Competition
The NCL Competition provides students with experience in solving real-world cybersecurity challenges such as identifying hackers from forensic data, pentesting and auditing vulnerable websites, recovering from ransomware attacks, and more.
NCL Spring 2026 Season Schedule
Registration is open Jan. 26 - March 27 and costs $45 to participate. Late registration is March 28 - 31 with a cost increase to $55.
Gymnasium
Jan. 26 - May 22
A practice environment with guides of past challenges to help players prepare for the competition.
Practice Game
March 30 - April 5
A week-long event that gives practice solving challenges without guides.
Individual Game
April 10 - 12
A weekend-long competitive event where individual players will attempt to solve as many challenges as they can.
Team Game
April 24 - 26
A weekend-long competitive event. Players will compete in teams of up to 7 and work to solve as many challenges as they can. You can also participate as a team of 1 if you would like to compete solo.
NCL Categories
Utilize publicly available information such as search engines, public repositories, social media, and more to gain in-depth knowledge on a topic or target.
Identify techniques used to encrypt or obfuscate messages and leverage tools to extract the plain text.
Utilize the proper tools and techniques to establish a baseline for normal operation and identify malicious activities using log files from various services.
Identify malicious and benign network traffic to demonstrate an understanding of potential security breaches.
Identify and use the proper tools to gain intelligence about a target including its services and potential vulnerabilities.
Utilize the proper tools and techniques to analyze, process, recover, and/or investigate digital evidence in a computer-related incident.
Identify types of password hashes and apply various techniques to efficiently determine plain text passwords.
Identify actionable exploits and vulnerabilities and use them to bypass the security measures in code and compiled binaries.
Identify actionable exploits and vulnerabilities and use them to bypass the security measures in online services.
The Scouting Report
Through their participation in the NCL, Players will earn a Scouting Report, which helps to:
- Identify possible careers
- Track skills for career readiness
- Assist in the hiring process
Visit the NCL Manual to learn more about the Scouting Report.
Practice Resources
Set yourself up for success by preparing for the NCL season with these free resources.
Results
How did they do? Check out the leaderboards and Power Rankings from past NCL seasons.
What our community thinks
Competing in these games is always a really fun experience! It's the time where all the cyber security kids from my classes get to meet and really learn from one another. - Colorado State University, Pueblo Student
NCL is one of the first activities where I felt like I can actually apply what I learn in my classes. The satisfaction I get from figuring out a difficult challenge is unmatched. - Penn State University Student
I love NCL because it made me certain that cybersecurity is the career field I wish to pursue. I will certainly compete again next year. - Regent University Student