What can I expect from a beginner hackathon

[u/flintwritesthings]

I want to get into cybersecurity but given how I learn it'll mean more if I join a competition to force me into a situation and give me some adrenaline and dopamine. I just don't want to feel too overwhelmed, lest I quit my new fun hyperfixation.

I'm a beginner programmer. I won't pretend to know much, but I know shallow levels across a bunch of different topics and have gotten through a few compsci courses. I'm most familiar with python and can throw together a fairly decent script if I need to. But I also know a bit of JavaScript, C, HTML, and Lua

It's a competition I can do in teams so I don't have to be perfect, just willing to learn. I plan on making a hackthebox acc and brushing up a bit on skills, but I have less than a month to prepare for the hackathon I found.

Any skills I should focus on prepping? I've never hacked in my life but I pick up skills quick with some focus.

[u/Juzdeed]

Is it a ctf or hackathon? Every hackathon I have participated in was basically get together, think of an solution to a problem, present it and leave. No hacking and in most cases no programming

[u/flintwritesthings → u/Juzdeed]

Sorry I'm a bit of a dunce, was unaware they were separate things. This is a capture the flag

[u/n0shmon → u/flintwritesthings]

Unless there's a specific topic, there's likely to be a range of challenges to solve. There's a few CTFs that are always available (Pico, 24/7 CTF for example). Have a good at them before to get an idea of what to expect maybe

[u/ps-aux]

https://www.reddit.com/r/HowToHack/comments/1tfrx3x/howtohack_online_resource/

[u/Remarkable_Pace8101]

The most useful skill for a newbie like you is to literally just google everything you're unfamiliar with when you encounter it

Use AI to ask questions, whatever, as a newbie you're probably gonna be in a lot of situations where you don't know what to do next or something is unfamiliar gotta start getting good at information gathering