_Follow along with this video:_ --- ### Competitive vs Private Audits Before we get to our report, I want to illustrate what a competitive audit is, and how it may differ from a private audit. **_What is a competitive audit?_** Unlike a private audit, where a single security researcher (or a small team) would be working with a protocol directly, a competitive audit sees a protocol making their code base publicly available and having people compete to find vulnerabilities within it. I encourage you to checkout some of the past competitive audits on [**CodeHawks**](https://www.codehawks.com/contests), you can click 'View Final Report' To see a compilation of all the findings in a contest, who found it etc. In a competitive audit, you're competing to find _bugs_, you're paid if you find vulnerabilities. We can see how these payouts work by looking at the [**CodeHawks Docs**](https://docs.codehawks.com/). Findings rewards are ultimately broken down into shares and severity, where the system rewards finding more unique, difficult to find bugs. ::image{src='/security-section-4/44-what-is-a-competitive-audit/competitive-audit1.png' style='width: 75%; height: auto;'} You can also find examples of scenarios and calculations on the [**CodeHawks Docs**](https://docs.codehawks.com/hawks-auditors/payouts). **_How good are competitive audits?_** The quality of competitive audits has been found to be - incredible. To use a past contest on CodeHawks as an example, the Beedle-Fi audit resulted in a staggering number of findings. ::image{src='/security-section-4/44-what-is-a-competitive-audit/competitive-audit2.png' style='width: 75%; height: auto;'} Security reviews of this nature consistently find more bugs that private reviews _and_ they serve as the perfect platforms to gain experience and build your security researcher career. Many top security researchers started their careers in this space, and continue to compete in competitive audits throughout. Competitive audits are a tonne of fun, you can learn lots and of course you can win money. **_How do I start with competitive audits?_** I'm glad you asked! CodeHawks hosts events called [**First Flights**](https://www.codehawks.com/first-flights), and we're going to have you do some of these! First Flights are simplified code bases (just like Puppy Raffle) that have been built specifically to ease newcomers into the auditing process, familiarize them with how competitive audits work and afford auditors an effective avenue through which to learn and grow their skills with real world experience. One additional benefit to using competitive audits as a platform to improve your skills is, once one concludes, all the validated findings are viewable, allowing an auditor to see which vulnerabilities they missed and how others are reporting their findings. This is hugely valuable for those looking to expand their skills. In the next lesson we'll sign up for CodeHawks together!