Capture The Flag is a popular format for computer hacking competitions, appearing at dozens of conferences around the world, and was the basis for last year's DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge. CTF games are built on challenges, but building fun, solvable, and educational challenges is difficult!
This talk covers lessons learned from the past four years of DEF CON CTF, minutiae of making challenges that aren't a huge mission to keep running, how challenges differ from normal production software, and how to match player skill to appropriate challenges.
Vito Genovese is a founding member of Legitimate Business Syndicate, organizers of DEF CON Capture the Flag starting in 2013. Vito's work includes building infrastructure for distributed software development, designing and building both cloud-based and on-site scoring systems for cybersecurity games, visual design and branding of competition materials, picking fonts, sourcing coffee and other beverages, and writing public material for the Legitimate Business Syndicate blog and Twitter accounts.