ASCP Review: My Journey with the ASCP API Security Certified Professional Exam
If you are looking for an honest ASCP review, an ASCP APIsec experience, or a practical breakdown of the ASCP API Security Certified Professional exam by APIsec University, this is my firsthand account.
When I first heard about the ASCP by APIsec University, I honestly thought it would just be another certification exam. Maybe some questions, maybe some theory, maybe a few tricky concepts around APIs.
I was completely wrong.
This exam was pure practical core.
You are basically thrown into an environment and told to figure things out yourself. No step by step guidance. No MCQs. No hints holding your hand.
Just APIs, endpoints, authentication flows, weird behaviors, and flags hidden behind vulnerabilities.
To pass the exam, you need to capture 6 out of 8 flags within 12 hours.
And that is where the real story starts.
The Start
I started the exam at around 6 PM in the evening.
The first thing I did was reconnaissance and enumeration. Looking around the application, understanding the API structure, checking endpoints, playing with requests, and trying to understand how everything worked together.
The first hour actually went pretty well.
I got 2 flags quickly and that gave me a huge confidence boost.
Maybe too much confidence.
I have played a lot of CTFs in the past, so somewhere in my mind I assumed this would be another normal CTF style challenge.
That overconfidence became my biggest mistake during the exam.
The Mid Game
By around 9 PM, I had found 3 more flags.
That made it 5 flags total.
Just one more flag needed to pass.
At that point I thought:
“Yeah, this is done. I’ll get the next one soon.”
But that “soon” never came.
I kept trying different things.
Different attack paths. Different requests. Different parameters. Looking at responses again and again. Replaying requests. Modifying tokens. Testing authorization issues. Trying random ideas that made sense in my head.
Nothing worked.
Hours passed.
I think exhaustion slowly started taking over without me even realizing it. I was so focused on getting that final flag that I completely ignored the fact that my brain was basically shutting down.
The Unexpected Part
And then something funny happened.
I accidentally fell asleep.
Literally with my laptop open.
I don’t even remember when exactly I slept. I think it was around midnight.
The next thing I remember is waking up at around 4:30 in the morning with my laptop still in front of me.
- 5 flags submitted
- 1 flag left
- 1 hour remaining
And the weirdest part is that while sleeping, I actually dreamt of a method I could try.
Sounds fake, but it genuinely happened.
I woke up, tried that exact approach immediately, and somehow it actually worked.
Boom.
6th flag captured.
I passed the exam with less than an hour remaining.
The relief at that moment was insane.
What This Exam Taught Me
I was really happy that I passed, but at the same time I also had this regret in my mind.
Maybe if I had taken proper breaks earlier instead of forcing myself continuously, I could have stayed fresh enough to get the remaining 2 flags as well.
That exam genuinely taught me something important.
Breaks are necessary.
Your brain needs rest, especially during long practical exams. Sometimes stepping away for a bit helps more than staring at the same endpoint for 3 straight hours.
About the Certification
The ASCP exam itself costs around $450, but I actually got the voucher through a CTF event, so I didn’t personally buy it.
I had also completed the CASA and ACP certifications before this, which were mostly MCQ based.
Honestly, I was a little disappointed by those because they felt more theoretical than practical.
But ASCP was completely different.
This one felt like:
- Actual hacking
- Actual enumeration
- Actual exploitation
- Actual problem solving
Not question answering.
Not memorization.
Not theory dumping.
You actually have to think, explore, break things, and chain ideas together.
That made the experience genuinely enjoyable.
Tools That Helped Me
At first I thought Burp Suite alone would be enough.
But no.
Postman became surprisingly useful too.
Using both together actually helped a lot.
- Burp for interception and manipulation
- Postman for cleaner API testing workflows
Resources I Recommend
PortSwigger Academy
Probably one of the best places to learn web and API security concepts practically.
https://portswigger.net/web-security
APIsec University API Penetration Testing Course
This course is free and genuinely useful for understanding API testing methodologies.
https://www.apisecuniversity.com/courses/api-penetration-testing
crAPI
A vulnerable API lab where you can practice real world API vulnerabilities.
One Request to Guide Them All
Another really fun resource for API learning and practice.
https://one-request.apisecuniversity.com/
Final Thoughts
Honestly, no single resource is ever enough.
The more you practice, the better you get.
That’s really it.
I did the ASCP mostly out of curiosity rather than just for a certification badge. And I’m glad I did, because it ended up being one of the most enjoyable practical certification experiences I’ve had so far.