Major Cybersecurity Competitions for Washington K-12 Students

ByCSTA Washington Staff

Cybersecurity competitions are one of the most effective ways to spark student engagement, whether you teach a dedicated cybersecurity course or integrate security concepts into broader computer science, CTE, or general education classes. Explore these leading competitions to challenge, inspire, and motivate your students:

  • CyberPatriot (National Youth Cyber Defense Competition) Created by the Air & Space Forces Association (AFA), CyberPatriot is the largest national youth cyber competition. Student teams act as newly hired IT administrators given virtual machine images (Windows, Linux, and Cisco Packet Tracer). They earn points by finding security vulnerabilities, applying patches, removing malware, and enforcing security policies.  CyberPatriot 19 Registration Deadline is Oct 1, 2026.
  • Cyber.org National Cyber Cup.  This online accessible capture the flag competition  is tailored to K–12 students of all experience levels, focusing on basic cryptology, network traffic analysis, and general cyber awareness.  This year’s event occurs on Sep 23-24, 2026.
  • National Cyber League (NCL).    An online Jeopardy-style capture-the-flag 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.   The registration deadline for the Fall 2026 competition is Oct 9.

Several CTSO (Career and Technical Organizations) provide cybersecurity-focused events:

  • FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) has a Cybersecurity Exam for high school students.   50 minutes, 100 multiple-choice questions.

  • SkillsUSA has a Cybersecurity competition where teams of two are tested on the elements of the NIST Publication 800-181 Cybersecurity Workforce Framework categories, including Securely Provision, Operate and Maintain, and Protect and Defend. 

  • TSA (Technology Student Association) has both middle school and high school cybersecurity competitions.   The middle school competition tests knowledge of cybersecurity vocabulary and the skills needed to perform common cybersecurity tasks.  The high school competition asks students to apply leadership and 21st century skills to respond to a cybersecurity challenge by identifying a breach in computer security via “Capture the Flag” games.

Within Washington,

  • The NCCE Student Cybersecurity Challenge asks students K-12 to create a poster and social media post to champion good cybersecurity actions.  Winners (and their teacher sponsors) are available in the following grade bands: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.  Deadline for submissions is Nov 30, 2026.

Similar Posts