My Experience at BSides Prishtina 2026
TLDR
BSides Prishtina 2026 was genuinely one of the best days I've had in a while. Came in not really knowing what to expect from an in-person security event, left with a 2nd place finish, a PentesterLab subscription, and a certificate handed to me on a podium. I'll take it.
Getting There
Me and my cousin Enrik showed up way earlier than we needed to. No particular reason, we just did. The venue was still being set up when we got there, and our friend Lekë Cërvadiku was already there volunteering through FLOSSK and BSides, so we jumped in and helped out. We were running cables on the podium, stocking up the fridges, cleaning around the venue. Nobody asked us to do any of it, but it felt right. You get to see the whole place before anyone else shows up and there's something kind of cool about that.
Monster Energy was one of the event sponsors so there were cans everywhere. Between all of us we went through way too many. The food was also really good.
Once people started showing up the energy picked up fast. The community is small so you end up seeing familiar faces everywhere, people from past competitions, meetups, online. It always feels like running into people you already know even when you're meeting them for the first time.
The Talks
I'm not going to go through every talk individually because that would be its own post, but the overall quality was really solid. The topics were practical and technical, no fluff, no beginner-level intros that waste everyone's time.
What stood out most is that the guest speakers came from all over the world. Kazakhstan, Mexico, and more. People who actually flew into Prishtina specifically for this event. That's not nothing. And they weren't the kind of speakers who present and disappear either, every one of them stuck around, talked to people, took questions seriously. You could tell they actually wanted to be there.
The CTF
This is the part I was most hyped about going in and it did not disappoint.
30+ challenges across crypto, forensics, misc, OSINT, pwn, reverse engineering, and web. It was pretty challenging. Some challenges I worked through fairly quickly, others had me genuinely stuck and staring at the screen for way longer than I'd like to admit.
How We Did
We competed as KSAL Cyber Team, the four of us: me, Enrik, Lekë, and Egland.
| Member | Challenges Solved | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Enrik | 12 / 30+ | 6,693 |
| Me (Amir) | 14 / 30+ | 6,162 |
| Lekë & Egland | 1 / helped wherever they could | 50 |
| Team Total | 12,905 |
Enrik took lead by a few hundred points which I'm absolutely not bothered about, his extra points won us #2. Lekë and Egland contributed where they could on top of everything else they had going on during the event. As a team we finished 🥈 2nd place with 12,905 points total, and each team member walked away with a 6-month PentesterLab subscription as a prize. PentesterLab is a great platform if you haven't used it, really hands-on and practical. Good timing to have it going into the next stretch of competitions.
The Certifications
After the CTF wrapped up, the top teams were called up to the podium to receive their certificates. Ours were handed out by Dardan Prebreza, co-founder of Pretera. After spending the whole day grinding through challenges it was a genuinely nice way to end things. Standing up there with the team, getting recognized in front of everyone who was still around, that part sticks with you.
The Community Reaction
BSides Prishtina gave us a shoutout after the event which was great to see. Shows that the organizers actually pay attention to who showed up and competed.
- BSides Prishtina's post on LinkedIn
- KSAL Cyber Team's post on LinkedIn
- PentesterLab reposted our post
The People
The people were genuinely cool. No one was acting like they had something to prove, you could just walk up to anyone and start talking. Had some really good conversations in between CTF rounds.
Met a bunch of new people too, a lot of younger guys just getting into security who were actually asking smart questions. Good sign for the scene here.
Final Thoughts
If you're in Kosovo or you wanna hold your talk in Kosovo, there's really no excuse not to go. The talks are worth it, the CTF is worth it, and the people make it worth it on top of everything else.
See you at the next one.
Full CTF writeups from BSides Prishtina 2026 are over here.