Competitions and practice labs for universities
Give students graded, hands-on cybersecurity practice without building a lab. Departments use CTF7 for orientation CTFs, private labs on the Pro and Enterprise organization plans, practical assessments and inter-college events, on the same platform IIT Jodhpur, NFSU, MIT-WPU and SCIT have used. Students hack the platform, not your campus network.
Institutions that have hosted on CTF7
The risks a university CTF platform should take off your desk
Before a department signs off on hands-on security practice, the same questions come up: is it safe, who maintains it, and will it survive the next batch of coordinators? Here's how CTF7 answers them.
| The concern | With CTF7 |
|---|---|
| "Students practicing attacks could touch our campus systems." | Students attack challenges on the platform, not your network. Every plan is hosted on CTF7, and on Standard and Premium container challenges run there too, so challenge targets don't sit on campus machines. |
| "IT has no capacity to set up and patch another server." | Nothing to install on any plan. Students register and play from a web browser, and faculty run the event from the organizer dashboard. |
| "The scoreboard will fall over when a whole batch logs in at 10 a.m." | CTF7 scales from a single lab section to national-level events, with Standard covering up to 500 participants and Premium unlimited. |
| "If it's graded, students will share answers." | On Standard, dynamic flags are unique to each team (each player in solo events), and anti-cheat adds IP and browser tracking, alerts and submission logs you can review. |
| "The student coordinator graduates and everything leaves with them." | The organizer account, past events and results stay on CTF7 for the next coordinator and the next batch. |
Want the longer version for your IT team? Read how to run a cybersecurity lab for colleges without servers.
Four ways to bring CTFs into your department
You don't need a new course to start. Most departments begin with one of these and add the next once students are hooked.
1. A club or co-curricular activity
The lowest-effort start. Your student cyber club runs its first practice round free on CTF7 (up to 50 players) under a faculty coordinator, then moves to Organization Starter for a season of rounds, and the department backs one flagship inter-college event a year on Standard. The club playbook, fest timeline and budget tips live on our student clubs and fests page.
2. A lab component in an existing course
Pair a network security or cryptography theory course with hands-on sessions. Organization plans add learning seats so every student gets guided practice, and Organization Pro adds managed lab hosting so the lab hours don't depend on the department's own machines.
3. A value-added or certificate course
Build a short course around your own material. The Organization Pro plan includes private training content and labs, curriculum management, learner certificates and white-label branding, so the course carries your institute's name.
4. A practical assessment
Replace part of an end-semester practical with a timed, invite-only jeopardy CTF. The real-time scoreboard records points, solves and time taken, and post-event analytics show solve trends by challenge. Use dynamic flags on Standard when marks are at stake.
A one-semester cybersecurity lab plan
A sample arc for a department running CTFs alongside a security course. Adjust the weeks to your academic calendar.
Get the classroom CTF kitWeeks 1–2: Orientation CTF
A 90-minute session of warm-up challenges so every student captures at least one flag. Share what a CTF is and the tools they'll need beforehand. A single section of up to 50 students fits on the Free plan.
Weeks 3–10: One category every fortnight
Lab sessions that follow the syllabus: web, cryptography, forensics, reverse engineering and binary exploitation. Ask students to submit a short writeup for each solve, which doubles as a lab record.
Mid-semester: Internal practice CTF
A three-hour mixed-category round with hints, some of which cost points. It shows students, and you, which topics need another session before the assessment.
Fest week: The club's open event
Your student club runs the inter-college CTF, with the department as host. Strong students from the course make natural challenge authors and volunteers.
End-semester: Practical assessment
A timed, invite-only CTF with dynamic flags and anti-cheat monitoring on Standard. Publish the scoring rules and a rules sheet in advance, so the marks are defensible.
After the semester: Records and certificates
Issue certificates (on paid plans) and keep the rankings, participant lists and solve analytics for department reports and student portfolios.
What students and faculty get from a university CTF program
For faculty and coordinators
- Organizer dashboard to upload challenges, pause a round, track submissions live and push announcements
- Mentor and judge roles with limited permissions, so teaching assistants and student volunteers can help without full admin access
- Static or dynamic scoring, where points can decay as more students solve a challenge
- Custom challenges written by your team, or designed, built and tested by CTF7 through challenge development
- Post-event analytics on solve trends and the leaderboard
For students
- Hands-on practice instead of slides, from guided labs to competitive rounds
- Certificates issued after events on paid plans
- Recognition for good work through CTF7 events
- A path to jobs through skills-based hiring CTFs run by hiring partners, and the job board
- Leadership roles through the Campus Ambassador program: swag, a certificate and LoR, and internship opportunities
Are you a student who wants your department on board? Use our guide to pitch a CTF program to your HOD.
Pay per event, or subscribe for a full semester
One-off events are priced per event, with no subscription. If the department runs events every month or needs learning seats, an organization plan is usually simpler. All prices in INR.
Free
For a club round or an orientation session, hosted on CTF7
- Jeopardy-style CTF
- Static flags & attachments
- External links
- One free event a year, up to 50 participants
Standard
For graded rounds and inter-college CTFs
- Custom branding
- Static & dynamic flags, anti-cheat
- Attachments, links and hints
- Bring-your-own Docker challenge images
- Up to 500 participants
- Participation certificates
Organization plans
For departments running events and labs all semester
- Starter: 2 events/mo, 15 members, 5 learning seats
- Pro (₹4,999/mo): 5 events/mo, 50 members, 25 seats, private labs, curriculum management, managed lab hosting
- Enterprise (₹24,999/mo): unlimited events and members, 200 seats
- Standard-level events and certificates on every organization plan
Running a national-level contest or a multi-day event? Premium adds full setup by our team, managed container deployment and unlimited participants. Estimate your budget with the CTF cost calculator, or see how other options compare in platforms for universities.
How your placement office can use CTF7
Final-year students get a skills record from the challenges they solve, and hiring partners can see it, but only when the student chooses to share it.
For hiring partners- Hiring partners post roles on the job board. Companies that hire through CTF7 publish openings that students can see and apply to from their account. Introduce your recruiters to the hiring partner page.
- Students turn on open to work. It is off by default. Only students who switch it on appear in the candidate directory that hiring partners search, and a partner never receives a student's email or phone number from the directory.
- Skill records come from solves. Each student's career profile builds a skill report from the challenges they have solved, so a recruiter sees what a student did and not just a resume line.
- Campus drives. A company can run a hiring CTF for your final-year batch as a private, invite-only round.
What a faculty coordinator needs to get sign-off
Most colleges ask for the same five things before a purchase goes to the committee.
GST invoice
Paid events and plans come with a GST invoice that your accounts office can file. Prices on this site include 18% GST.
Quotation and purchase order
Colleges that buy against a quotation or a purchase order can ask for one through the contact form. Tell us the department, the batch size and the semester.
A free pilot first
The Free plan hosts a round for up to 50 students at no cost, so the department can see a real event before it approves any spend.
Certificates for students
On paid plans (Standard, Premium and every organization plan), participants receive certificates after an event, which the department can hand out at the valedictory or add to student portfolios.
Records for accreditation reports
Every event leaves participant lists, rankings and solve analytics, plus certificates on paid plans. Departments may find this documented evidence of hands-on activity useful when compiling reports for accreditation (such as NAAC). CTF7 isn't affiliated with any accreditation body, but the data is yours to use.
Guides for planning and approval
Bring CTF7 to your department
Tell us the department, the batch size and the semester. We reply with a quotation for an event or an organization plan, or help you plan a free pilot round first.
