Community Day: Challenge Series Safari - An Introduction to the Competition

Level: Beginner+
Description: The Challenge Series is a set of logical, programming, and security puzzles designed to help software engineers of any experience level flex their (figurative) muscles, while having the opportunity to forge new connections and win prizes.
The first hour (8a – 9a) of this workshop will be focused on walking you through the registration process, team development, and gaining a deeper understanding of the nuts and bolts of the Challenge Series.
The remainder of the workshop aims to provide a guided introduction to participating in the Challenge Series. We’ll spend this time diving into real challenges from this year’s competition. We will not only delve into how to solve the challenges, but what went into designing and building the various challenges, and how the provided hints tie into the solution.
Whether you’ve participated in every Challenge Series or you’re curious to try it out for the first time, this workshop will give you plenty of insight to hit the ground running! And, better yet, challenges completed during the workshop will count towards the competition as a whole and prize eligibility. As many as seven Challenge Flags may be earned during the course of this workshop!
What You’ll Learn
Challenge Series’ Overview

• How to register and participate
• How to solve some of our challenges, including one that has gone completely unsolved for three years running
• How we design challenges and incorporate hints into those challenges

Application Security

• How to inspect frontend application code and storage for potential vulnerabilities
• How to manipulate frontend applications to leverage vulnerabilities

Docker

• How to inspect Docker containers for potential vulnerabilities
• How to utilize the Docker command-line tool and container specification to leverage vulnerabilities

Application Development

• How to establish a connection to a remote system over websockets
• How to send and receive data over websockets

Prerequisites

• Some experience in troubleshooting technical issues, such as debugging
• Some experience in reading and writing code, even if it isn’t Go
• Comfort with some level of running commands in shell
• No specific prior Go knowledge is required; beginners are welcome and encouraged to join

What You’ll Need

• An interactive shell (bash or zsh recommended)
• Go (1.24+ Recommended), or another programming language toolchain of your choice
• Docker or Docker Desktop
• An IDE or Editor (VS Code Recommended)
• A browser with developer console access (Firefox Recommended)
• Ability to install or run new software and binaries, ability to pull and run docker containers.

Recommended Preparation

• Register for the Challenge Series at https://gophercon.challengeseries.org
• Join the #gophercon-cs channel in Gophers slack
• Have a GitHub or GitLab account
• Please email the instructor, Neil Primmer, for assistance.