Students at UAE universities and employees of UAE government entities compete to crack challenges in web, cryptography, forensics, reverse engineering and more. Qualify online, and the top 24 in each track compete live on the ADIPEC floor.
Each track has its own application, its own online prequalifier and its own day of finals at ADIPEC.
Undergraduate and postgraduate students at any UAE university or campus, from first-time competitors to experienced players.
Employees of UAE federal and local government entities: SOC analysts, IT and network staff, security engineers and technical officers.
Already applied? Check your application status.
Fill in the form with your university or work email, then confirm it from the link we email you. Personal email addresses are not accepted.
The organisers review every application. You get an email when you apply and when it is decided.
Your approval email has a link to choose a username and password for the competition platform.
A 48-hour online round per track, from anywhere. In team format, you form your team on the platform first.
The top 24 in each track compete for six hours in the arena, with a live scoreboard and first-blood moments on the big screen.
The scoreboard freezes for the last 30 minutes. Final standings are revealed live, and winners are awarded on stage.
A simulated finals board in the platform's real layout. Gold marks the first to solve a challenge. Scroll it sideways.
Jeopardy format. Every challenge is on the board from the first minute: pick any, in any order. You never attack another competitor. Every challenge is an isolated system built to be broken.
Watch the numbers fall. Each challenge opens at 500 points and is worth less every time someone solves it, down to 100, so the rare solves decide the finals.
Every challenge is written for this event and has never been published.
Break web applications: authentication flaws, injection and logic errors.
Defeat weak or misused encryption. Cryptography, not cryptocurrency.
Recover evidence from disk images, memory, network captures and files.
Work out what a compiled program does, and what it checks before it says "correct".
Exploit memory-safety bugs in running services until they do what you wrote.
Find answers in public information. No technical background needed to start.
Investigate a simulated breach in your own Elastic (Kibana) instance with the logs already loaded.
The world's largest energy event. The finals take place in the arena at ADIPEC 2026, ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The UAE Cyber Security Council.
Competition designed and run by CyberElites · cyberelites.ae
Students at UAE universities. Apply with your university email address; you confirm your application from a link we email to it.
Employees of UAE federal and local government entities. Apply with your government work email address.
No. Your university or work email is how we confirm you are eligible, so personal addresses are not accepted.
Nothing. The competition is free to enter.
The organisers set each track to individual or team format. Everyone applies individually; in team format, you form your team on the platform after approval.
By prequalifier score, after integrity checks and eligibility review of the information in your application. The next six in each track are reserves.
Once your application is approved. Your approval email has a link to set your username and password. Until then, you can check your application.
Sharing flags or accounts, and attacking the competition platform itself. Every competitor gets unique flags, so shared flags are detected automatically.
Every message about the competition comes from [email protected]. Add it to your contacts so nothing lands in spam.
Email [email protected] and the organising team will help.
Two tracks, 24 finalists each, one arena in Abu Dhabi.
