RudderVirt

#Contests

#Policies

The following contest policies are meant to foster a fair competitive environment:

  • Contestants CANNOT communicate in any way with another human during the contest.
  • Contestants CANNOT use any pre-prepared resources specific to contest modules (such as notes from a previous contest, forums or chats about the contest modules, etc.)
  • Contestants CAN reference and search publicly available resources on the internet (unless the module briefing forbids it, such as in written exam modules).
  • Contestants CAN use publicly available generative AI tools during the contest. Contestants who pay for access to a specific AI model or service CANNOT use it during the contest.
  • Judges reserve the right to prohibit the use of any specific tools or resources if they determine that such use provides an unfair advantage or violates the spirit of fair competition.

Violations of contest policies CAN result in disqualification of specific module scores up to a complete disqualification of the contest.

#Contest Briefing

  • Treat every module as if you are employed by a repair shop working on a customer's machine. There is no "module reset button" if you make the problem worse. The same would be true in the industry; if you were to wipe a customer's hard drive if they asked you to configure some software, you would likely be fired. If you make a potentially destructive change, you should be able to back those changes out.
  • Do not change any user passwords.
  • Do not install or execute any Windows Updates. If you are stuck "Waiting for Windows Updates", you should issue a hard power off command.
  • Modules are built and managed using OpenSSH, QEMU Guest Agent, and Red Hat VirtIO drivers. If you see any of these services running, they are not relevant to the module, and you should NOT disable or stop them.
  • If you encounter unexpected behavior during your module, contact the proctor immediately.
  • You only have a limited time to complete each module. Modules will never be fixed by doing scans, or reinstalling the operating system.

#On a more personal note...

  • Don't cheat. Have some integrity and just don't cheat.
  • The modules are designed to be difficult; no one is going to get a 100% on every module. There is opportunity for partial credit in every module. Be sure to read the module description sheets and prioritize your time to get the most points possible.
  • These modules are all based on real-world scenarios encountered by experts in the field. You may not have received explicit training on the exact solutions, but you should be able to use external resources, reason, and deduce to find where the root causes may be located.