CyberPatriot

Key facts

Eligible grades

High school and middle school, plus accredited homeschooling programmes. Three independent divisions: Open Division for high school students fielded by a public, parochial, home, private, magnet or charter school, scouting unit, state-chartered virtual school, Boys and Girls Club or YMCA/YWCA; All Service Division for high schoolers fielded by Army, Marine Corps, Navy or Air Force JROTC, US Naval Sea Cadet Corps or Civil Air Patrol, with Space Force JROTC competing under AFJROTC; and Middle School Division. not yet checked against the official source

You cannot pick your division freely: it follows the organisation that fields your team. Teams remain in their assigned division once they have competed in a qualification round, except to correct an administrative error. Source note: the only reference found for this was a third-party listing or encyclopedia, not the organiser. Eligibility must come from the organiser, so this is marked unconfirmed until a first-party page confirms it.

Source, checked 2026-09-02

Official divisions

A Middle School Division plus Open and All Service divisions for high school. Your division follows the organisation that fields your team, not your choice.

Based on the organiser's own divisions.

Eligible ages

Not confirmed. This organiser may set eligibility by grade rather than age. We do not convert one into the other.

AFA sets divisions by school level and fielding organisation, not age.

Individual or team

Team · Teams of 2 to 6 students plus an approved adult coach, with optional team assistants and technical mentors. There is no limit to the number of teams an organisation may host within a division.

Where it runs

Online · United States, Canada, International divisions

Entry cost

A per-team registration fee, with fee waivers availableNot published on the pages checked, and it varies by division and organisation. Civil Air Patrol states there is NO charge for any CAP squadron team, and at least one JROTC-hosted programme provides all materials, training and equipment at no cost to participants through sponsor support. Open Division teams should ask their organisation, since AFA has historically charged Open Division registration while waiving it for others.

Registration deadline

Set locally, not published as a single national date CP-19 dates were not confirmed on the pages checked. For reference, CP-18 registration ran 1 April to 1 October 2025. Civil Air Patrol describes the annual pattern as registration opening the first part of April, the practice competition beginning in September, and team registration closing the first week of October, with individual team members addable until late October. That late-October window is useful: you can register the team before you have finalised who is on it.

Competition dates

Qualification rounds run from autumn through winter, with national finals in the spring.

Difficulty

CompetitiveSerious preparation over a season. Advancing past the first round separates prepared students from unprepared ones.

Prizes

Teams advancing to the National Finals receive all-expenses-paid travel to Bethesda, Maryland, plus certificates and sponsor gifts. Scholarships are awarded at the National Finals, including through the Cisco NetAcad Challenge.National finalists receive scholarships and an all-expenses trip to the finals event. Amounts vary by year; confirm on the official site.