What is the Participant Home Page?
The Participant Home Page is a dashboard-style page where participants can enter assigned events and see an overview of the cyber skills they have demonstrated on the platform.
When you log in to an account (in Participate mode), you'll be directed to your Participant Home Page, where you will be able to see the following sections - Events, Skills, Trophy Room, and Self-Reported Accomplishments. You'll also be able to see Challenge Contributions if you're affiliated to an organisation and have produced content for the organisation.
Note: As of May 2025, you can also see engagement data on the Participant Home Page. Please refer to the heading "View 9: Self Engagement" in this article for more information.
Reading your Score Overview
The score overview sits near the top of the Participant Home Page, and comprises of a number of scores and metrics related to your performance in events on the platform. These are your:
1 - FifthDomain Score
Your FifthDomain score (0-100) is a combined weighted sum of your Success, Efficiency, and Speed scores, with Success carrying the highest weightage.
2 - Success Score
Your Success Score (0-100) measures your ability to capture flags, taking into account points earned for solved challenges relative to overall points available.
3 - Efficiency Score
Your Efficiency Score (0-100) measures your ability to score points in challenges while minimising the number of attempts made.
4 - Speed Score
Your Speed Score (0-100) reflects your quickness in completing challenges within the allocated time for an event.
Navigating Events
The Events section shows your five latest active events, and latest assigned events. Click Enter to start or continue an event.
Navigating your Skills Snapshot
The Skills Snapshot section shows a current snapshot of your Cyber Skills Cortex. The Cyber Skills Cortex is a diagram which maps out the cyber skills you have demonstrated via successful completion of a challenge and/or lesson, against FifthDomain's Cynaptic Skills Adaptor.
What is the Cynaptic Skills Adaptor?
The Cynaptic Skills Adaptor maps FifthDomain content (challenges and lessons) to three components - Professional Specialties, Skills, and Proficiency levels.
When you complete a challenge or lesson, you showcase ability in that content piece's mapped Professional Specialty and Skill (at the set Proficiency level).
About Professional Specialties
Professional Specialties (also called Specialties) group all cyber skills demonstrable on the platform to overarching high-level cyber work specialisations. Each lesson on the platform is mapped to one of six Specialties.
📖 FifthDomain's Six Professional Specialties:
Intelligence: Cyber work which relates to the collection of information on the open or dark web outside of one's own network. This can include removing friendly information as an Operational Security (OPSEC) measure.
Penetration: Cyber work which relates to gaining unauthorised access and ability to make modification to a system.
Protection: Cyber work which relates to hardening one's own systems, identifying system configurations that protect from threats, and finding vulnerabilities.
Detection: Cyber work which relates to searching systems, sources, and information points to detect events, and identifying and moderating a comprehensive list of relevant observables.
Engineering: Cyber work which relates to building Security Operation Centre (SOC) technologies in order to make technologies better and faster.
Investigation: Cyber work which relates to the analysis of artefacts to derive Indicators of Compromise (IOCs), and reveal a full behaviours and capabilities.
What are Skills?
Each Professional Specialty is made up of Skills. Skills, as per the Cynaptic Skills Adaptor Framework, are a more granular set of abilities and knowledge related to a more specific area within cybersecurity. For example, the Log Analysis (LA) Skill is mapped to the Detection Professional Specialty.
There are currently approximately 30 Skills demonstrable on the platform, each mapped to one of the six Professional Specialties in the Cynaptic Skills Adaptor Framework.
Each challenge and lesson on the platform can be mapped to multiple Skills within the single Professional Specialty that it is mapped to. As an example, a Detection challenge or lesson may be mapped to the Log Analysis (LA) and Traffic Analysis (TA) Skills. However, it cannot be mapped to Skills outside of the Detection Professional Specialty.
What are Proficiency Levels?
Proficiency levels, per the Cynaptic Skills Adaptor Framework, determine a participant's level of ability in a particular Skill on the platform. There are five proficiency levels that participants can demonstrate on the platform. These are modelled from the Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition, and are described below:
📖 A quick overview of the Cynaptic Skills Adaptor Framework Proficiency Levels (drawn from the Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition):
Level 1 (Novice): Demonstration of a basic but incomplete understanding of a concept, and a mechanistic approach requiring supervision for relevant work completion.
Level 2 (Advanced Beginner): Demonstration of a working understanding of a concept, and a perception of required actions as steps. Those at this level can an complete simpler tasks independently.
Level 3 (Competent): Demonstration of a good working and background understanding of a concept, with contextual awareness. Those at this level are capable of independent work to an acceptable standard.
Level 4 (Proficient): Demonstration of deep understanding of a concept, complete with a holistic view of required actions. Those at this level consistently achieve high standards when performing relevant work.
Level 5 (Expert): Demonstration of authoritative and/or deep holistic understanding of a concept, complete with intuitive handling of routine relevant matters. Those at this level excel effortlessly when performing relevant work.
