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Specialist Certificate · Bachelor's level · CPS-11

Web Application Quality and Security

For: Web developers, testers, integrators and technical leads who ensure the quality and security of the applications they deliver.

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Organisation over 20 weeks

Four 5-week blocks (4 weeks of classes, 1 week of assessment). The two course units are taken unchanged from the original degree: same content, same assessments.

  • Blocks 1 and 2 (weeks 1 to 10): QLT 243 — Software Quality, Testing and Programming Assistants
  • Blocks 3 and 4 (weeks 11 to 20): SEC 244 — Web Application Security

QLT 243 - Software Quality, Testing and Programming Assistants

Ensure that delivered code does what it should, whether it was written by the learner or suggested by an artificial intelligence assistant.

Learning outcomes

  • Design and automate tests at several levels.
  • Assess the quality of software using the model of the ISO/IEC 25010:2023 standard.
  • Develop with the support of artificial intelligence-based programming assistants, verifying, testing and justifying every suggestion accepted.
  • Identify the risks associated with programming assistants: errors, vulnerabilities, licences, data leakage.

Content

  • Test levels: unit, integration and end-to-end tests; test doubles.
  • Test-driven development; code coverage and its limits; regression testing.
  • Code quality: static analysis, conventions, code review; quality model of the ISO/IEC 25010:2023 standard.
  • Artificial intelligence programming assistants: how large language models work, writing prompts, limitations (incorrect answers, non-existent dependencies).
  • Rules of use: no secrets or personal data in prompts, checking the licences of suggested code, declaring the use in deliverables.
  • Comparative exercises: the same task with and without an assistant, critical review of the code produced.

Assessment: Continuous assessment (50%): automated test suite for an existing project (30%) and quality report based on ISO/IEC 25010:2023 (20%). Practical test (50%): assisted development, with a critical log of the suggestions accepted or rejected and of the risks identified.

SEC 244 - Web Application Security

Build security in from the design stage, where it costs least, rather than discovering it after an incident.

Learning outcomes

  • Integrate cybersecurity into the design choices for web applications and services.
  • Identify in an application the risks listed in the OWASP Top 10:2025 and propose countermeasures.
  • Implement robust authentication and secure management of secrets.
  • Apply common cryptographic primitives appropriately.

Content

  • Legal framework: loi n°2008-11 du 25 janvier 2008 (Cybercrime Act), loi n°2016-29 du 8 novembre 2016 (amending the Penal Code), Convention de Malabo (African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection); conditions set by the “Security testing and real data” clause of the programme framework.
  • Threat modelling: assets, attack surface, scenarios, measures.
  • OWASP Top 10:2025: broken access control, security misconfiguration, software supply chain failures, injection, insecure design and the other categories in the ranking.
  • Authentication: appropriate password hashing, multi-factor authentication, passkeys (WebAuthn), sessions and tokens, secure reset.
  • Applied cryptography: symmetric and asymmetric encryption, signatures, TLS, key and secret management.
  • HTTP security headers, content security policy, secure cookies.

Assessment: Continuous assessment (40%): exercises on vulnerable applications in a lab environment (20%) and marked practical on implementing multi-factor authentication with secret management (20%). Project (60%): secure design file (threat model, countermeasures and justified choice of cryptographic primitives).

Career opportunities

Web developer responsible for application quality and security, tester, software quality lead in a development team.

At your own pace: the self-paced pathway

In a class, this certificate takes 20 weeks, on the cohort's dates. On the self-paced pathway, you start whenever you like, online, and progress at your own pace. The price is the same.

Estimate how long my pathway will take

12 h / week · 240 hours in total
Duration
about 20 weeks
Estimated end
20 weeks after you start
Examination
Online, subject to available slots, no earlier than 20 weeks after you start
Payment
In 1 to 5 monthly instalments, as you choose

An indicative estimate, for a start today and 240 hours of work. You can change your pace along the way; the pathway must be completed within 60 weeks (about 14 months) of your start. Your e-Campus access opens with your first payment.

Admission

Experience of server-side web programming (second-year Bachelor's degree in computing level, or equivalent experience assessed on application). Admission based on application; detailed requirements set by the school.

The credits you earn are recognised without further assessment if you later join the programme they come from, Professional Bachelor's degree in Web Application Development, within a period set by the certificate regulations.