ABOUT CTFLVIV 2026
International Student Cybersecurity Competition organized by Lviv National University and Cyber Defense Army.
01What is a CTF?
CTF (Capture-The-Flag) is a team-based cybersecurity competition where participants identify vulnerabilities, exploit them, and retrieve secret data (known as “flags”). Each captured flag earns a certain number of points based on the challenge difficulty. The team or individual with the highest score wins.
02Purpose and Skills
The international student CTF competition fosters practical cybersecurity skills, teamwork, and friendly rivalry among students. Participants gain hands-on experience in ethical hacking, programming, and penetration testing techniques.
03Challenge Categories
- Cryptography
- Forensics
- OSINT
- Application Security
- System Exploitation
- Reverse Engineering
- Internet
- Legal Policy
04Previous Events
Previous CTF editions have shown strong engagement from students. In 2024, the competition was held in a hybrid format and welcomed high school and university students from cybersecurity-related and other disciplines, who tackled challenges themed around defending against hybrid cyber threats.
More information: lvivctf.lnu.edu.ua
05Participants & Geography
The competition attracted participants from diverse backgrounds — from experienced teams such as Halmstad University (Sweden) to Ukrainian universities, including:
- State University of Telecommunications
- Lviv State University of Life Safety
- Halmstad University, Sweden
- Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada
- Erasmus Brussels University of Applied Sciences, Belgium
- Uzhhorod National University
- Politihøgskolen, Norway
- Khmelnytskyi National University
- La Haute École de Namur-Liège-Luxembourg, Belgium
- National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”
- and others