How CTFs Can Land You a Cybersecurity Job: A Beginner's Guide (TCS HackQuest S11)

Nov 7, 2026 · @SatvikVemulapalli

Why I am writing this

TCS HackQuest Season 11 registrations close on 16 November 2026, and Round 1 is on 5 December 2026. If you have never played a CTF, this post is for you.

Here I explain, in plain words, what a CTF is, why companies like TCS, Flipkart , Synchrony and Google use them to find people, what the money looks like, and what to learn first. The long lists (every topic, links, TryHackMe paths, a 4-week plan) are in the PDF guide attached at the end, so this post stays short and easy to read.

What is a CTF?

CTF stands for Capture the Flag. It is a cybersecurity competition where you solve hacking puzzles to find a hidden secret text called a flag, then submit it on a scoreboard to earn points.

A flag usually looks like flag{some_text_here}. Each contest picks its own format: picoCTF uses picoCTF{...}, and TCS HackQuest Season 9 reportedly used keys like HQ9{...}.

Here is the smallest possible example. A challenge hands you the text synt{uryyb}. If you recognise it as ROT13 (a cipher that shifts every letter by 13), decoding it gives flag{hello}. That is your flag. Real challenges chain several steps like this one, and the steps get harder as you go.

There are two main styles:

• Jeopardy-style: a board of challenges grouped by category, each worth points. You pick what to solve. Most beginner CTFs, and TCS HackQuest Round 1, work this way.
• Attack-defense: teams run their own servers, attack each other's and defend their own at the same time. It is harder and mostly for experienced teams.

It is also legal. CTF targets are built for practice, so you are never touching anyone's real system. The one rule: only hack things you own or have written permission to test.

The kinds of challenges you will see

Most CTFs group challenges into the same few categories:

• Web: find flaws in a website, such as a login you can bypass or a search box that leaks the database (SQL injection).
• Cryptography: decode or break a scrambled message, from simple ciphers to RSA.
• Forensics: dig evidence out of files, images, network captures and memory dumps.
• Reverse engineering: open a compiled program and work out what it checks, to find the hidden password.
• Binary exploitation (pwn): abuse bugs in programs, like buffer overflows. This is advanced, so beginners can skip it at first.
• OSINT: find facts using only public sources.
• Steganography: find data hidden inside an image or audio file.
• General skills: Linux commands, scripting and small puzzles. A good place to start.

TCS HackQuest listings describe three difficulty tiers. Beginner covers fundamentals, passwords and simple encryption. Intermediate adds web security, SQL injection, SOC work and AI/ML. Expert covers reverse engineering, advanced cryptography and penetration testing.

How and why companies hire through CTFs

A CV says "knows web security". A CTF shows whether you can actually break a vulnerable login page. That is why security teams use contests to find people.

What companies get out of it:

• Proof of skill: you cannot memorise your way through a challenge you have never seen. You either find the bug or you don't.
• Easy ranking at scale: thousands of students can be scored by points without interviewing each one.
• Soft skills: persistence, how you attack an unknown problem and, in HackQuest, how clearly you write up your method.
• An early pipeline: the company meets students before they graduate.

Companies say this openly. KPMG India described its CTF as a way to identify talented individuals for its Penetration Testing and Red Teaming teams. A Deloitte cyber contest in the US was presented as a recruiting opportunity.

The usual path looks like this:

1. An online CTF or qualifier, ranked by points.
2. A shortlist based on score, and often on your written report.
3. A second stage, such as proctored challenges, a proof of concept or a technical interview.
4. An interview, internship or offer for the best performers.

One honest warning: a CTF is not a guaranteed job. KPMG's campus CTF page says participation does not guarantee a job offer. TCS HackQuest listings promise prizes and an interview opportunity with the TCS Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, not an offer. Treat the CTF as a strong door-opener, not a ticket.

Companies, stipends and packages

Approximate stipends and full-time (FTE) packages for cybersecurity freshers.

