EC-Council · Intermediate · 20 hands-on challenges in a 6-hour, remotely proctored session inside EC-Council’s iLabs range. It is open-book. You need roughly 70% — about 14 of 20 challenges — to pass. There is no written report component.

CEH Practical — Certified Ethical Hacker (Practical)

CEH Practical is the hands-on exam that sits alongside the multiple-choice CEH. You attack live target machines in a browser-delivered lab and answer challenge questions with evidence from the boxes. Passing both CEH and CEH Practical earns the CEH Master designation. It is the answer to the standard criticism that CEH tests reading, not doing.

Last updated: 6 August 2026

The facts

Vendor	EC-Council
Level	Intermediate
Format	20 hands-on challenges in a 6-hour, remotely proctored session inside EC-Council’s iLabs range. It is open-book. You need roughly 70% — about 14 of 20 challenges — to pass. There is no written report component.
Cost	Mid band. The Practical voucher is usually cheaper than the main CEH voucher and is often sold in a Master bundle with it. Some packages include iLabs practice time, which is the part actually worth paying for. Prices differ by region and partner, so confirm with EC-Council directly.
Validity / renewal	Three years, on the same ECE credit and annual membership cycle as CEH. CEH Master status depends on both underlying certifications staying current.
Prerequisites	No separate experience application is required beyond EC-Council’s standard candidate process, and you may sit it without holding CEH first. Realistically you need working command of Nmap, Wireshark, Metasploit, Burp Suite, hash cracking and basic web and Windows attacks, because six hours is not long enough to learn tools during the exam.

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Is it worth it?

It proves you can actually run the tools under time pressure, which the theory paper does not. For candidates in India whose employers screen on CEH but whose interviewers want evidence of hands-on ability, CEH Master is a reasonable bridge — you clear the HR filter and have something practical to talk about. It is also a sane rehearsal for harder practical exams later.

The downside

The challenges are tool-driven and fairly guided compared with a real engagement: you are answering questions about targets, not planning and reporting an assessment. It does not carry OSCP-level respect among practitioners, and stacking it on top of CEH makes an already expensive credential more expensive. Six hours is tight if your tooling workflow is slow.

Compared to

Versus	Verdict
CEH	CEH gets you through resume screening; CEH Practical is what makes the claim defensible in a technical interview. If you can only do one and you already have a job offer pipeline that names CEH, do CEH; if you want the skill signal, Practical is the better half of the pair.
eJPT	Both are entry-to-intermediate hands-on exams. eJPT gives you 48 hours and costs far less; CEH Practical gives you six hours and carries the EC-Council brand that Indian HR recognises. eJPT is better value as pure training, CEH Practical is better for the badge.
OSCP	Not the same league. OSCP is a full 24-hour assessment with a professional report and an Active Directory chain. CEH Practical is a challenge quiz on live boxes. Treat CEH Practical as a stepping stone, never as an OSCP substitute.

Where we fit

Our CEH-aligned course is heavily lab-based, so the tool workflow it builds — enumeration, exploitation, password attacks, web testing — is the same workflow this exam measures. We do not issue CEH Practical or CEH Master, we are not an accredited EC-Council centre, and we do not resell vouchers. Booking and payment happen with EC-Council. Amit Kumar holds CEH.

We issue no vendor certification and resell no exam vouchers. Buy from the vendor.

CEH Practical — FAQs

What is the difference between CEH and CEH Practical?

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CEH is a 125-question multiple-choice exam about ethical hacking concepts. CEH Practical is a six-hour hands-on exam where you attack real machines in EC-Council’s iLabs environment and answer 20 challenges based on what you find. Passing both awards CEH Master.

Do I need to pass CEH before taking CEH Practical?

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You do not have to hold CEH to sit the Practical, though most candidates do them in order because the theory syllabus maps onto the challenges. You only get the CEH Master designation once both are passed and current.

Is CEH Practical hard?

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It is moderate. The individual challenges are not exotic, but six hours goes quickly and there is no partial credit for a half-finished approach. Candidates who fail usually lose time to environment problems or to searching for commands they should already know cold.

CEH Practical ke liye kitni practice chahiye?

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Agar aap roz labs karte ho to do se teen mahine kaafi hain. Nmap scanning, Wireshark se traffic padhna, SQL injection, hash cracking aur Windows privilege escalation — ye sab bina Google kiye aana chahiye, kyunki exam mein 20 challenges sirf 6 ghante mein karne hote hain.

Not sure if CEH Practical is the right next step?

Free call. If the honest answer is a cheaper certification, or six more months of lab work before you pay anyone, that is what you will hear.

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