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picoCTF 2026 Recap: Top 10% Finish

2026-06-10  //  by Sam Okafor

Three of our teams finished in the top 10% of over 7,000 teams worldwide. Here's what worked and what we're changing for next year.

What worked

  • Specialization. Each team member owned a category (web, crypto, forensics, pwn) instead of everyone swarming the same challenge.
  • The shared notes doc. Half our solves came from someone recognizing a technique we'd written down at a Tuesday meeting.

What we're changing

More binary exploitation practice. It was our weakest category by far — expect a pwn track in the fall curriculum.

Final standings:
  team_alpha   — top 6%
  team_bravo   — top 8%
  team_charlie — top 10%