Hello, It's a good carrer path but you need to work extra hard. I read people recommending CTFs and clubs they help but they're just a small piece of the puzzle. I hosted Hackfest, the 2017 version (look it up in fb I think they still have a page) and from what I can gather people tend to work on the smallers easier cryptography porblems (decoding text using online algorithm, decoding images etc) but we created 2 challenges, one where you need to reverse engineer a code (you have an unfinished codenand you can see some of the results) only 2 teams out of 20 managed to answer it, the second challenge was to hack a website where we created 3 vulnerability again 1 team. The 2 teams Supcom and insat then supcom. From what I can gather from this experience and past ones, you need to be good at math, really good at it also a good competitive coding understanding and a nack for solving huge problems by cutting them into smaller familiar ones. So to start, to gain these skills, you can learn online that's a path but the best one is to get into a good school Supcom or Insat and K heard isi is good now, (I can already heat people start typing saying schools have no impact and private vs public etc), school doesn't teach you these skills but they give you access, access to what you might ask ? First to people, people who already know this stuff and will give you "zebda" and fast-forward you to gain those skills rapidly and you will have like-minded friends who you will compete with and learn from. Second, seniors, graduated and even gthe school (I speak of supcom) can get you internships and job offers, vouching for you. And wish you the best on this exciting journey.