Company	Program	Stipend	FTE
TCS	HackQuest	–	₹3.5 LPA, ₹7 LPA, ₹9 LPA, ₹11–14 LPA
Flipkart	ISCP	–	₹5–23 LPA
KPMG India	Capture the Flag	₹28K per month	₹3.5–8.8 LPA
UST	GenCyS CTF	–	₹3.8–10 LPA
Synchrony	Infosec University Hackathon	₹40K+ per month	₹13–20 LPA
Deloitte	CyberKshetra	–	₹3.4–10 LPA
Google	Google CTF	–	₹4–18 LPA
CDK Global	–	–	₹4.5–6.5 LPA

Inside TCS HackQuest

HackQuest is TCS's annual student cybersecurity contest, and Season 11 is open to the 2027 batch (B.E/B.Tech, M.E/M.Tech, BCA, MCA, B.Sc, M.Sc). It is free and individual, and you need a TCS NextStep CT/DT reference ID created under the IT section. Register here before 16 November 2026.

Rounds, per the Season 11 listing:

• Round 1: an online CTF on 5 December 2026, 10 AM to 4 PM IST (6 hours), at beginner, intermediate and expert levels. Capturing flags is not enough: you must also submit a report explaining how you solved each challenge.
• Round 2: remotely proctored challenges for shortlisted participants. In Season 10 this ran on TCS iON with camera and screen monitoring, and had 8 challenges worth 100, 300 or 500 points.
• Round 3: an in-person final at TCS. One listing describes a 3 to 4 hour interview where you explain your approach to a panel, with the top ten going to a grand finale. Treat that detail as unconfirmed.

Rewards: prizes up to ₹5 lakh, merit certificates, and for top performers an interview opportunity with the TCS Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence.

What Round 1 actually looks like. A Season 10 participant's write-up shows 100, 300 and 500 point challenges such as:

• decoding a Base64 file (100 points)
• an RSA attack where the exponent is only 3 (100)
• changing a value in the browser console to reveal a hidden function (100)
• pulling hidden data out of an image's pixels (100)
• unpacking a compiled Python program (300)
• cracking a password-protected 7z archive with John the Ripper (300)
• DNS rebinding (500)

None of the 100-point ones need anything beyond the basics in this post. That is why the fundamentals matter more than exotic skills.

One tip from that write-up is worth repeating: write your report while you solve, not afterwards.

Skills to learn first

Learn these in order. The attached PDF lists every topic in detail.

1. Linux command line: move around, read files, search with grep, chain commands with pipes.
2. Networking basics: IP, ports, DNS, HTTP, and reading traffic in Wireshark.
3. Python, plus a little Bash: enough to automate decoding and send web requests.
4. Web security basics: how HTTP works, then SQL injection, XSS and broken access control, using Burp Suite.
5. Cryptography and encodings: Base64, hashes, XOR, then RSA basics.
6. Forensics and steganography: file types, metadata, data hidden in images, packet captures.
7. Reverse engineering basics: reading a small program in Ghidra. Treat this as a bonus at first.
8. Writing it up: take notes as you solve, because HackQuest wants a report.

Where to practice

All of these are free to start.

• picoCTF: beginner-friendly practice from Carnegie Mellon. It has joined CMU's CyLab Security Academy, and older picoCTF logins carry over.
• TryHackMe: guided paths with labs in your browser, and 500+ free rooms.
• OverTheWire Bandit: learn Linux by playing a game.
• PortSwigger Web Security Academy: free web security labs, one vulnerability at a time.
• CryptoHack: cryptography puzzles that build up from the basics.
• CTFtime: a calendar of upcoming CTFs, plus write-ups of past ones.

Get the full guide

This post is the overview. Find the attached resource at the end of this post: the TCS HackQuest S11 CTF Prep Guide (PDF). It covers every topic in detail, domain by domain, with the practice platform, link and TryHackMe path for each, plus a 4-week plan, a tools checklist and a report template.

Three things to do this week:

• Register before 16 November 2026.
• Spend an hour on Linux basics and one beginner room today.
• Start a notes file now, because the report matters as much as the flags.

Good luck, and see you on the scoreboard.