PICOCTF is back!!!  March 14 to March 28, 2023
Teams of LASA students compete against student teams from across the US & the world focusing on reverse engineering, cryptography, ACM style programming, web vulnerabilities, binary exercises, networking, and forensics – CTF 101
Register a team or Get assigned to a team
Best of Texas in UIL written tests.
Results as of 3/6 12:30pm 5A  ALL  (Certificates Round 3)
 LASA Research Club will be hosting Dr. Dmitry Kireev, research associate at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT Austin, on THIS WEDMESDAY (March 22nd) in the library during lunch. Dr.Kireev works on applications of 2D materials in the fields of bioelectronics, neuroprosthesis, and wearable electronics. He will also be demoing a first-of-a-kind cuffless blood pressure monitoring system via graphene tattoos.
Free cookies will be provided! 

Join a team. Improve your skills. Compete against teams from the area, state, nation, or world.

2022-23 Contests
Jun 5 – 10  HSCTF 9
Aug 10-11  picoCTF – The Diana Initiative CTF
Sept ?  CSAW CTF occurs over two rounds: a Qualifying Round in  September and a Final Round in November. Dates are pending for 2022.
Sep 8 – Oct 2  Cyberpatriot Training Round
Sep 29 – Oct 27  Cyberpatriot Practice Round
Oct 14 – 16  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 1
Nov 4 – 6  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 2
Dec 1-25  Advent of Code
Dec 9-11  Friday  Cyberpatriot State Round
???  TCEA contest
Jan 14?  UIL  Indeed Invitational hosted by LASA @ Indeed
Jan 26  Thurs  NACLO @ LASA 8:30am-noon (hosted by LASA)
Jan 20-21  Friday  Cyberpatriot Semi-Finals
???  UIL  Westwood  sign up (1pm written, 3pm hands-on)
???  UIL  Westlake @ ARM  sign up
???  UIL  Vandegrift Viperwolf  sign up (max 30 teams, max 3 per school)
???  Thurs  NACLO Invitational Round
Mar 14-28 2023  picoCTF
Mar 17-21  Cyberpatriot National Finals
3/25?  UIL  official UIL District Meet (team of 4 students). Competition is scheduled for 3/25 @ Eastside HS.  However, we will try to see if they will let us host it here at LASA during school on either 3/23 or 3/24.
April 21

 UIL

Friday

  official UIL Regional Meet (team of 4 students)
Foster HS, Richmond, TX, set-up 4pm, written 5pm, hands-on 6pm
May 17 & 18  UIL  official UIL State Meet (team of 4 students) UT Austin, 5/17 coaches mtg 12:30pm, written 1pm, 5/18 hands-on 12pm (setup 11am)

A+ CS list of upcoming contests

UIL Academics Computer Science competition

LASA{CS} competes in UIL 5A Academics Computer Science.  In the 2022-23 UIL academic alignment  LASA competes in District 24 of Region 3.  District winners advance to the Regional contest and Regional winners (and the highest scoring 2nd place team) advance to the UIL state competition (see past results). Each contest consists of a 45-minute individual written test and a 2-hour team programming competition. The official UIL competitions are limited to a single 3 or 4 student team per school. See the UIL Resources section below for more information. TILF scholarship (for UIL state participants).

UIL Practice competitions 

There are many local practice UIL competitions open to anyone that signs up (though space may be limited) with many teams and schools from the Central Texas area competing.

Capture the Flag (CTF) 

CTF competitions are a lot of fun and pit teams of 3-5 students against student teams from across the US and the world. Competitions generally focus on the following skills: reverse engineering, cryptography, ACM style programming, web vulnerabilities, binary exercises, networking, and forensics – CTF 101. Getting started gives you some ideas on what to expect. Python Challenge is a CTF like challenge that you can try anytime. Many students compete in teams throughout the year. Students generally form their own teams and register themselves on the CTF’s website.

