30 Days of CTF: Winter Break 2026
A structured 30-day sprint to sharpen my CTF fundamentals, practice independent problem-solving, and document what I learn each day.
Project goal
This winter break, I am dedicating 30 days to polishing the core skills used in Capture the Flag competitions. The focus is not just collecting flags. I want to improve how I enumerate problems, test assumptions, use unfamiliar tools, recover when an approach fails, and explain a solution clearly afterward.
Each session is designed to take 60–90 minutes:
- 10–15 minutes learning
- 45–60 minutes solving
- 10–15 minutes documenting the session
- Extra picoCTF challenges from the day’s category if I finish early
End target
- 60+ completed levels, labs, or challenges
- 10–15 written solutions
- One complete beginner machine
- One simulated or live CTF
- One specialty selected for deeper study next month
The sections below track the plan and link to a separate writing space for every day.
Training journal
Open a week to view its schedule and daily writing spaces.
Linux and general CTF skills
Build command-line fluency through Bandit, picoCTF fundamentals, SSH, Git, networking, and basic enumeration.
Open week 1Web exploitation
Practice finding and exploiting common web vulnerabilities with TryHackMe, PortSwigger Academy, and unseen challenges.
Open week 2Crypto, forensics, reversing, and pwn
Broaden into specialist categories through focused crypto problems, file and network forensics, reversing, and binary exploitation.
Open week 3Independent CTF solving
Apply the month’s skills with limited hints, complete a beginner machine, repair weak areas, and begin a timed CTF.
Open week 4CTF closeout and retrospective
Finish the timed event, reproduce missed solutions independently, and choose the next specialty to pursue.
Open finale