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About picoCTF

pico logo

picoCTF is the largest cybersecurity hacking contest for middle and high school students, created by security experts at Carnegie Mellon University.

pico categories

In this contest, participants need to overcome a set of challenges from six domains of cybersecurity including general skills, cryptography, web exploitation, forensics, etc. The challenges are all set up with the intent of being hacked, making it an excellent, legal way to get hands-on experience.

Our history

pico timeline

Our Research

Research Vision

Big Learning, Small Challenges

If we cannot make learning cybersecurity easy, then we will make it fun.

Past Papers
  • pico-Boo!: How to avoid scaring students away in a CTF competition (2019)
  • Automatic Problem Generation for Capture-the-Flag Competitions (2015)
  • picoCTF: A Game-Based Computer Security Competition for High School Students (2014)
  • picoCTF: Teaching 10,000 High School Students to Hack (2013)
  • picoCTF 2013 - Toaster Wars: When interactive storytelling game meets the largest computer security competition (2013)
Learn More

Open Source Development

picoCTF is an open source project. We’re welcoming to any comments and contributions!

Visit Github Repo

Who we are

  • Current Team
  • Past Team Members
no-photo Lorrie Cranor CyLab Director / Faculty Advisor
David Brumley photo David Brumley Faculty Advisor / Founder
no-photo Hanan Hibshi Research Advisor
Megan Kearns photo Megan Kearns Project Manager
Maverick Woo photo Maverick Woo Technical Director
no-photo Dustin Martin Software Engineer
no-photo Ivan Liang Developer
Luke Jones Luke Jones Education Lead
Samuel Sabogal Pardo Samuel Sabogal Pardo Education Research Assistant
no-photo John Johnson Problem Dev Student Lead
Heather Kelley Heather Kelley Faculty Advisor, ETC
Ruth Comley Ruth Comley Faculty Advisor, ETC
Jiadai He Jiadai He Co-producer, Programmer
Lianzheng Luo Lianzheng Luo Co-producer, Game Development
Andrew McLamb Andrew McLamb Game Designer, Game Development
Chonghui Sun Chonghui Sun Programmer, Game Development
Tianheng Sun Tianheng Sun Game Team
Muzi Wang Muzi Wang Game Team
no-photo Hannah Pearson Graduate Research Assistant
no-photo Alejandro Cuevas Villalba Graduate Research Assistant
no-photo Arjun Brar Graduate Research Assistant IoT
no-photo Emma Hogan Undergraduate Intern, CMU REUSE program
no-photo Thelford Williams Undergraduate Intern, CMU REUSE program
Daniel Tkacik Communications Lead
Michael Lisanti Sponsorship Lead
Terri Deasy Sponsorships
  • Doug Sicker: CyLab Director / Faculty Advisor
  • Martin Carlisle: Education Director
  • Kentrell Owens Research: Assistant
  • Mike Annichiarico: Technical Advisor
  • Alex Fulton Problem: Development Lead
  • Daniel Tunitis: Problem Development Lead
  • Sanjay Chandrasekaran: Education &: Problem Developer
  • Archit Agarwal: Problem Developer/Education Team RA
  • Joonjae Bang: Problem Developer
  • Jay Bosamiya: Problem Developer
  • Alex Bushkin: Problem Developer
  • Santiago Carvajal: Problem Developer
  • Kevin Cooper: Problem Developer
  • John Davis: Problem Developer
  • Julio De La Cruz Natera: Problem Developer
  • Rachel Eaton: Problem Developer
  • Austin Gadient: Problem Developer
  • John Hammond: Problem Developer
  • Mark Haase: Problem Developer
  • Chris Hensler: Problem Developer
  • John Johnson: Problem Developer
  • Jason Lee: Problem Developer
  • Austin McWhirter: Problem Developer
  • Nathan Montierth: Problem Developer
  • Thomas Nguyen: Problem Developer
  • Xingyang Pan: Problem Developer
  • Bill Parks: Problem Developer
  • Jenish Rakholiya: Problem Developer
  • Sam S.: Problem Developer
  • Zach Wade: Problem Developer
  • Wai Tuck Wong: Problem Developer
  • Carolina Zarate: Problem Developer
  • Victoria Zheng: Problem Developer
  • Claude Zou: Problem Developer
  • Sam Dlinn: Problem Developer
  • Michael F.: Problem Developer
  • Rintaro Fujita: Problem Developer
  • Everett Montano: Problem Developer
  • Corwin de Boor: Problem Developer
  • Sam Damashek: Problem Developer
  • Matt Savage: Problem Developer
  • Carson Sestili: Problem Developer
  • Val Choung: Problem Developer
  • Magian Li: Producer, Game Development
  • Tina Han: Artist & Writer, Game Development
  • Max Hsieh: Lead Programmer, Game Development / Research Assistant
  • Brian Teng: Lead Designer, Game Development
  • Peilin Li: Producer
  • Rajat Gupta: Designer
  • Guangya Niu: Artist
  • Himanshu Telkikar: Programmer
  • Yu (Lotus) Li: Programmer
  • Ramya Sriraman: Programmer
  • Alaina Duty: Social Media
  • Yaamika Dedhia: Tech Team Research Assistant
  • Aaron Mortenson: Tech Team Research Assistant
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