NACLO  

The North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad is a contest in the last week of January in which high-school students solve linguistic puzzles. In solving these puzzles, students learn about the diversity and consistency of language, while exercising logic skills. No prior knowledge of linguistics or second languages is necessary.   example 1  example 2  [email protected]

UIL Resources

UIL Rules – handbook

  • 4 students per team
    • 4 students can take written test (top 3 scores count), but only 3 students can compete in the hands-on programming part of the contest
  • Each team member takes a 45 minute written test which has 40 questions
    • Sample test
    • 6 points for correct answer, -2 points for incorrect answer
    • Programming questions are written using the JAVA programming language
      • Some questions are about JAVA syntax and JAVA language features
      • Many questions are expressed in JAVA but are about more general/broader programming concepts ( e.g. algorithm, abstraction, computation)
      • Some questions do not involve JAVA (e.g. number conversion)
    • 2016-17 Topic list
  • The 2 hour programming session consists of 12 problems of varying degrees of difficulty.
    • Sample test
    • Each problem is worth 60 points
    • An incorrect solution results in a deduction of 5 points. A team that gets a problem right on the second try would receive 55 points (60 minus one five-point deduction). Point deductions for incorrect solutions will only be counted in the team score IF the team ultimately gets that problem correct.
    • In an official UIL contests the program solutions must be submitted in JAVA. Some of the practice competitions allow other languages to be used.
      • Java Platform Standard Edition Version 8 will be used in 2016-2017
    • Each team of 3 programmers will also need a computer to work on.
      • A team may use ONLY ONE computer during the contest – this means one system, one monitor and one keyboard/mouse. Teams using a laptop computer may use an external display and keyboard/mouse, but these may only be used INSTEAD OF, not in addition to, the laptop’s built-in devices. A team may also bring a backup computer to use in case of equipment failure. Only compiler and necessary system software should be installed on the team’s computer. A compiler’s built-in libraries and help functions may be used during the contest, but previously written programs MAY NOT be used and must be removed from the computer prior to competition.
    • No internet access during the contest.
    • Each team may bring two program language reference books or textbooks. Books must be published works that are widely available. Books must also be reasonably free of handwritten notes. Several reference books are available in Room 222.
    • Printers are allowed but not necessary.
  • UIL Computer Science web page
  • UIL Contests – Things to Know for more information
2021-22 Contests
Sep 10-12  CSAW CTF qualifying
Sep 8 – 30  Cyberpatriot Training Round
???  picoCTF
Oct 5-17  Cyberpatriot Practice Round
Oct 22-24  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 1
Nov 12-14  CSAW CTF final round (must do qualifying round first)
Nov 12-14  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 2
Dec 1-25  Advent of Code
Dec 10-12  Friday  Cyberpatriot State Round
???  TCEA contest
Jan 8  UIL  Indeed Invitational hosted by LASA @ Indeed
Jan 27  Thurs  NACLO @ LASA 8:30am-noon (hosted in LASA theater)
Jan 21-22  Friday  Cyberpatriot Semi-Finals
???  UIL  Westwood  sign up (1pm written, 3pm hands-on)
???  UIL  Westlake @ ARM  sign up
???  UIL  Vandegrift Viperwolf  sign up (max 30 teams, max 3 per school)
???  Thurs  NACLO Invitational Round
3/15-29  PICO CTF
Mar 25
Friday		  UIL  official UIL District Meet (team of 4 students) at Anderson HS, written 12:15pm  hands-on 1:15pm
Apr 22
Friday		  UIL  official UIL Regional Meet (team of 4 students)
Foster HS, Richmond, TX,  set-up 4pm, written 5pm, hands-on 6pm
May 6
Friday		  UIL  official UIL State Meet (team of 4 students) UT Austin, coaches mtg 10am, written 10:30am, hands-on 6:30pm (setup 5pm)
2020-21 Contests
Sep 13-15  CSAW CTF (sign up your own team)
Sep 5 – Oct 1  Cyberpatriot Training Round
Sep 27 – Oct 11  picoCTF (sign up your own team)
Oct 3 – Nov 6  Cyberpatriot Practice Round
Oct 25  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 1
Nov 15  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 2
Dec 6  Friday  Cyberpatriot State Round
Dec 7 & 14  Saturday  TCEA contest
Jan 18  UIL  Indeed Invitational hosted by LASA @ Indeed  sign up
Jan 23  Thurs  NACLO @ LASA 8:30am-noon (hosted in LASA theater)
Jan 25  Saturday  Cyberpatriot Semi-Finals (noon – 6pm)
Feb 22  UIL  Westwood  sign up (1pm written, 3pm hands-on)
Feb 29  UIL  Westlake @ ARM  sign up
 Mar 7  UIL  Vandegrift Viperwolf  sign up (max 30 teams, max 3 per school)
Mar 5  Thurs  NACLO Invitational Round
Mar 27?  UIL  UIL District Meet (@ LASA?)
Apr 17  UIL  UIL Regional Meet (@ UTSA)
May 1?  UIL  UIL State Meet (@ UT Austin)
2018-19 Contests
Sep 14-16  CSAW CTF
Sep 28  picoCTF
Nov 2  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 1
Dec 7  Friday  Cyberpatriot Round 2
Jan 11  Cyberpatriot State Round
Jan 19  UIL  Indeed Invitational hosted by LASA @ Indeed  sign up
Jan 24  Thursday  NACLO @ LASA 8:30am-noon (LASA theater)
Jan 26  UIL, $$$  Round Rock UIL (10:30AM Written, 1:30PM Hands On)
Feb 1  Friday  Cyberpatriot Semifinals
Feb 16 canceled  TCEA contest @ Westlake HS
Feb 23  UIL, $$$  Westwood UIL (1pm written, 3pm hands-on, $5/person)
Mar 2  UIL  Westlake @ ARM
Mar 7  Thursday  NACLO Invitational Round
Mar 9  UIL  Viperwolf @ Vandegrift
Mar 30 official UIL  UIL District (5A District 25) @ Lockhart High School
Apr 12 official UIL  UIL Region (Region 4) @ UTSA , Friday 4pm written, 6pm hands-on
Apr 23 CTF (1 day)  NGA CTF  (Apr 24 noon – Apr 25 noon)
Apr 27  UIL  Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) Contest
May 3 official UIL  UIL State @ UT Austin (written 11am, hands-on 6:30pm)
May 11  TCEA  Texas Computer Education Association Contest (registration April 15 – May 3) $50

