// Manifesto
ZeroArenaCTF was born out of a specific frustration: most modern CTFs are either trivially solvable by a generic language model, or so rough around the edges that the fun gets buried under broken Docker images and unintended solves. We wanted neither, so we started designing our own.
A challenge is not "easy" because the solution is short. It is easy because the path to it is unmistakable. Everything else is a difficulty tier in disguise. — Internal challenge brief, ZeroArenaCTF 2026
Every challenge is conceived, written and play-tested by the team. Nothing is auto-generated, nothing is recycled from public archives, and nothing ships until at least three of us have solved it from scratch.
Multi-stage solve paths and deliberate misdirection make naive prompt-and-paste workflows fall short. Use the tools you want — but bring your own reasoning.
Every challenge ships with a theme, a touch of lore and a clean intended path. Players leave the event with a story, not just a flag.
Dynamic scoring with a documented decay curve. Ties broken strictly by first-solve timestamp. No hidden math, no last-minute rebalancing.
A handful of friends, frustrated with cookie-cutter CTFs, started building private challenge sets for each other on weekends.
A small invite-only event ran across a single Saturday with three categories. Feedback shaped the challenge brief template we still use today.
ZeroArenaCTF goes public with five categories, a refined platform, and the first sponsored prize pool.
Runs the show end-to-end: founds the project, designs challenges, owns the platform infrastructure. Holds an unreasonable grudge against textbook RSA implementations and Dockerfiles that do not fit on a postcard.
For sponsorship enquiries, partnerships or to report an issue with our infrastructure, the fastest channel is Discord. For everything else, email reaches us within a working day.