Each challenge and lesson on the platform is assigned one of the five proficiency levels within the Cynaptic Skills Adaptor Framework. Solving a challenge which tests a particular Skill at a particular proficiency level indicates that the solving participant is able to demonstrate that Skill at that proficiency level.
What is the Cyber Skills Cortex?
The Cyber Skills Cortex is a cyber skills map that conceptually mimics the structure and shape of the human brain. The diagram shows which Skills a participant has demonstrated, which Professional Specialties they align to, as well as which proficiency levels they have demonstrated Skills in.
The Cyber Skills Cortex is made up of six sections, with one section for each of the six Professional Specialties within the Cynaptic Adaptor Skills Framework.
Within the Cortex, each Professional Specialty has been subtly grouped in pairs according to similar functions.
The two Professional Specialties on the upper section of the Cortex (Intelligence and Penetration) are grouped together on the Cortex as they both relate to interacting with external devices, systems, information sources to achieve an outcome.
The two Professional Specialties on the middle section of the Cortex (Protection and Detection) are grouped together on the Cortex as they both relate to systems administration and operational work.
Finally, the two Professional Specialties on the lower section of the Cortex (Engineering and Investigation) are grouped together on the Cortex as they both relate to assembling and disassembling systems, artefacts, and their accompanying information.
Each Professional Specialty section on the Cortex is made up of its relevant Skills. Each Skill is allocated a dedicated row on the Cortex (each row contains five squares), with one square for each of the five proficiency levels demonstrable for each Skill (these squares are called Skill-Proficiency squares). The row of numbers at the top of the Cortex diagram represent the five proficiency levels.
There are two sets of proficiency levels on the Cortex, each increasing in level from the central spine of the Cortex, and dividing the Cortex into a left and right section. The set of proficiency level numbers on the left of the Cortex span from the centre to the left, and the set on the right span from the centre to the right.
How could I use the data in my Cyber Skills Cortex?
The data shown within your Cyber Skills Cortex may be useful to you for the following:
Awareness of Skillset: being able to see a clear visualisation of your current cyber skill set may help you to understand your current strengths, as well as areas needing improvement.
Career Development: by identifying gaps in skills, your Cyber Skills Cortex may be helpful to you to identify targeted learning and training initiatives you may wish to pursue to advance your career in cybersecurity.
Work Alignment: understanding your cyber skillset may help you to choose to align your capabilities with specific roles and responsibilities in the cyber domain, enhancing your potential job suitability and performance.
Goal Setting: the Cortex may act as a roadmap which you can use to set personal cyber skills development goals, and track progress in acquiring new skills at different proficiency levels over time.
Adaptability: staying aware of your cyber skill set may be important for you to continually adapt to new technologies and emerging threats effectively.
How do I read my Cyber Skills Cortex?
Your Cyber Skills Cortex within your Skills Snapshot (on your Participant Home Page) shows a current snapshot of all the cyber skills you have demonstrated on the FifthDomain platform across all the assessments and competitions you have participated in.
Understanding Blank vs Filled Skill-Proficiency Squares
All Skill-Proficiency squares that you have not demonstrated challenge/lesson completion in in will be blank on your Cortex diagram.
Once a challenge/lesson has been completed, the Skill-Proficiency square relevant to it should be filled in. The intensity of the colour in a Skill-Proficiency square is determined by the number of unique challenge/lesson completions demonstrated. The darker the colour of a square, the more unique challenges/lessons relevant to that square you have completed. Each time a challenge/lesson is completed, its relevant Skill-Proficiency square will darken by one shade.
Note that completing the same challenge/lesson across different events will only count once in the challenge's relevant Skill-Proficiency square.
Activating Tooltips over Skill-Proficiency Squares
To view more details about a specific Skill-Proficiency square, simply hover your mouse over it. Upon hover over a square you will be able to see the following details:
Full Skill Name
Proficiency Level
Total Solves
Last Activity
In the example below, hovering over the square [1] for SOC Tech Deployment (TD) at the Level 1 (Novice) level activates a tooltip [2] which spells out the full name of the Skill (i.e. expanding from the acronym "TD"), the proficiency level of the square being viewed, the total number of solves achieved for Level 1 SOC Tech Deployment challenges, and the date, month, and year of the most recent relevant solve.
Understanding Links between Proficiency Levels for a Skill
It is important to note that demonstrating a Skill at a higher proficiency level is considered in the logic of the Cortex diagram to also contribute to one's ability to demonstrate the same Skill at lower proficiency levels.
Therefore, note that solving a challenge at a proficiency level higher than Level 1 (Novice) will also contribute to increased colour shade intensity of relevant mapped Skills at lower proficiency levels.
For instance, solving a Level 3 (Competent) Intrusion Detection (ID) challenge will lead to the Level 3 (Competent) Intrusion Detection (ID) Skill-Proficiency square deepening by a shade. Simultaneously, solving this challenge will also cause the Level 1 (Novice) and Level 2 (Advanced Beginner) Intrusion Detection (ID) Skill-Proficiency squares to also deepen.
