We Won 1st Place in a CTF — Here's What Capture The Flag Actually Is
We Won 1st Place in a CTF — Here's What Capture The Flag Actually Is
If you've never heard of a CTF before, you're not alone. Before I took the Ethical Hacking course at President University, I had no idea what it was either. Now, I can say it's one of the most intense and exciting things I've done as an IT student.
What is a CTF?
CTF stands for Capture The Flag — a type of cybersecurity competition where participants solve security challenges to find hidden strings of text called "flags." Each flag you find earns points. The team with the most points wins.
Challenges can cover a wide range of categories, including:
- Digital Forensics — analyzing files, images, and data for hidden information
- Web Exploitation — finding vulnerabilities in web applications
- Cryptography — decoding encrypted messages
- Reverse Engineering — analyzing compiled programs to understand what they do
Our Challenge — Digital Forensic
For the Final Exam of our Ethical Hacking course, our class competed in a CTF focused on Digital Forensic challenges. Our team was called "Rich People" — myself (Inria), Richie Wong, and Jesynta Harya.
The challenges required us to:
- Analyze digital artifacts and metadata to uncover hidden flags
- Investigate files and images using forensic tools and techniques
- Think creatively and methodically under time pressure
The Moment We Won
When the results came in and we saw our team at the top — it was a genuinely surreal moment. Winning a cybersecurity competition as an IT student, in a subject as complex as ethical hacking, felt like proof that the hours of studying and practicing actually paid off.
What CTF Taught Me
- Cybersecurity is not just theoretical — it's deeply hands-on and creative
- Teamwork under pressure is a completely different skill than teamwork in normal conditions
- Thinking like an attacker is the best way to understand how to defend
- The hacking you see in movies is nothing like real ethical hacking — real hacking requires patience, logic, and a lot of Googling
Should You Try CTF?
Absolutely — even if you're not a cybersecurity major. CTFs teach you problem solving, attention to detail, and how to stay calm under pressure. Many platforms like PicoCTF, Hack The Box, and TryHackMe offer beginner-friendly challenges you can try right now for free.
Who knows — you might just end up on top of the leaderboard.