It is NOT just the UI

Its not just the blink-blink

The most common mistake that i've seen new and old developers do is that they focus only on the web interface. They spend the entire development effort into making awesome (and some times bizarre) web interfaces, assuming that this is all that matters.

The web interface is important but its not everything. You have to keep in mind that the only people who are constantly using the web interface are those who dont actually play!!!

People will visit your interface to find a challenge to work on and to claim their flags when done while checking the leaderboard every so often to check their standings.

Don't ignore your backend, most of the CTF developers discover this the hard way. Your backend involves everything that is used to run any type of service that the platform you're developing needs:

• databases, key-value stores

• storage allocations

• running challenges

• servers and services