Security
Security Engineer
If a security analyst watches for fires, a security engineer builds the systems that make fires harder to start. The work is architectural: designing Zero Trust networks, hardening CI/CD pipelines against supply chain attacks, choosing cryptographic primitives that won't be regretted in five years.
You hold an adversarial mindset in one hand and an empathy for developer workflow in the other, because controls that engineers route around aren't really controls. Frameworks like OWASP and the MITRE ATT&CK catalog give you a shared language with the rest of the field.
Students drawn to this path usually liked the puzzles in a CTF more than the prizes. Growth comes from owning a real production environment and writing the post-mortem when something you missed went wrong.
- DesignIntermediateNew
Authentication + RBAC for a Multi-Workspace SaaS
Design the auth architecture: identity provider (managed), session model (JWT with rotation), workspace-membership claims, RBAC permission model (4 default roles, custom-role ca…
- Authentication
- Rbac
- Sso
Engineering Software as a Service - AnalysisIntermediateNew
Penetration-Test the TLS Configuration of an Edge Fleet
Receive read-only access to a 50-node representative sample (anonymized). Scan with testssl.sh + Qualys SSL Labs (where reachable) + a custom Go tool you write to test specific …
- Tls
- Applied Cryptography
- Penetration Testing
Applied Cryptography - AnalysisBeginnerNew
Audit a Linux Distribution for Setuid Binary Risk
Mount the provided base image (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS derivative) and inventory all setuid + setgid binaries. For each, classify into 4 buckets: legitimately needed, replaceable with …
- Os Security
- Linux Administration
- Setuid Analysis
Open coursework - DesignBeginnerNew
Design Secrets Management for a Regulated GitOps Pipeline
Design the secrets topology: Vault as the single source, External Secrets Operator (ESO) syncing into Kubernetes Secrets with auto-rotation. SecretStore + ClusterSecretStore bou…
- External Secrets Operator
- Hashicorp Vault
- Secrets Management
GitOps and Continuous Delivery Practice your coursework on real scenarios.
Every challenge is shaped from real-world context — not generic exercises. The work mirrors what your degree prepares you for.
Why Ewance
- CodeIntermediateNew
Implement Authenticated Encryption for a Document Service
Design the envelope-encryption hierarchy: customer Key Encryption Key (KEK) held in AWS KMS (Key Management Service), Data Encryption Keys (DEKs) wrapped per document. Use AES-2…
- Applied Cryptography
- Aead
- Key Management
Applied Cryptography - AnalysisSeniorNew
Cyber-Physical Security Audit for a Connected-Building HVAC System
Audit one representative tower's BMS: enumerate BACnet devices (network discovery + capability inventory), identify lateral-movement paths (tenant wifi -> guest network -> BACne…
- Cyber Physical Systems
- Ot Security
- Risk Management
Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems - AnalysisIntermediateNew
Run a Red-Team Exercise on a Cloud-Native Microservices Platform
Receive a scoped engagement letter (in-scope: 6 microservices and their CI/CD pipelines; out-of-scope: customer-data exfiltration beyond proof-of-access), the architecture diagr…
- Red Teaming
- Kubernetes Security
- Lateral Movement
Computer Systems Security - DesignIntermediateNew
Threat Model a HealthTech Patient-Portal Web App
Read the 25-page redesign architecture document (auth via Clerk, Next.js front-end, FastAPI backend, Postgres, S3 for documents, webhook integration with EMRs). Build data-flow …
- Threat Modeling
- STRIDE
- Secure Design
Software Security - Browse challenges
Explore role
Product Manager
Ship product that solves real user problems. Combine user research, prototyping, and stakeholder alignment to turn ambiguous briefs into measurable wins — the role at the centre of modern software teams.
- CodeSeniorNew
Implement Threshold Signatures for a Multi-Sig Custody Service
Read the FROST IETF draft (draft-irtf-cfrg-frost) and the underlying Schnorr signature scheme on the secp256k1 curve. Implement the FROST distributed key generation (DKG) and 3-…
- Applied Cryptography
- Threshold Signatures
- Rust
Open coursework - AnalysisIntermediateNew
Privacy-by-Design Review for a Smart-City Data Platform
Map the new module's end-to-end data flow (sensors -> ingestion -> analytics -> dashboards -> exports). Run a Privacy Impact Assessment against OECD privacy principles + per-ten…
- Privacy By Design
- Privacy Regulation
- Compliance
Information Security Management and Governance - CodeSeniorNew
Harden a Container Supply Chain to SLSA Level 3
Audit the current build and deploy pipeline against the SLSA 1.0 specification. Identify SLSA-3 gaps (typically: provenance generation, hermetic builds, two-person review, signe…
- Supply Chain Security
- Slsa
- Sigstore
Open coursework - CodeSeniorNew
Build a Kernel-Module Sandbox for an Untrusted Code Service
Receive the current Docker-based sandbox configuration, post-incident reports for both escapes, and the runtime requirements for Python and C++ (compilers, package availability,…
- Sandboxing
- Seccomp Bpf
- Gvisor
Computer Systems Security Build a verifiable portfolio.
Submissions become evidence. Reviewers with shipping experience score against a rubric; the result becomes a credential anyone can verify.
