picoCTF Returns in 2026 with more challenges, more prizes, and a global call to hack for good

Next month, students around the world will once again put their cybersecurity skills to the test as picoCTF launches its 2026 online capture-the-flag competition.

Designed for middle school, high school, and college students, picoCTF transforms cybersecurity education into an interactive, gamified experience. Participants reverse-engineer programs, decrypt messages, exploit vulnerabilities, and think creatively to solve real-world inspired challenges, all in pursuit of digital “flags” that earn points on the global scoreboard.

The 2026 competition kicks off March 9 and runs for 10 days. Registration is free and open now at picoctf.org.

Now entering its 13th year, picoCTF has introduced nearly one million learners worldwide to cybersecurity fundamentals, becoming one of the largest free cybersecurity education initiatives in the world in the process.

“picoCTF is unique because it is a free cybersecurity education platform from Carnegie Mellon, and it’s helping to build nationwide capacity for cybersecurity, filling a desperate need in the process,” said Megan Kearns, picoCTF program director. “It’s a proven way to skill up, and it’s suitable for participants from middle school through industry, whether you want to learn something new or change careers.”

The competition serves as both an entry point and a proving ground. For beginners, it offers hands-on exposure to concepts like cryptography, web exploitation, forensics, binary exploitation, and reverse engineering. For more advanced players, it provides increasingly complex challenges that simulate the kinds of thinking required in real-world cybersecurity roles.

This year’s competition will feature more challenges than ever before, thanks to an expanded development effort from the picoCTF team. With a wider range of problems available, participants will have more opportunities to test their skills across multiple categories.

In addition, the prize structure has been reworked to recognize more teams. Rather than concentrating awards among only a handful of top finishers, the 2026 competition will distribute prizes more broadly across high-performing teams.

“The goal is to make the competition more engaging and rewarding for a larger number of participants,” said Kearns.

While the 10-day competition is the marquee event, picoCTF’s impact extends year-round. Its 24/7 picoGym platform allows learners across the globe to practice with both newly released and archived challenges from previous competitions.

The platform also offers guided learning resources and a monthly YouTube lecture series designed to introduce core cybersecurity concepts in an accessible way.

“In order to keep the platform free to all users, we rely on community funding, including industry sponsors, foundations and government grants,” said Kearns. “Maintaining this as publicly accessible and free is essential to building capacity in the United States and across the world, because there aren’t enough programs available, and there are even fewer that are free and that have the type of reliable content that you get from the security experts at CMU.”

The stakes are high. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, the demand for skilled professionals continues to outpace supply. Programs like picoCTF help close that gap by making a quality cybersecurity education accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

“Students don’t need prior experience to get started, just curiosity, persistence, and a willingness to learn,” said Kearns.

For many participants, picoCTF is more than a competition. It’s a first step toward a cybersecurity major, an internship, or a full-time career in the field. Educators often incorporate the competition into classrooms and clubs, and industry recruiters frequently look to capture-the-flag participation as evidence of hands-on problem-solving ability.

Whether you’re brand new to cybersecurity or ready to test advanced skills against a global field of competitors, picoCTF offers a welcoming, challenging, and fun way to grow.

Create your free account today at picoctf.org, mark your calendar for March 9, and get ready to capture the flag.