You don’t spend every single conference you attend in a darkened room, listening to techno music and hunched over your laptop. You don’t know every single security tool out there backwards and forwards. This means CTF is completely out of your league, right? Wrong. If you’ve got a competitive streak, a love of puzzles, and a desire to add to your security bag of tricks, you can gain a lot out of competing in Capture the Flag. They’re a great way to practice your security skills and learn new ones. This talk will cover common structures and topics in CTF competitions, some technical and problem-solving skills you’ll want to add to your arsenal, and how to dive in and start playing! There will also be plenty of firsthand stories of pitfalls that new CTF players can easily fall into, and how you can avoid them. You may not leave this talk as the most three-one-three-three-seven CTF player on earth, but that takes a bit longer than fifteen minutes.