Cyber Range gives your students a live Linux terminal, real CTF-style challenges, and labs mapped to AP Cybersecurity standards. It's an add-on to CodeHS Pro.
AP Cybersecurity
Every lab maps to AP Cybersecurity learning objectives, so you can assign Cyber Range challenges knowing they support your curriculum goals. No retrofitting required.
Explore our AP Cybersecurity Course ›Authentic environments
Students run actual Linux commands in authentic environments, from a bare terminal up to a full GUI desktop on Ubuntu or Kali Linux for challenges that call for graphical tools. They build command-line fluency and troubleshooting instincts that carry into college and careers.
Capture the flag
Capture The Flag puzzles put students in problem-solving mode fast. The format rewards persistence and builds the analytical mindset real cybersecurity work demands.
Challenge topics
Cyber Range covers the full scope of cybersecurity, from foundational command-line work to advanced reverse engineering.
Students navigate the filesystem, run scripts, and manage processes, the foundation every cybersecurity practitioner builds on first.
Students work through encoding, XOR operations, and cipher-breaking to understand how data gets protected, and how to expose it when it isn't.
Students probe real web applications for vulnerabilities like insecure cookies and injection flaws, seeing firsthand how browser-based attacks work.
Students capture and analyze live traffic to understand how data moves across a network, and where it becomes exposed.
Students recover hidden data and reconstruct events the way investigators do, piecing together what happened and how.
Students disassemble compiled programs to uncover hidden logic and understand how software behaves beneath the surface.
Sample challenges
Every challenge is labeled by topic and difficulty, so you can assign the right lab at the right moment.
Use cd, ls, and pwd to work through a complex directory structure and find the hidden flag.
Apply XOR operations to decrypt an encoded message and reveal the secret flag.
Analyze captured network traffic to intercept and decode sensitive communications.
Inspect and manipulate browser cookies to bypass authentication and access restricted content.
The CodeHS Cyber Range is an interactive lab environment where students build real cybersecurity skills through hands-on, CTF-style challenges. Instead of only reading about security, students run real Linux commands, solve security puzzles, and capture flags across topics mapped to AP Cybersecurity standards, all inside CodeHS.
A capture-the-flag (CTF) challenge is a gamified security exercise where you solve a realistic problem to uncover a hidden "flag," a secret string that proves you cracked it. In the CodeHS Cyber Range, each CTF challenge presents a security scenario students work through, earning points as they find flags and progress through increasingly complex puzzles.
Yes. In the CodeHS Cyber Range, students work in authentic Linux environments where they run real commands, navigate file systems, manage permissions, and write shell scripts. These aren't watered-down simulations. Depending on the challenge, they may use a terminal only or a full desktop environment, as described in the lab environments question below. Students use the same command-line skills that translate directly to real-world cybersecurity work.
Challenges run in real Linux environments inside CodeHS, not simulations. Most labs use a Linux terminal for command-line work like permissions, scripting, and forensics. Some challenges add a Full GUI desktop in the browser for tools that need a graphical interface. Depending on the challenge, students may work in Ubuntu Linux or Kali Linux environments with the same authentic tooling used in industry and AP Cybersecurity coursework.
The CodeHS Cyber Range covers six core areas: Linux Basics, Cryptography, Web Security, Network Security, Forensics, and Binaries. Through hands-on challenges, students practice everything from command-line fundamentals and encryption to analyzing network traffic, investigating digital evidence, and exploring reverse-engineering basics.
Yes. Cyber Range challenges are aligned with AP Cybersecurity curriculum standards, giving students practical, hands-on experience with the concepts they'll need for the AP exam and beyond. As students work through the labs, they build the applied skills that reinforce what the AP Cybersecurity course covers.
No. Cyber Range runs inside CodeHS, so there's no specialized cybersecurity software to install or virtual machines to maintain. Students reach the lab environments through their CodeHS account, and the challenges run in the provided environments, so schools can offer authentic, hands-on security practice without extra hardware or IT setup.
The CodeHS Cyber Range keeps students engaged through gamified, CTF-style progression. Each challenge is a realistic security puzzle with a hidden flag to capture, and the difficulty ramps up as students advance. They earn points and build confidence with every flag they find, staying motivated through increasingly complex challenges.
Cyber Range is an add-on feature that enhances a CodeHS Pro subscription. It's separate from Pro itself. To get pricing and add it for your school or district, request a quote and our team will help you get started with hands-on cybersecurity education.
Cyber Range is an add-on feature separate from CodeHS Pro. Contact our team to get started with hands-on cybersecurity education.
