Programming Languages & Core Development Topics
Programming languages, development fundamentals, coding concepts, and core data structures. Includes syntax, algorithms, memory management at a programming level, asynchronous patterns, and concurrency primitives. Also covers core data manipulation concepts like hashing, collections, error handling, and DOM manipulation for web development. Excludes tool-specific proficiency (see 'Tools, Frameworks & Implementation Proficiency').
Scripting and Automation Fundamentals
Focuses on the practical scripting and basic programming skills commonly used to support penetration testing and security automation. Topics include familiarity with languages such as Python and shell scripting, fundamental programming constructs, reading and modifying simple exploit or scan scripts, automating tool workflows and parsing output, invoking system commands, basic regular expressions, error handling and debugging approaches, and designing small, repeatable utilities for reconnaissance, scanning, exploitation, and reporting. Candidates are expected to demonstrate the ability to write and troubleshoot short scripts and to reason about when automation improves efficiency.
Python Automation and Monitoring
Focuses on using the Python programming language to automate operational tasks and implement monitoring workflows. Includes writing robust scripts and small applications for file input and output, subprocess management, making HTTP requests and handling responses, parsing and producing JSON, structured error handling and retries, logging and alerting, and clear code organization and packaging. Discuss when to choose Python over shell scripts for complexity, portability, error handling, and maintainability. Covers libraries and tooling for scheduling and background jobs, interacting with cloud provider software development kits, instrumenting applications for metrics and traces, integrating with monitoring stacks, and basic concurrency and asynchronous programming patterns when needed. Also includes testing and validation of automation scripts, secure handling of credentials and configuration, and deployment practices for operational scripts.