Security, from zero to hero¶
A plain-English path from zero to security engineer, plus study guides for the security certifications employers ask for - free, no signup, nothing gated.
Never thought about security before, or chasing your CISSP - both start here. Press / to search all 0.6M words.
Start Security from Scratch Browse 24 certifications Compliance guides
- 24 certifications
- 13 providers
- 0.6M words
- 1,000+ vendor doc links
- 5 compliance guides
The four pillars
Four ways in¶
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Learn
Plain English, no exam scaffolding. Security from Scratch takes you from zero to security engineer in seven phases, with 4 concept pages on identity, TLS, secrets and shared responsibility.
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Build
A zero trust build with inline code for AWS, Azure and GCP, the zero trust architecture pattern, and a map of which lab backs which exam.
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Certify
24 security cert guides across 13 providers - CISSP, Security+, CCSP, CySA+, CISM, OSCP and the cloud security exams - each with a fact sheet, practice plan, scenarios and a practice question bank.
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Reference
5 compliance guides (SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, FedRAMP), 2 security and identity service comparisons, the security engineer roadmap and interview prep.
Quick links
Jump to what you need¶
- Security from Scratch - the path from zero to security engineer
- Concepts - five-minute explainers, one idea each
- Topic indexes - security and identity, tied across all four pillars
- Glossary - the vocabulary, defined once
- Security Engineer roadmap - which certs, in which order
- Compliance guides - SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, FedRAMP
- Zero trust, hands-on - identity, MFA and per-request access
- Practice questions - scenario banks with explained answers
- Interview prep - the security engineer interview
- Freshness ledger - what was last verified, and when
The library
Certifications by provider¶
What's new¶
See the CHANGELOG for the rolling history. Recent batches:
- 2026-10-21 - Security Zero to Hero is now its own site at security.noblerworks.com, split from the combined cloud, data, AI and security repo. New: Security from Scratch, a plain-English path from zero to security engineer. Cloud, data and AI each have their own sibling site (see the family table above).
- 2026-10-16 - Retired-exam sweep: every guide checked against the vendors' retirement pages. AWS Security Specialty (SCS-C02) and Azure AZ-500 are now marked retired and kept as reference; their successors are tracked in TODO.md.
- 2026-09-18 - Every dead vendor link repaired, each replacement fetched and matched to the page the citation meant. The weekly link check now also catches soft 404s and deep links that silently redirect to a homepage.
The family
More Zero to Hero¶
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Cloud Zero to Hero
Cloud from the first terminal command: AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform and DevOps.
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Data Zero to Hero
Databases, pipelines, warehouses, lakehouses and streaming, plus the data certifications.
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AI Zero to Hero
Learn AI, use it at work, build with it, and secure and govern it - including prompt injection and agent security.
All four are free, by Nobler Works.
Who made this¶
Built by Patrick Wiloak - ex-AWS Solutions Architect, 10 years in tech, multi-cloud certified. YouTube · LinkedIn · Website · Source on GitHub
We build custom software and products at Nobler Works. Open-source training like this is how we give back - we are nothing without the community that supports us. If you need software built, get in touch.
Want the reps as well as the material?
This site gives you the material. gitGood gives you the reps, and tells you whether you actually know it. Built for every kind of technologist across 21 role-targeted learning paths - engineering, SRE and DevOps, cloud architecture, security, ML and AI, data science, analytics and engineering, QA, product and TPM, and new grads breaking in.
1,950+ practice questions across 34 categories · certification practice exams for AWS CLF-C02, SAA-C03 and DVA-C02, Azure AZ-900, AZ-104, AZ-305 and AI-900, Google Cloud Digital Leader and Associate Cloud Engineer, Kubernetes CKA and CKAD, CompTIA Security+ and HashiCorp Terraform Associate - original scenario questions, never brain dumps, with per-domain scoring and a timed simulator · coding challenges · SQL playground · system design walkthroughs · AI mock interviews · AI resume reviews · salary coaching · live job-market pulse.
A 7-day free trial, then $8/month or $64/year. The free tier needs no card.
Fine print¶
Free for educational use with attribution. Every technical claim links to the vendor's own documentation - 1,000+ links across the site.
This is an independent educational resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ISC2, ISACA, CompTIA, AWS, Microsoft, Google, or any other vendor referenced. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Found something wrong or out of date? Contributions welcome.