🔺TRIADA CTF ’25 — Behind the Hack
TRIADA CTF ’25 was one of the biggest things I’ve worked on so far. It took weeks of planning, a lot of late nights, and more time in the college lab than I’d like to admit.
How It Started
At first, when I started playing CTFs under the name TRIADA back in November 2024, I had this small plan to organize one in our college. It didn’t happen that time , and I didn’t have a full team and no one from our college knew about a thing called CTF.
Almost a year later, we had grown to six members, and this time, we finally made it happen.
It all started with a few of us sitting in the lab, talking about how cool it would be to host our own CTF under TRIADA. We wanted to do something practical for cybersecurity students in our college, something that would actually help them apply what they learn in class.
We’d been following CTF teams from other colleges and getting inspired by their work. At some point, we just asked ourselves, Why can’t we do it too?
So, we started building. At first, it was just a bunch of notes and rough ideas. Then came the challenges, then the infrastructure. We built everything on our own, and slowly, that random late-night idea started turning into a real event.
The Preparation
September was completely packed. Every day after class, we’d stay back in the lab. Sometimes we skipped lunch to test challenges or fix small bugs. We stayed late almost every evening. Most of the time, it was just three or four of us sitting there with our laptops, trying to make everything work properly.
We broke things more times than I can count. Some challenges didn’t load. But each time, someone found a fix. There were nights when we worked until security came to close the lab.
We also organized CTF training sessions for students who have no experice in CTFs before. We explained what a CTF is, how web and crypto challenges work, and walked them through examples. That helped a lot. Many of those students ended up participating in the main event.
The Event Day
Date: 27 September 2025 Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Venue: Computer Lab, Yenepoya Bangalore.
The event started with an inauguration attended by our Vice Principal, HODs, and program head. Once that was done, we launched the CTF live.
The room instantly changed. Every screen lit up with the TRIADA platform. People started solving challenges, googling clues, writing scripts. It was noisy, chaotic, and honestly one of the best moments I’ve experienced.
The Setup and Stats
Total Participants
73
Total Teams
53
Challenges
40
Categories
10+
Total Points
6519
Highest Score
1635
The challenges were divided into categories like Web, Cryptography, Forensics, Reverse Engineering, and Miscellaneous. Difficulty ranged from beginner-friendly to hard.
We hosted everything on our own TRIADA CTFd instance. The platform held up fine all day, which was a big relief after all the testing we had done.
Sponsors and Support
We were lucky to have support from companies like OtterSec, Caido, Altered Security, Parrot CTFs, and OffSec. They provided prizes, tools, and resources that made a real difference. For a college-level CTF, getting this kind of backing felt huge. It gave our event real credibility.
Results
1
cicada3301
1635
2
Team 47
1555
3
Boomarang
1470
4
Anomaly
1395
5
Che & Sid
1335
The top three teams received cash prizes and vouchers from our sponsors. The top team scored 1635 points out of 6519 — not bad considering some challenges were tough enough that no one solved them and it was thier first CTF.
What People Said
After the event, we went through all the feedback. It was positive overall. People liked the challenges, the flow, and how smooth the platform was.
Here are a few we got:
“CTF is the thing we learned — thank you TRIADA!” “Teamwork and new hacking skills — loved it!” “Everything seemed perfect, loved the challenges.” “Great platform and communication; more hints next time!”
The average challenge rating was 4.79/5, and difficulty was around 3.75/5. For a first major offline CTF, that made us very happy.
What We Learned
Running a CTF teaches you more than just cybersecurity. You learn project management, teamwork, patience, and problem-solving under pressure. We learned how to handle server issues in real-time, how to organize people, and how to communicate better.
Most of all, we learned what it takes to make something from scratch — and make it work.
Thanks
I want to thank everyone who made this CTF possible. Our Director, Principal, HODs, and faculty coordinators supported us from the beginning and trusted us to run something this big inside the college.
And, to every participant who joined, played, and made the event what it was — thank you for bringing the energy that kept us going all day.
And of course, We also want to thank our sponsors — OtterSec, Caido, Altered Security, Parrot CTFs, and OffSec for believing in a student-led event and helping us make it real.
What’s Next
We’re already preparing for TRIADA CTF ’26, happening on January 10th, 2026. The goal is to go bigger — more challenges, more teams, and better infrastructure.
TRIADA has always been about learning by doing. This event reminded us why we started in the first place.
See you next time.
Website: triada.in | LinkedIn: /triada | Instagram: @triadactf
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