How I passed my OSCP Exam in 9 hours

I finally got my OSCP Certification just a few day ago, and I want to walk you guys through my OSCP adventure (please don’t take this as a guide)

certificate

1. Course started

I decided to get the 3 months Course + Cert bundle for my OSCP exam, and I started right after buying the course.

The first thing I did was request a copy of the course in PDF, so I can view it anytime on my Kindle.

Starting off strong, the syllabus feels kinda… lame.

Compared to HackTheBox, where you can learn a lot more, and they always go in depth in exploits, you wouldn’t be expecting much in OffSec’s course, if you want to dive deeper into the contents of the course, feel free to Google it ;)

2. Exam day

Back during the Lunar New Year holiday, I scheduled my exam at 12th March, 2026 (just because I feel good)

But as the date get closer, I decided to switch over to 2 PM @ 4th March, 2026, which, I’m even more ready than ever (dopamine-fueled moment)

2.1. Exam preparation

And the day I’ve been waiting has come, I was really nervous that I couldn’t sleep much last night (I only got 6 hours of sleep time).

11 AM, I visit the supermarket to get fueled up and buy some energy drinks

What I got was a ‘banh mi’ and 2 white Monsters (sugar-free), and I was already feeling really good inside, but still nervous for the exam.

2.2. Exam time

This must be the worst part in everybody’s experience, and I felt the same at start.

Following the OSCP+ Exam Guide, I cleaned all my room, get rid of every unrelated electronics from there, and I’m ready to rock.

1:30 PM, I entered the proctoring platform, and right after that, a proctor has joined me, he asked for my ID, then a room check, and finally, run a script on my Windows host PC.

Now that everything is ready, I received an email with the credentials to access the VPN, along with the control panel.

I couldn’t share much during the exam, but I can give my exact timestamps, what stage I was done, and when I took rest.

1:50 PM: Exam started
1:55 PM: Captured flag for WSxx (first machine in AD set, with provided credentials)
3:20 PM: Captured flag for SRVxx (service machine)
5:34 PM: Finished the AD set (captured flag for DCxx)
5:35 PM: Take rest
7:30 PM: Got back to doing first standalone challenge
8:30 PM: Got local.txt for the first standalone challenge
9:30 PM: Got proof.txt for the first standalone challenge
11:00 PM: Got local.txt for the third standalone challenge
11:36 PM: Got proof.txt for the third standalone challenge.
11:38 PM: Take rest

At this point, I have had 80 points, and that should be more than enough for me to pass the exam.

Although I have decided not to tackle with the last standalone challenge (mostly because I’m tired), I also want to spend my remaining time to work on my report.

1:00 AM: Started writing the report
3:00 AM: Finished the report
3:20 AM: Packaged and uploaded the report
3:25 AM: Exam ended

3. Post exam

At this point, I was really tired, after almost 14 hours just staring in front of my computer, but it was a very fun journey, I then took a deep sleep to heal myself.

2 days later, I got my result, and I passed :)

4. Tips

I have a few tips for the exam, but please don’t judge it or take these too seriously

Take more rest: This actually saved me. Whenever I got stuck, I’d take a break to clear my head. Once I felt relieved, the solution just clicked. It really works!"
Time management: Especially on the standalone sets, we have a lot of rabbit holes, you must arrange your time wisely so you don’t run out of clock before you run out of ideas.

And finally for the fun fact, I’ve just completed 19% of the course contents, and 3/10 challenge labs on OffSec :P

Thanks for reading, happy hacking. :)