UCLA Ignites Cyber Brilliance with Groundbreaking LA CTF Competition

At a glance

• UCLA hosts the LA CTF (Capture the Flag) cybersecurity competition in a hybrid format.
• The event is meant to build students’ security skills.
• Participants work through hands-on challenges based on real security problems.
• The competition connects students with industry professionals.
• It is organized by the UCLA chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery.

A capture-the-flag contest at UCLA

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) runs its own Capture the Flag (CTF) competition, LA CTF. The hybrid event mixes in-person and online play. It challenges participants with hard puzzles and connects future security workers with people already in the industry. Contests like this give students practice they rarely get in class, because a semester course can cover cryptography in theory while a CTF forces you to break a badly built cipher at two in the morning with a team waiting on you.

How the hybrid format works

LA CTF uses a hybrid model so players can compete on site or remotely. It is run by UCLA’s chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), which keeps the event open to students who cannot travel. The tasks mimic real attacks and build skills students will use on the job.

Challenges drawn from real attacks

The LA CTF focuses on practical problems. They are hard. Competitors move through reverse engineering, cryptography and network security tasks, hunting for hidden “flags” planted inside virtual systems.

Meeting people in the field

The LA CTF is also a place to meet people. Students talk with industry professionals and get advice from experienced practitioners. Those conversations help connect classroom learning with real work, show students possible career paths and can lead to internships and jobs.

Who runs it

The UCLA ACM chapter leads the event, with help from faculty and industry partners. Each year’s contest builds on the last.

How to take part

LA CTF gives UCLA students a serious training ground and a way into the industry. Students elsewhere can join remotely through the hybrid format. Anyone interested should watch the ACM at UCLA cyber group’s announcements for registration dates and practice problems from past years. Employers looking for interns can sponsor challenges or send engineers to judge.

Fred Templeton, CISA, CASP, SEC+

Fred Templeton is a practicing Information Systems Auditor in the Washington DC area. Fred works as a government contractor and uses his skills in cyber security to make our country's information systems safer from cyber threats. Fred holds a master's degree in cybersecurity and is currently working on his PHD in Information Systems.