diff --git a/apps/extension/src/lib/shell/profile-extractors/linkedin.extractor.ts b/apps/extension/src/lib/shell/profile-extractors/linkedin.extractor.ts
index 47741e9c..73b58e6d 100644
--- a/apps/extension/src/lib/shell/profile-extractors/linkedin.extractor.ts
+++ b/apps/extension/src/lib/shell/profile-extractors/linkedin.extractor.ts
@@ -75,9 +75,15 @@ function classifyLinkedInUrl(url: string): ProfileExtractorErrorCode | null {
   }
 }
 
-function extractLinkedInProfileFromDom(): LinkedInDomProfileSnapshot {
+export function extractLinkedInProfileFromDom(): LinkedInDomProfileSnapshot {
   const clean = (value: string | null | undefined): string =>
     (value ?? '').replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim();
+  // Specific, non-greedy: the bare words "challenge"/"checkpoint" are NOT block
+  // signals — they appear in legitimate profile prose ("I enjoy new challenges")
+  // and previously caused false `rate_limited_or_blocked` errors. Only
+  // challenge-page phrases qualify, and only when no profile sections are
+  // present (see the `hasProfileSections` guard below).
+  // See src/models/linkedin-import.model.md.
   const blockedReasonFromText = (value: string): string | null => {
     const text = value.toLowerCase();
     if (text.includes('security verification')) {
@@ -89,12 +95,12 @@ function extractLinkedInProfileFromDom(): LinkedInDomProfileSnapshot {
     if (text.includes('verify your identity')) {
       return 'identity verification required';
     }
+    if (text.includes('security check')) {
+      return 'security check required';
+    }
     if (text.includes('temporarily restricted')) {
       return 'temporarily restricted session';
     }
-    if (text.includes('checkpoint') || text.includes('challenge')) {
-      return 'linkedin checkpoint challenge';
-    }
 
     return null;
   };
@@ -146,11 +152,12 @@ function extractLinkedInProfileFromDom(): LinkedInDomProfileSnapshot {
   const about = sectionByHeading(['about', 'infos', 'à propos']);
   const experience = sectionByHeading(['experience', 'expérience']);
   const education = sectionByHeading(['education', 'formation']);
-  const blockedReason = blockedReasonFromText(clean(document.body?.innerText));
   const headline =
     text('.pv-text-details__left-panel .text-body-medium') ||
     text('[data-generated-suggestion-target]') ||
     text('main h1');
+  const experiences = sectionItems(experience).map(parseExperience);
+  const educationItems = sectionItems(education).map(parseEducation);
   const summary = about
     ? clean((about as HTMLElement).innerText).replace(/^about|^à propos/i, '')
     : '';
@@ -162,17 +169,27 @@ function extractLinkedInProfileFromDom(): LinkedInDomProfileSnapshot {
     }))
     .filter((link) => link.url.includes('linkedin.com') || !link.url.includes('/feed/'));
 
+  // Defensive guard: text-based block signals are authoritative only when the
+  // page has no parseable profile sections. A real profile that mentions
+  // "challenge" or "unusual activity" in its bio must NOT be treated as a
+  // checkpoint interstitial. `innerText` is preferred (layout-aware, ignores
+  // <script>/<style>); `textContent` is a fallback for undrawn/jsdom contexts.
+  const hasProfileSections =
+    Boolean(headline) || experiences.length > 0 || educationItems.length > 0;
+  const bodyText = clean(document.body?.innerText || document.body?.textContent || '');
+  const blockedReason = hasProfileSections ? null : blockedReasonFromText(bodyText);
+
   return {
     profileUrl: window.location.href,
     ...(blockedReason ? { blockedReason } : {}),
     sections: {
       headline,
       summary: clean(summary),
-      experiences: sectionItems(experience).map(parseExperience),
+      experiences,
       skills: allTexts('span[aria-hidden="true"], .pvs-list__item--with-top-padding')
         .filter((value) => value.length <= 80)
         .slice(0, 80),
-      education: sectionItems(education).map(parseEducation),
+      education: educationItems,
       links,
     },
   };
diff --git a/apps/extension/src/models/linkedin-import.model.md b/apps/extension/src/models/linkedin-import.model.md
index 9a676fd5..e8ebc86f 100644
--- a/apps/extension/src/models/linkedin-import.model.md
+++ b/apps/extension/src/models/linkedin-import.model.md
@@ -94,6 +94,26 @@ permission, `tab.url` is `undefined` and the URL classification would produce a
 misleading `profile_not_found`. With the permission granted (by the side panel
 gate), `tab.url` is readable for LinkedIn tabs.
 
