What happens if I fail the exam?

You can retake it after a 24-hour cooldown, as many times as you need. Retakes are free, and each attempt draws a fresh random set of questions.

How long is a certificate valid?

The Safeguard Certified Practitioner credential is valid for 24 months from issue. The expiry date is printed on the certificate and shown live on its public verification page. Renewing means passing the current exam again.

Courses

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) with Safeguard: Testing Live Applications Safely

IntermediateFree5 modules · 15 lessons · ~2 min

About this course

A security engineer's practical course in dynamic testing: target ownership verification, the crawl-plus-active-check architecture, authenticated scanning through session propagation, and the roughly 203 checks that make up Safeguard's coverage. You will learn to read a live finding's raw evidence, recognise the false positive traps that catch even experienced testers, and run dynamic testing safely and sustainably at scale.

What you'll learn

Foundations of Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

What Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Tests and Why Verification Comes First
Target Ownership Verification: Mandatory Before Any Scan
Crawl Plus Active Checks: How a Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Scan Works

Configuring and Running Authenticated Scans

Scan Depth and Default Scan Mode for Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
Authenticated Scanning: Session Propagation Through Request Headers
The Roughly 203 Checks: Coverage Categories and What They Find

Reading Results and Avoiding False Positive Traps

Anatomy of a Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Finding
False Positive Traps: Web Application Firewall (WAF) 200s and Soft 404s
False Positive Traps: Reflected-but-Encoded Input and Retiring Live Findings

Zero-Day Discovery and Unified Findings

Zero-Day AI Discovery Tuning for Dynamic Testing
Unified Findings: Risk Score, Policies and Gates for Dynamic Testing
Griffin AI Remediation for Dynamic Findings

Operating Dynamic Testing Safely at Scale

Scheduling, Scope Control and Safe Testing Windows
Ticketing, Chat Integrations and Reporting
Building a Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Program: Rollout, Metrics and Maturity

01Foundations of Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)3 lessons

What Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Tests and Why Verification Comes First
Target Ownership Verification: Mandatory Before Any Scan
Crawl Plus Active Checks: How a Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Scan Works

02Configuring and Running Authenticated Scans3 lessons

Common questions

How much does Safeguard Academy cost?

Nothing. Every course, exam, and certificate on the catalog is free — including retakes. All you need is a free Safeguard account.

What are the prerequisites?

None. The flagship course, Safeguard Certified Practitioner, is a beginner-level course — basic familiarity with how software is built helps, but every exam question is answerable from the lessons themselves.