The CSC competition is hosted annually and will be open to students registered for tertiary studies in 2026 at eligible tertiary educational institutions.
Please note the rule changes for the CSC 2026 Competition.
Participation in the CSC competition follows two rounds: Qualification and Finals.
The Qualification round will be available from 1 April 2026 to 13 September 2026. The preferred participation dates are the following:
- 10 April – 19 April 2026
- 8 May – 17 May 2026
- 1 July – 10 July 2026 (Mid-year university recess)
- 31 July – 9 August 2026
- 21 August – 30 August 2026
- 4 September – 13 September 2026 (last qualification round)
Should none of the above preferred dates be suitable, the university mentor/lecturer must reach out and propose alternative dates. It should be noted that to be eligible to qualify for the final round, the teams from the respective institutions must participate during the qualification window (before 13 September 2026).
For the Qualification round, one of the following models can be followed:
- Course-Based, Voluntary: the CSC is presented to the students during one of their lectures (either in-person or virtual), and their participation is voluntary, and any eligible student team can register and compete during the qualification round.
- Course-Based, Compulsory: the CSC is presented to the students during one of their lectures (either in-person or virtual), and their participation is compulsory, the qualification round replaces/supplements/acts as a practical. The qualification round is marked by SANReN and the marks are forwarded to the corresponding lecturer.
- Open, Voluntary: students self-organise and compete during the qualification round.
At the conclusion of the qualification round (13 September 2026), the organisers will invite the top 10 teams to attend the CSC finals at the CHPC National Conference.
Please note: Only the top team (1) per university department can qualify for the CSC finals (a team from both the Computer Science and Engineering departments can be considered). The top team from the university department must still place in the top 10 overall (of all universities participating) in order to qualify for the CSC finals. For the 2026 Cyber Security Challenge, the CSC organisers will reserve a single place in the CSC final for an invitational team – to be selected by the CSC organisers’ based on pre-established criteria.
For the Final round, local travel and accommodation for students and the mentor who qualify for the CSC finals will be fully sponsored by SANReN/NICIS and CSIR. Dates and venue to be communicated in due course.
To find out who your University’s mentor is, please follow this link
To view the rules of the CSC 2026 competition and determine eligibility to participate, please follow this link
For training material, please follow this link
To register to partake in CSC2026 competition, select the Register tab