snakeCTFIn order to be eligible for SnakeCTF Quals, participants must form a team and register on the competition website.
There is no limit on team size. Participants may not take part in more than one team.
Agreeing to the Privacy Policy is also a requirement for eligibility.
The following additional requirements apply in order to obtain eligibility from taking part in SnakeCTF Finals.
If all team participants are residents in a Schengen area country, the team is automatically considered eligible.
If one or more team participants are not residents in a Schengen area country, the team must contact info@madrhacks.org to obtain a binding eligibility opinion from SnakeCTF organizers. This can be done either before or after the competition. Eligibility of non-Schengen teams, and issuance of any visa letters from SnakeCTF organizers, is at the sole discretion of the SnakeCTF organizers.
In all cases, team participants must not be subject to any restriction that prevents them from travelling to Lignano Sabbiadoro (Italy).
The top 15 ranked teams during SnakeCTF 2025 Quals, will be invited to the SnakeCTF 2025 Finals in Lignano Sabbiadoro (Italy), from 20th to 23rd of November 2025.
Teams will be asked to confirm participation to the finals within 7 days of the finalist announcement.
Any team failing to confirm participation in the SnakeCTF 2025 Finals will be ruled out from the finals, and we may proceed in contacting the teams that ranked best after them. The finalist announcement may happen privately, before the final scoreboard is published.
When confirming participation to the finals, each team must elect up to 6 team members as team representatives. Only the team representatives may enter the arena during the SnakeCTF 2025 Finals. The entire team may participate in the SnakeCTF 2025 Finals, without entering the arena, provided that 6 team representatives are present in the arena.
SnakeCTF organizers will cover accomodation and food for the team representatives of the highest ranked 8 teams that meet the following critera: the majority of team representatives (at least 4 out of 6) must be students (High-School, BSc or MSc). A student is defined as an individual who is enrolled in a school or university program either on the first day of SnakeCTF 2025 Quals, or on of the first day of SnakeCTF 2025 Finals.
All other qualified teams may participate in the finals but will have to cover their own food and accomodation expenses in Lignano Sabbiadoro.
SnakeCTF has a total prize pool of 1792 Euros. Prizes will be awarded during the SnakeCTF Finals, to the top ranked teams of the SnakeCTF Finals. Participating solely to the SnakeCTF Quals will not award any prizes.
Prizes are divided as following:
Prizes will be awarded in cash, wire transfer, or other method deemed suitable by SnakeCTF organizers.
Prizes may be subject to taxation according to applicable tax law.
During the competition, any of the following behaviours may result in immediate and final disqualification:
OSINT and GeoGuess challenges are intended to be solved without engaging with any human. Attempting to do so will be considered stalking and will result in an unappealable ban.
In case of suspicious activity, SnakeCTF organizers reserve the right to request writeups to selected teams. This request will be announced on the SnakeCTF Discord server. If this happens, participants may not discuss or share task solutions or hints before the writeup submission period is over.
Harassment and abuse are never tolerated. We are committed to inclusivity. We believe that every single person has the right to hack in a safe and welcoming environment.
If you are in a situation that makes you uncomfortable during SnakeCTF, if the SnakeCTF competition itself is creating an unsafe or inappropriate environment, or if interacting with a SnakeCTF staff member, SnakeCTF challenge author or SnakeCTF volunteer makes you uncomfortable, please report it using the procedures detailed thereafter.
Harassment includes but is not limited to offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, sexual images, deliberate intimidation, stalking, harassing recording of online meetings, and unwelcome sexual attention.
We expect participants to follow the policy at all times, including before and after the competition if interacting with or referencing a staff member, using the Discord server, or any other online space provided by us. Players that are publicly linked to or that publicly endorse harassing materials (e.g. hosting harassing content on a website, posting harassing content on social media, etc.) are not eligible to take part in SnakeCTF.
Players that engage in harassing behavior will be subject to any action deemed appropriate by SnakeCTF, including:
The same remedies may be applied to the entire team of which the harassing player is part of.
If you feel uncomfortable or think there may be a potential violation of the Code of Conduct, please report it immediately to the following people:
If you want to report harassment or any other uncomfortable situation that happened during SnakeCTF, and wish to stay anonymous, you can send an email from a temporary email address to info@madrhacks.org.