Dacia Team Wins 2nd Place at HackDay 2026 International Final

Dacia Team achieved an outstanding 2nd place finish at the HackDay 2026 international final, held at ESIEE Paris, France! This marked our first major international competition, and we couldn’t be prouder of what we accomplished.

The Competition

HackDay 2026 brought together the best young cybersecurity talent from across Europe for an intense 24-hour Capture The Flag competition. Teams faced challenges spanning:

• Web Exploitation — Advanced injection techniques and authentication bypasses
• Binary Exploitation — Memory corruption and reverse engineering
• Cryptography — Modern crypto attacks and implementation flaws
• Forensics — Digital investigation and artifact analysis
• Miscellaneous — Creative problem-solving across multiple domains

Our Journey

The competition started strong, with our team quickly establishing ourselves in the top rankings. Throughout the 24 hours, we maintained consistent progress, solving challenges across all categories and demonstrating the breadth of our skills.

The international atmosphere brought an extra level of excitement and pressure. Competing against seasoned teams from established CTF programs across Europe pushed us to think faster, communicate better, and leverage each team member’s strengths.

Key Moments

• Early Lead: Solved several web exploitation challenges in the first few hours to establish our position
• Midnight Push: A crucial breakthrough on a binary exploitation challenge around 2 AM kept us competitive
• Final Sprint: Coordinated effort in the last hours to maximize our point total
• Silver Medal: Secured 2nd place overall, an incredible result for our first international final

What We Learned

This competition taught us invaluable lessons about:

• International Competition: The pace and skill level at international events
• Team Coordination: Working effectively under extreme time pressure
• Strategic Thinking: Balancing challenge difficulty with point value
• Resilience: Pushing through fatigue and setbacks to maintain performance

Looking Ahead

HackDay 2026 has set the bar high for what we can achieve as a team. This 2nd place finish internationally validates our approach and motivates us to keep improving. We’re grateful for this opportunity and excited to bring these lessons to future competitions.

Thank you to the HackDay organizers, ESIEE Paris for hosting, and all the teams that made this such a memorable competition!

— Dacia Team