You can enter an assessment by clicking the Enter button from the Assessor landing page, as shown in the image below.

This will take you to the assessment’s waiting bay. The Message Panel [1] shows any messages or instructions that your Assessment Organiser has written. The Assessment Information Panel [2] displays information about the assessment including:

You can start the assessment by clicking the Start Assessment [3] button. You cannot pause or stop the assessment once you click this button, and your duration time will start counting down from the moment you click this button.

Once you have started your assessment, you can view the assessment’s challenges by clicking on the Challenges [1] tab. The Duration [2] card tells you the amount of time you have been allocated to complete the assessment. The Challenges Completed [3] card tells you how many challenges you have successfully completed so far. The Time Left [4] card shows you how much time you have remaining until the assessment finishes.

The Challenges Table [1] lists all challenges in the assessment. You can search for a specific challenges by clicking on the Search [2] icon. This will open up a text box that will enable you to search for challenges by keywords. You can filter which challenges are shown in the table by clicking on the Filter [3] button. This will let you filter challenges based on their Name, Category, Difficulty, Estimated Time to Solve, Status and Number of Attempts.

You can navigate between the different pages of the table by clicking on the Arrow [1] buttons. You can also change the number of rows displayed on the table by clicking on the Row [2] dropdown menu and then selecting the number of rows that you would like to view.

To view a challenge, click on the Row of the challenge you wish to view. This will open up the challenge on the side of your screen. Once the challenge has been opened, you will be able to see key details about the challenge, such as its description. When you're ready to start attempting the challenge, click Start Solving.

Once you have clicked Start Solving on a lab challenge, you'll see a Lab Details section. By default, your lab will be in Not Started status. Each lab has a duration of 2 hours.

Click Start Lab to spin up a lab instance to begin working on. Once you start your lab instance, the Lab Time Remaining timer will begin counting down from 2 hours.

Once you have started your lab, your lab will be in Ready status. The lab timer will begin countdown from 2 hours, and you'll see an Extend Lab button and a Reset Lab button. These buttons will aways be present when your lab is in Ready status (and when you have time left in the Lab Time Remaining countdown timer).

You can extend your lab as many times as you wish during the event. Extending a lab simply resets the countdown timer for your current lab instance back to 2 hours, allowing you to continue working on your current lab instance with progress being unaffected. Although you can extend your lab infinitely during the event, the maximum time available on the Lab Time Remaining countdown timer at any given point is 2 hours. You won't be able to stack more time on time of this maximum by extending your lab. For instance, if you extend your lab while there is 1 hour 50 minutes remaining, your lab time will be reset to 2 hours, not 3 hours 50 minutes.

If the lab countdown timer reaches 0, your lab instance will be deleted (all progress will be lost). You'll be able to restart your lab again to continue work. However, once you start your lab again, a new lab instance will be deployed with all progress being refreshed - you won't be able to recover your previous lab instance once its lab timer runs out, so please watch the timer carefully while you attempt the lab and extend your instance if required to avoid losing your progress.

If you wish to manually deploy a new lab instance for yourself (i.e. before this is automatically done when the lab timer runs out) while working on a lab challenge (if for example, you have run into an error or simply wish to reset your lab progress), click Reset Lab. This will delete your current lab instance (and any progress along with it). Upon a brief loading period, your lab will return to Not Started status. You'll be able to start your lab again by clicking Start Lab. Once your lab has started up and is in Ready status again, you'll be able to begin working on your new lab instance.

If you would like to restart your current lab instance (rather than reset your lab to get a new lab instance), please raise a support ticket. The FifthDomain team will be able to restart your current lab instance for you.

Note that you can interact with labs in lab challenges for the entire duration of the assessment, or until you have solved the challenge (i.e. submitted the correct flag).

Once ready, you can enter a solution for the challenge by typing it into the Solution [3] text box and then clicking Submit [4]. You will then receive a message that states whether your solution was correct or incorrect.

You can close a challenge by clicking on the Cross icon, as shown in the image below.

You can see if a lab is attached to a challenge by opening the challenge and viewing the Lab Details [1] section.

You can start the lab by clicking the Start Lab [2] button.

***lab error

You will then be asked to confirm that you wish to start the lab. Click Start Lab [1] to start building your lab, or click Cancel [2] to close the modal message without starting the lab.

The lab may take several minutes to start up. Once the lab has started, you can connect to the lab's virtual machine via VDI by clicking the Connect to VM VDI [1] button. You can also see how much lab time you have remaining by viewing the time listed next to the Lab Time Remaining [2] heading.

If required, you can click Shutdown Lab [3] to power down the lab, or click Restart Lab [4] if you want to restart your lab again.

You can add notes to a challenge by opening the challenge and clicking on the Notes tab, as shown below.

Any notes saved on a challenge will be shared with your assessment organiser. Adding notes can let you tell your assessment organiser about how you approached the challenge, or what you might have tried if you had more time.

You can add notes by clicking the Add Notes button, as shown below.

You can then type your notes into the Text Box [1], before saving your notes by clicking Save [2]. Alternatively, you can click the Cancel [3] button if you do not wish to add notes.

You can also edit any notes that you left at any stage by returning to the Notes tab for a task and clicking the Edit Notes button, as shown below.

You can view the assessment message at any time during the assessment by clicking on the Overview tab, as shown in the image below.

You can access support for the Assessor platform by clicking on the Support icon, as shown in the image below. This will open up FifthDomain’s Service Desk. The Using Help & Support article provides more information on how to use the Service Desk.

You can submit your assessment before the end of your allocated time by clicking the Finish button, as shown in the image below.

A modal message will ask you to confirm that you wish to submit the assessment early. You can click the Finish Assessment [1] button to finish the assessment early. You will not be able to re-enter the assessment after you have submitted it. You can also close the modal without submitting an assessment by clicking the Cancel [2] button.