The |h a c k a t h o n| guide
Hackathons. What are they? Why are they important? Why are they relevant to me? Well, if you’re a bootcamp grad, a CS student in college, a student in high school, or just someone that has a general interest in coding, listen up.
I’ve compiled the ultimate hackathon survival guide! I’ve been to hackathons and love them dearly, in fact I’m attending a hackathon every weekend from now (May) all the way to late June! Anyways, I’ve compiled this post to show you where to find them, how to work them and what the hackathon hype is all about.
W H Y
Hackathons are coding competitions with events and workshops. Participants have a chance to win prizes, get job interviews, mentorships, create great projects to add to your portfolio/resume, and to make friends and learn a lot.
Hackathons feature workshops where you can attend to learn relevant skills in the industry: UI/UX Figma Wireframe design, Blockchain (what is it and why it’s relevant to developers), hosting on AWS, creating a React frontend with Hooks in state management, etc. Additionally, hackathons feature networking events where students or coders can meet mentors and snag job interviews! Hackathons are a great way to be exposed to different coding styles, learn new skills at workshops, create robust products within a timeframe, and to meet with a diverse range of mentors, professionals and learner’s across the globe. Not only can you learn different coding skills/languages at these events, you can gain experience working with bigger teams and refine soft skills that are expected of you in the industry.
W H E R E
You can find hackathons all over the place! Hackathons can last a day, a weekend, a week or even months. Be aware of the time commitment these events have, as some of them can be lengthy. My personal favorite sources are:
Also! Check out this awesome article to find alternative sources!
Major League Hacking is a reputable source to find great hackathons that are safe and friendly for beginners to challenging competitions for experienced developers.
Devpost is another reputable site to check out hackathons. You will most likely use Devposts’ submission format to submit your project regardless of the Hackathon platform, so check it out!
Unlike the first two, Eventbrite isn’t a hackathon focused site, but it is another wonderful source to check out since you can search for hackathons there.
H O W
When you sign up for a hackathon on MLH/Devpost/Eventbrite/etc., they’ll send you an email that includes their hackathon specific Discord server. If you don’t use Discord, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with it. Discord is a community/streaming platform that hackathons usually use to host their events on. Once you accept their Discord invite in your email and join their server, you’ll need to find a team.
You can either work on a team or go solo, however, building a robust project with time constraints is difficult, so I recommend finding a team. This way you can delegate your tasks for your project to your teammates and execute them without having to stretch yourself thin.
Once you find your team, you need to collaborate on your product idea. Each hackathon has a theme or track they recommend coders to follow. In my experience, I’ve worked on projects that followed the medical track, general track and a theme/track that focused on the idea of connectivity. Be aware of what the hackathon is asking you to align your project to follow!
Towards the end of a competition, the hackathon will ask you to submit your project. More times than not, they will ask you to submit your project on Devpost. However, I’ve had experience where I had to create a powerpoint presentation to present our project to the judges. So be aware of each hackathons’ rules, constraints and what they are asking of you during the submission process.
Author Note
I always recommend hackathons to my fellow hackers as a way to gain exposure to the industry standard. Connecting, mentoring, being mentored, and learning with teammates on the fly at these events challenges me to be a better programmer at the end of the day. Additionally, you learn to adapt your skills to pick up languages or processes quickly. I am a thorough believer in training be experience and hackathons are a great way for someone to adapt quickly and challenge themselves under the pressure. Regardless of the competition, each hacker goes home with new skills, new learning experiences and an insatiable competitive thirst for hackathons! Give it a try and let me know if you need a teammate! Happy Hacking!