2017-18 Contests

2016-17 Contests

  • Sep 16-18   CSAW CTF
  • Oct 3 – Dec 31 IBM Master the Mainframe
  • Nov 11-13 Cyberpatriot Qualification Round 1
  • Dec 9-11 Cyberpatriot Qualification Round 2
  • Dec 11 – Jan 4 SANS Holiday Hack Challenge
  • Jan 13-15 Cyberpatriot State Round
  • Jan 14  Indeed Invitational Hosted by LASA @ Indeed (UIL)
  • Jan 26 (Thurs)  NACLO North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad[NACLO @ LASA 8:30am-noon]
  • Jan 28 Round Rock (UIL)
  • Feb 4 Hendrickson (UIL)
  • Feb 11 Westlake sponsored by ARM (UIL)  5707 Southwest Parkway, Austin, TX  73301
  • Feb 18 Vandegrift “Viperwolf” sponsored by Oracle (UIL)
  • Mar 4 HP Code Wars (7:30am) waiver  schedule Stony Point High School  1801 Tiger Trail, Round Rock
  • Mar 4 Westwood Winter Classic (UIL) (2pm)
  • Mar 9 (Thurs)  NACLO North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad [NACLO @ LASA 9am – 1pm]
  • Mar 13 – 20 EasyCTF
  • Mar 25  UIL District (5A District 25) @ Bowie HS
  • Mar 31 – April 14  PicoCTF
  • April 7-8 UIL Regional (5A Region 4) @ UTSA (info)
  • April 21-22 UIL State @ UT (info)
  • April 29 CodeQuest (Fort Worth, TX)
  • May 20 – 27  HSCTF

2015-16 Contests

2014-15 Contests

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