Fall CTF 2025

What

Fall CTF is a 6-hour hacking competition for UIUC students hosted by SIGPwny. UIUC students of all backgrounds are welcome, including beginners! There will be challenges related to web hacking, reverse engineering, binary exploitation, and more! Plus, free food, free swag, and companies! Come learn and have fun with us!

Register now to get a free shirt and free pizza at Fall CTF! The first 250 registered attendees to show up will also get a free electronic PCB badge!

When/Where

Sunday, September 21st
12–6 PM
Campus Instructional Facility, room 3039/3031

Schedule

11:30 AM	-	Doors open
11:45 AM	-	Opening Ceremony
12:00 PM	-	CTF starts
1:00 PM	-	Pizza time! 🍕
6:00 PM	-	CTF ends
6:15 PM	-	Closing Ceremony

Rules

No sharing flags or solutions.
No attacking infrastructure (brute forcing the flag submission is not allowed).
No sabotaging other teams.
Teams are limited to two players each.
Teams that meet the requirements for the Advanced division must play in the Advanced division.
Unless specified otherwise, the flag format is fallctf{*}.

Divisions

The competition is divided into a Beginner and Advanced division to fairly distribute prizes. There are no differences in challenges or challenge difficulty between divisions—all challenges are designed to be approached by beginners.

Beginner Division

The beginner division is intended for underclassmen students who do not have much experience with CTFs, cybersecurity, or even computer science! We require teams with experience to compete in the Advanced division instead.

Advanced Division

If either you or your teammate:

Has taken CS 341 (previously CS 241), ECE 391, or an equivalent systems programming course
Is a graduate student
Has played in three or more CTFs

... then your team should be registered in the Advanced division. If you have some experience and would like to compete in the Advanced division, you can also choose to opt-in!

Prizes

Specific prizes to be announced!

Prize Distribution

The top 5 teams in each division are eligible for prizes. Each winning team may select two prize options with the following priority:

1st place Advanced Division
1st place Beginner Division
2nd place Advanced Division
2nd place Beginner Division
3rd place Advanced Division
3rd place Beginner Division
4th place Advanced Division
4th place Beginner Division
5th place Advanced Division
5th place Beginner Division

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I ask for help?

Join our Discord and open in a ticket in #fall-2025-open-a-ticket

What is a "capture the flag" (CTF) competition?

CTFs are cybersecurity competitions where teams solve hacking challenges to find a "flag," usually a formatted string. Flags can then be submitted to the competition platform for points. The more flags you capture, the more points you get!

What if I'm new to cybersecurity?

Fall CTF is designed for you! Specifically, Fall CTF is meant to be a fun learning experience for beginners rather than an intense competition. We provide guides for each challenge category which will teach you as you play. Additionally, we have a large number of staff to help you in-person if you feel stuck.

Are there any practice challenges? How can I prepare?

You can find beginner-friendly challenges similar to Fall CTF on Pwny CTF, which is SIGPwny's 24/7 internal CTF that runs alongside club meetings.

Can I work with others?

Fall CTF can only be played in teams of up to two. We keep team sizes small so that you have more opportunities to solve challenges! We also ask that teams do not share flags or solutions with each other. If you feel stuck, reach out to a staff member. On the day before the competition, we will be open team registration on our competition platform. Feel free to find a partner beforehand; otherwise, there will be plenty of opportunities before and during the event to find and form teams!

Help! How do I contact a staff member?

Join our Discord to be able to ask your question online. We have a ticketing system that you can use to privately message the Fall CTF team. Additionally, you can ask anyone in-person wearing a badge with a green lanyard for help.

How do tiebreaks work?

The leaderboard is first sorted by points. If any teams have the same number of points, then the team who submitted their latest flag earlier wins the tiebreak.

I heard that companies will be attending. Do I need a resume?

We will be offering a resume upload form as one of the challenges during the event. Uploaded resumes will be provided to our sponsors as a resume book. If you need help preparing a resume, feel free to ask for advice in our Discord or take advantage of campus career resources! Some of our sponsors will be attending in-person and will be available to talk to during the event.

I'm not from UIUC. Can I play Fall CTF?

Currently, Fall CTF registration is limited to UIUC students. If you are not from UIUC and wish to participate, please email hello@sigpwny.com for a manual review.