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.
Skills you'll need
- ResearchBeginnerNew
Cybercrime-Economy Brief for an Anonymized Insurance Underwriter
Synthesize open-source intelligence from CISA advisories, public vendor reports (CrowdStrike, Mandiant, Recorded Future), darknet-market trackers, and the Ransomware Live tracke…
- Threat Intelligence
- Cybercrime Economy
- Ransomware
Cyber-Physical and Cybercrime Topics - 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 - CodeBeginnerNew
Find and Exploit Web Vulnerabilities on a Capture-the-Flag Range
Receive credentials to the CTF environment, the 8 challenge specifications (each with a target endpoint and a flag to extract), and the Rails source for the vulnerable app. For …
- Web Security
- OWASP Top 10
- Penetration Testing
Introduction to Computer Security - 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
- REST API Design
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies 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
- CodeBeginnerNew
Build a Secure-Coding Linter Ruleset for a Backend Team
Receive the last 12 security-review findings, 3 representative repos (Node.js + TypeScript), and access to a CI pipeline (GitHub Actions). Build a custom Semgrep ruleset (or ESL…
- Secure Coding
- Static Analysis
- Semgrep
Introduction to Computer Security - AnalysisBeginnerNew
Threat-Model a Patient-Intake Web App for a Telemedicine Startup
Receive the architecture diagram (Next.js front-end, Node.js API, PostgreSQL, S3 for ID-photo uploads, Clerk for auth), the data-flow description for patient intake, and the SOC…
- Threat Modeling
- STRIDE
- Risk Assessment
Introduction to Computer Security - DesignBeginnerNew
Vendor-Security Review Program for a Series-C SaaS
Design a 3-tier TPRM framework (critical / important / low-risk) with explicit classification criteria (data type, integration depth, downtime impact, regulatory scope). For eac…
- Third Party Risk
- Security Governance
- Compliance
Information Security Management and Governance - AnalysisBeginnerNew
Audit Encryption Choices for an E-Commerce Checkout Stack
Receive the architecture diagram (Next.js on Vercel, PostgreSQL on a managed service, Stripe-equivalent processor, Redis sessions), the TLS configurations for each public endpoi…
- Cryptography
- Tls
- Pci Dss
Introduction to Computer 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.
- AnalysisBeginnerNew
Wireless Security Audit and Hardening for a Telco's Public Wi-Fi
Receive a sampled audit set: AP configurations for 80 sites (vendor mix, current encryption, EAP — Extensible Authentication Protocol — method, captive-portal config). Run analy…
- Wireless Security
- Wpa3
- Eap
Network Security - 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
Operating Systems
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.