exam
- Re-drill weakest domain, then rest
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