Is cybersecurity a good path if I enjoy problem-solving more than pure coding?

Posted by AbaloneRare3239@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 11 comments

I started a beginners cybersecurity course online(on YouTube). Its not what I thought it would be.

I expected it to be about coding but its more about understanding systems finding bugs and figuring out why things don't work.

There is some coding involved. Its not the main part of the course at least not yet.

This made me wonder:

If you like solving problems analyzing systems and fixing issues more than building apps is cybersecurity a better path, than traditional software development?

I'd love to hear from people who have tried both.

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kenuffff@reddit

I don’t know what cyber security people do now, but in the 90s you needed to know how to code to write exploits

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Cyber security is good if you like analysing risks, performing business impact analysis, making presentations to leadership and telling users that security will not be compromised for cost or their convenience.

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Striking_Rate_7390@reddit

you can go in sosftware development or in quant field but it requires good maths tho!

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PlanZSmiles@reddit

Nice, this is actually a topic I can speak on from personal experience.

OP I’m a security architect that just migrated from being an IAM Developer. Basically used to extend an identity access management vendor software by integrating external and internal apps, developing custom workflows and automations, and even a new internal application. Late last year I was promoted to my new position Security Architecture role and before this I was never expecting to be in Cybersecurity for my career but here I am.

I personally do not suggest just hopping into cybersecurity from the get go. It’s a field that requires a lot of domains of knowledge and without having a deep understanding of one; you’re constantly going to feel like you’re catching up. But, I don’t want to discourage you either. If you’re insanely sharp and feel like you can manage learning a lot and not get overwhelmed then try and aim for a pen tester role. But if you feel like the breadth is too much, and imo it is, you should aim for a domain such as IAM development or networking, or Cloud infrastructure, and build up from there. You can always aim for a Cyber role later in your career and your experience will benefit you.

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Bason-Jateman@reddit

Yeah it actually fits that description pretty well, cybersecurity is more like solving puzzles. you keep poking at “why did this happen,” it’s a different mindset than coding.

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Lower-Instance-4372@reddit

that’s exactly what cybersecurity leans into, less about building apps and more about thinking like a detective, understanding systems, and figuring out how things break, so it sounds like a pretty natural fit for you.

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PerformerNo4484@reddit

honestly both paths involve problem solving, just different kinds. in cybersecurity you're breaking things and figuring out why they broke. in software dev you're building things and figuring out why they don't work. same brain, different direction.

the coding part in cybersecurity comes later when you get into things like writing scripts to automate scans, building custom tools, or doing actual penetration testing. the early stuff is more about understanding how networks and systems are designed so you can find the weak spots.

if you enjoy the detective work more than the building work then yeah cybersecurity might be a better fit. but don't think of it as "no coding required" because eventually you'll need python at minimum and understanding code helps a lot when you're trying to find vulnerabilities in someone else's code.

try both for a few months before committing. build a small app and also try some CTF challenges on TryHackMe or HackTheBox. whichever one makes you lose track of time is your answer.

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Nice-Essay-9620@reddit

Software development is mostly about building features from the ground up, there is problem solving involved, but it's more structured and you have to think on how to implement a feature or design the architecture and so on

Cybersecurity focuses on breaking, analyzing, and safeguarding systems. You don't have a clear path, no specification, and you have to figure out things like a puzzle. It's problem solving too, but another kind of problem solving

Also in cybersecurity, you need to know way more theory compared to coding, how things work under the hood. You need a lot of theoretical knowledge - Operating system, networking, low level details, memory management and how things are implemented in the real world.

It depends on what kind of problem solving you want to do - whether it's implementation related, or more about solving puzzles with no clear instructions

Also you do need to learn to code for cybersecurity - automation scripts, writing exploits, etc, but it's not the main focus

You can try this site to get a feel of cybersecurity

https://tryhackme.com/

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AbaloneRare3239@reddit (OP)

This actually makes a lot of sense to me especially the difference between puzzle and implementation. I had not really thought about it in that way

My main concern is whether it is better to keep building a coding foundation first or to go deeper into systems and cybersecurity concepts early, on with cybersecurity.

I also appreciate the suggestion to try TryHackMe. I have heard about TryHackMe. I have not tried TryHackMe yet. Did you personally find TryHackMe helpful when you were starting out with cybersecurity and TryHackMe?

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Nice-Essay-9620@reddit

I have tried it before, but didn't find cybersecurity that interesting, so I stopped doing it

I found that I'm more interested writing code and designing applications

Also it's better you do them both in parallel, you do need to learn about how the OS or network works, so usually C / Python is preferred (C is better if you want deeper understanding, but it's harder), so you can maybe start out with C, then later switch to Python after you understand how a computer works internally

You can also follow this roadmap (This site has roadmaps for a lot of other fields too, so you can get an idea of what it's about)

https://roadmap.sh/cyber-security

Also learn a bit of linux and using the command line (you can install WSL if on windows)

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AbaloneRare3239@reddit (OP)

Happy to share the YouTube Playlist link if anyone wants it