Explore the fundamentals of the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) in this informative conference talk. Discover the importance of CCDC, its structure, and how it operates, including team dynamics, environments, and scoring mechanisms. Learn about the challenges participants face, such as injections and business scenarios, and gain insights into network design, hardware considerations, and essential services. Acquire valuable lessons on best practices, tools like XNets Pro, checklists, and Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Understand how to get involved, prepare effectively, and contribute to the cybersecurity community through CCDC participation.