+### Blocked-reason detection (DOM)
+
+`blockedReason` is computed inside `extractLinkedInProfileFromDom` (injected into
+the page). It is the **fallback** for challenge interstitials LinkedIn serves on
+a `/in/` URL without changing the URL — URL-path redirects to `/checkpoint/` or
+`/challenge/` are already caught earlier by `classifyLinkedInUrl`.
+
+Detection is **specific, not greedy**:
+
+- Block signals are challenge-page-specific phrases only: "security
+  verification", "unusual activity", "verify your identity", "temporarily
+  restricted", "security check".
+- The bare words "challenge" / "checkpoint" are NOT block signals: they appear
+  in legitimate profile prose (e.g. "I enjoy new challenges", "project
+  checkpoint") and previously caused false `rate_limited_or_blocked` errors that
+  blocked real imports.
+- Defensive guard: text signals are authoritative only when the page has no
+  parseable profile sections (no headline, no experiences, no education). A page
+  that yielded real profile sections is never treated as blocked on text alone.
+
 ## Invariants
 
 1. `chrome.permissions.request()` is called **only** from the side panel during
@@ -108,6 +128,10 @@ extracting → merging` sequence.
    null/unknown bridge responses (facade graceful handling).
 6. The LLM never decides a transition. It may only enrich extracted content in
    a dedicated AI worker. **Le LLM produit des signaux ; le modèle décide.**
+7. DOM block detection is specific: only challenge-page phrases are block
+   signals, and only when no profile sections are present. The bare words
+   "challenge" / "checkpoint" in body prose must NOT trigger a block — they
+   appear in legitimate profile text.
 
 ## Non-goals
 
diff --git a/apps/extension/tests/unit/profile-extractors/linkedin-dom.test.ts b/apps/extension/tests/unit/profile-extractors/linkedin-dom.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..99eb533f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/extension/tests/unit/profile-extractors/linkedin-dom.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+import { afterEach, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { extractLinkedInProfileFromDom } from '../../../src/lib/shell/profile-extractors/linkedin.extractor';
+
+type DomSnapshot = ReturnType<typeof extractLinkedInProfileFromDom>;
+
+function renderProfile(bodyHtml: string): void {
+  document.body.innerHTML = bodyHtml;
+}
+
+const PROFILE_WITH_CHALLENGE_IN_BIO = `
+<main>
+  <h1>Jane Doe</h1>
+</main>
+<section>
+  <h2>About</h2>
+  <p>Frontend engineer who thrives on new challenges and ambiguous problems.</p>
+</section>
+<section>
+  <h2>Experience</h2>
+  <ul>
+    <li>Lead Frontend\nScaleOps\n2020 — 2024\nParis</li>
+  </ul>
+</section>
+`;
+
+describe('extractLinkedInProfileFromDom — blocked-reason detection', () => {
+  afterEach(() => {
+    document.body.innerHTML = '';
+  });
+
+  it('does not block when a real profile mentions "challenge" in its About section', () => {
+    renderProfile(PROFILE_WITH_CHALLENGE_IN_BIO);
+
+    const snapshot: DomSnapshot = extractLinkedInProfileFromDom();
+
+    expect(snapshot.blockedReason).toBeUndefined();
+    // Headline + an experience section prove real profile sections were found,
+    // which is what the `hasProfileSections` guard keys on. (Line-level parsing
+    // of each <li> relies on `innerText` and is covered by the parser tests.)
+    expect(snapshot.sections.headline).toBe('Jane Doe');
+    expect(snapshot.sections.experiences).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+
+  it('does not block on "unusual activity" when real profile sections are present', () => {
+    renderProfile(`
+      <main><h1>Jane Doe</h1></main>
+      <section>
+        <h2>About</h2>
+        <p>I investigate unusual activity in distributed systems.</p>
+      </section>
+      <section>
+        <h2>Experience</h2>
+        <ul><li>SRE\nAcme\n2019 — 2024</li></ul>
+      </section>
+    `);
+
+    const snapshot: DomSnapshot = extractLinkedInProfileFromDom();
+
+    expect(snapshot.blockedReason).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(snapshot.sections.experiences).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+
+  it('blocks when LinkedIn serves a security-verification interstitial with no profile sections', () => {
+    renderProfile(`
+      <div>
+        <h1>Security verification</h1>
+        <p>Let's do a quick security check. Please verify your identity.</p>
+      </div>
+    `);
+
+    const snapshot: DomSnapshot = extractLinkedInProfileFromDom();
+
+    expect(snapshot.blockedReason).toBe('security verification required');
+    expect(snapshot.sections.experiences).toHaveLength(0);
+    expect(snapshot.sections.headline).toBe('');
+  });
+
+  it('does not treat the bare word "checkpoint" in profile prose as a block signal', () => {
+    renderProfile(`
+      <main><h1>Jane Doe</h1></main>
+      <section>
+        <h2>Experience</h2>
+        <ul><li>PM\nAcme\n2021 — 2024\nRan the quarterly project checkpoint</li></ul>
+      </section>
+    `);
+
+    const snapshot: DomSnapshot = extractLinkedInProfileFromDom();
+
+    expect(snapshot.blockedReason).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(snapshot.sections.experiences).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+});