FAQ's

The Final Round is a live-fire, in-person competition. Teams will be allocated three hours to complete a live-fire security challenge, with access to secure high-speed networks. This round is designed to simulate a live crisis in a Security Operations Centre, with students working as a team to identify and shut down the cyber threat. In the Final Round, a single answer per team is required. Scores will be calculated based on the accuracy of answers; in the event of a tied score the team completing the answers in the fastest time will be declared the winner. 

There is no need for pre-existing capability or knowledge for the competition – each round provides theoretical knowledge and practical exercises as part of the learning pathway to complete the exercises. The ASCC is designed to provide practical, hands-on learning opportunities for students who are interested in future study or post-school careers in computer networks, data security and cyber security. It is open to Australian high school students from years 7-12. 

The competition is not a coding competition. Activities are investigative and focus on processes and tasks that professional cyber security experts use in the real world to thwart attackers. No prior programming or coding knowledge is required for students to compete in the competition. Students who are familiar with commercial security tools could have an advantage, but there are no pre-requisites for entry.

Schools are responsible for registering their teams for the competition through the ticketing portal. Schools may register as many teams as they like for the competition. Once the team ticket is registered, schools will be asked to nominate which individual students are participating in the competition through a team nomination form, which will ask for student email and name. Competing students and teachers will be provided with access to the competition environment with the supplied email addresses; access will be provided before the first round kick off on 26 May 2026, in order to ensure students can equitably access the challenge platform. If you are having issues, please contact [email protected] for assistance.

CyberPathways will provide additional webinar support for teachers supervising students in the competition in 2026. Students will also be given access to the platform from December 2025 to familiarise themselves with the environment and complete practice exercises.

The ASCC is designed to be completed individually and each competing student is required to submit answers to each challenge question. Rounds will be open for a 3-week period to enable students to schedule time around their school studies, and no advantage is gained by early submission of responses. Teams are able to work together to solve challenges and workshop solutions, however responses must be submitted individually by each competing student.

Students may participate in whatever learning environment suits them best. Given the problem-solving nature of the challenges, it may benefit students to work collaboratively to find solutions to the exercises. Students may also find that working collectively builds team cohesion and shared understanding of individual technical strengths and weaknesses, which may provide an advantage for teams competing in later rounds. 

Yes – the aim of the competition is to build practical skills and knowledge by completing all exercises. Each exercise has an allocated number of points. Student scores are tallied individually and averaged to calculated a final team score for each round. There is no advantage for larger teams in the challenge. 

Each school should provide a teacher to coordinate entries, nominate students, oversee completion of activities and receive directions from CyberPathways. In the event a team makes the final round, each school should provide a responsible adult to supervise the team’s travel and participation in the in-person final round.

In the event that travel and accommodation is required for students to participate in the final round, CyberPathways will subsidise these costs up to $500 ex GST per participating student. Travel and accommodation arrangements are the responsibility of each school to manage in accordance with your school travel and insurance policies.