Due to this logic, Skill-Proficiency squares will always be visually displayed as darker from the central spine of the Cortex, to lighter towards the left and right sides.
Understanding Skills Degradation over Time
Skills naturally degrade over time without consistent application and/or practice - the logic of the Cyber Skills Cortex takes this into account. Skill-Proficiency squares will lose their number value and colour intensity after a certain period of time. The number of months until degradation of a Skill-Proficiency square occurs depends on proficiency.
📖 Note: The list below outlines how Skill-Proficiency square number value and colour shades will lose their intensity according to their proficiency levels:
Level 1 (Novice) squares will lose their number value by 1, and colour intensity by 1 shade every 2 months.
Level 2 (Advanced Beginner) squares will lose their number value by 1, and colour intensity by 1 shade every 3 months.
Level 3 (Competent) squares will lose their number value by 1, and colour intensity by 1 shade every 5 months.
Level 4 (Proficient) squares will lose their number value by 1, and colour intensity by 1 shade every 8 months.
Level 5 (Expert) squares will lose their number value by 1, and colour intensity by 1 shade every 13 months.
As an example, if a user has solved 5 x Log Analysis (LA) challenges at Level 5 (Expert), their Level 5 LA Skill-Proficiency square would have the number 5 inside it, and the square would be five shades deep. If the user had solved 2 of these challenges 13 months ago, and 3 of them less than 13 months ago, then, when the user next logs in (assuming they have not solved any further Level 5 LA challenges), their Level 5 LA Skill-Proficiency square would have the number 3 inside of it, and the square would be 3 shades deep.
This is because 13 months have passed since the user last solved the first 2 Level 5 LA challenges, so skills degradation will have taken place. After this degradation occurs, the only way for the user to go back to having the number 5 in their Level 5 LA square (as well as having the square be 5 shades deep) is for them to solve an additional 2 x LA Level 5 challenges, keeping skills degradation at bay.
Understanding your Most Aligned Specialty and Top Skills Demonstrated
Next to your Cyber Skills Cortex diagram, you will be able to view your Most Aligned Specialty [1], and your Top Skills Demonstrated [2].
Your Most Aligned Specialty is calculated using a formula which takes into account the proficiency levels of challenges you have solved within a Professional Specialty, as well as the number of unique Skills demonstrated (via relevant challenge solves) within each Professional Specialty.
Your Top Skills Demonstrated are the Skills in which you have demonstrated the highest number of relevant solves across the proficiency levels.
How do I interact more with my skills data?
Note that the Cyber Skills Cortex diagram on your Participant Home Page shows a current snapshot of all Skill-Proficiency squares that you have filled in on your Cortex to date. However, to view your progression over time, and see your performance-related scores and metrics, you can click the 'View Skills Overview' button. This will take you to your Skills Overview page, which shows you a more detailed and interactive view of your skills and performance data.
Viewing my Achievements
The Trophy Room
The Trophy Room is a page where you can view all the trophies you can earn through specific activities on the platform, such as participating in competitions and assessments. Trophies recognise your achievements on the platform, and in the Trophy Room, you can see the trophy tiers you have earned, track your progress toward the next trophy tiers, and find information on how to unlock the tiers that you have yet to achieve. To know more about trophies on FifthDomain platform, read this article.
Challenges Contributions
📌Important note: This section will appear for you only if you meet all the following conditions:
You are affiliated with an organisation.
You have been granted the "Create Content" permission in the affiliated organisation.
You have created at least one published challenge.
If you were previously affiliated with an organisation and met these conditions at that time, you will still see this section. This means if you had the "Create Content" permission in your previously affiliated organisation and had created at least one published challenge, you will see the Challenges Contribution section.
This section allows you to see all the challenges you have created on the FifthDomain platform. The card displays the total number[1] of challenges you have created, including those from previous and current affiliations. To view the detailed challenges information, click the View[2] button.
Clicking on the "View" button brings up the expanded view of the challenges you have created. The modal contains two tabs:
Challenges List [1]:
Under this tab, you will find a list of the challenges you have created. This includes:
Challenge Names: Titles of the challenges.
Proficiency Levels: The skill level required for each challenge.
Professional Specialties: The specific areas of expertise each challenge focuses on.
Challenges Composition [2]:
Under this tab, you will find graphical representations of the challenges:
Professional Specialty Composition: A donut chart showing the distribution of challenges across different professional specialties. Hovering over each segment provides more details.
Proficiency Composition: A donut chart displaying the breakdown of challenges by proficiency levels, indicating the number and percentage of challenges for each level.
Type Composition: A chart showing the split between lab-based and static challenges, with the number and percentage of each type.
To close the modal, click the Close[3] button at the bottom right corner.