Why Ewance
- CodeIntermediateNew
Harden a Linux Container Runtime Against Privilege Escalation
Receive the pen-test report (with attack chain), the current cluster config (EKS 1.29, default Amazon Linux 2023 worker nodes), and 3 representative workload classes (web API, a…
- Os Security
- Linux Hardening
- Apparmor
Open coursework - CodeIntermediateNew
Secure the Software Supply Chain of an Open-Source SDK
Audit the current state: dependency tree, publish process, GitHub Actions workflows, signing posture. Generate an SBOM (CycloneDX format) using Syft. Run OpenSSF Scorecard and t…
- Supply Chain Security
- Slsa
- Sbom
Open coursework - CodeIntermediateNew
Fuzz a Memory-Unsafe Image-Parsing Library
Identify 3 critical parser entry points (DICOM dataset parser, JPEG 2000 decoder, TIFF directory parser) and write a libFuzzer harness + an AFL++ harness for each. Build with AS…
- Fuzzing
- Memory Safety
- Address Sanitizer
Open coursework - AnalysisBeginnerNew
GDPR Article 25 Privacy-By-Design Review for a HealthTech API
Review the API specification (OpenAPI 3, provided, 42 endpoints). For each endpoint: identify data categories handled (special-category health data, identifiers, traffic data), …
- GDPR
- Privacy By Design
- API Design
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies - CodeSeniorNew
Reverse-Engineer and Patch an N-Day Vulnerability in a Vendor Binary
Receive the vulnerable binary (Linux ELF, x86-64), the public CVE-2025-XXXX advisory + PoC, and the bank's deployment context (RHEL 9, the binary runs as a non-root service). Lo…
- Reverse Engineering
- Binary Exploitation
- Ghidra
Open coursework - AnalysisIntermediateNew
Secure-by-Design Review of a Microservices Auth Subsystem
Read the 18-page proposed auth-service design (Next.js BFF, FastAPI auth-service, Postgres for sessions + refresh, Redis for short-lived tokens, integration with Auth0 for OIDC)…
- Secure Design
- OWASP Asvs
- Oauth2
Software Security - DesignIntermediateNew
Design a Secure Wi-Fi Onboarding Flow for IoT Devices
Design a BLE-based onboarding protocol: device advertises a service UUID on power-on, the companion app discovers, performs an ECDH key exchange, then encrypts and sends Wi-Fi S…
- Link Layer Protocols
- Ble
- Secure Onboarding
Computer Networks - AnalysisIntermediateNew
Threat Model a Water-Utility SCADA Network Before a Migration
Review provided network diagrams (current and proposed), the asset inventory (around 180 PLCs (programmable logic controllers), 22 engineering workstations, 6 historian servers)…
- Threat Modeling
- Ics Security
- Scada
Cyber-Physical and Cybercrime Topics - ResearchSeniorNew
Audit a Custom Cryptographic Protocol
Read the 22-page protocol spec, the Go reference implementation (around 4,000 lines), and the test vectors. Run a structured review covering: primitive choices (which cipher, MA…
- Applied Cryptography
- Cryptographic Audit
- Protocol Analysis
Applied Cryptography - CodeSeniorNew
Implement a Bootloader with Secure OTA for a Medical Wearable
Implement using MCUboot as the secondary-image bootloader. Set up an offline signing pipeline (Ed25519 keys, HSM-backed for production). Implement the OTA client: BLE file trans…
- Mcuboot
- Secure Bootloader
- Firmware Signing
Open coursework - CodeIntermediateNew
Static Analysis SAST Rollout on a Fintech Codebase
Run baseline scans with Semgrep + SonarQube + Snyk Code across all 18 services. Triage the initial findings (likely 800-1,500 raw alerts) into true-positive / false-positive / i…
- Sast
- Semgrep
- Sonarqube
Open coursework - CodeIntermediateNew
Secure a LoRaWAN Sensor Network for Cold-Chain Logistics
Read the LoRaWAN 1.0.x vs 1.1 spec (the network runs 1.0.3). Design the new key management: device-unique AppKey + NwkSKey, rotation every 90 days for the warehouse devices (the…
- Lorawan
- Wireless Security
- Key Management
Wireless and Mobile Networks - AnalysisIntermediateNew
Build a Risk Register for a Cross-Border Healthcare Provider
Run 8 structured interviews (CISO, IT director, clinical-systems lead, DPO, 4 clinic managers) to surface the top risk candidates. Map each risk against NIST SP 800-30 (threat s…
- Risk Management
- NIST Sp 800 30
- Security Governance
Open coursework
How it works
From brief to credential, in six steps.
Step 01
Browse challenges aligned to your studies.
Step 02
Accept the one that fits your goals.
Step 03
Work through it with AI Copilot guidance.
Step 04
Submit for structured evaluation.
Step 05
Earn a verified credential.
Step 06
Add it to LinkedIn with one click.
Industry teams behind a decade of practitioner briefs
Hiring from this pool?
Sponsor a challenge and meet candidates through actual work.
Industry teams can shape briefs around the skills they hire for, then evaluate students on rubric-scored deliverables — not resumes.
Skills and disciplines shown on this page are derived from the Ewance challenge catalogue. When the median annual salary is available for this role via Adzuna, it will be shown above with the sample size and country.
Portrait: Photo by amin naderloei on Unsplash.