What is a Hackathon?

Wikipedia Definition

A Hackathon is a design sprint-like event; computer programmers and others involved in software development often collaborate intensively on software projects.

Couldn't get it?

In simple words, we can say a hackathon is any event, technical or non-technical, where people work together to devise a solution for a problem.

What happens at a Hackathon?

1. Networking: Hackathons are a great place to network, so take the opportunity to meet new people and make friends during this time.

2. Workshops: Various workshops are conducted by Industry Experts, Community leaders, etc., for beginners.

3. Fun Activities: Apart from Coding and workshops, there are other events where you can have fun!
4. Guess what? If you win, you get swags or gift cards.
5. And, of course, Coding: Lastly, within the time frame, you have to brainstorm various ideas and execute your ideas into code.

What is Hack, and Who is a Hacker?

• Hack: An innovative solution to a real-world problem
• Hacker: The person who develops the solution into code

What can you do as a beginner?

1. Designer - Interested in making graphics? You can play a crucial role in UX designing.
2. Empathizer - Have you experienced the problem that is the focus of the hack? You can help your team build a cool hack.
3. Brain stormer - Think out of the box and build a cool hack
4. Public speaker - Can you present well in front of an audience? If yes, it's your time to shine.
5. Of course, Coding Wiz - Do you love to code? Great, then hackathons are for you.

Where to find hackathons?

1. Devpost
2. Devfolio
3. D2C
4. HackerEarth
5. MLH
6. TechTogether

A hackathon is actually lots of fun, and below are a few reasons why any budding developer should go to a hackathon:

1. Meet People and build connections: Hackathons provide you an excellent opportunity to meet new people. Start connecting with others, ask them about their interests, and have an idea for a project to build. Hackathons are a great head start for college freshers since students get opportunities to meet, collaborate, and work with others and get a chance to build essential connections.
2. Learn New Technologies in a short duration: Participants get an opportunity to learn about trending technologies like blockchain, game-fi, google cloud, AR/VR, etc. Throughout the weekend, you will learn many things, taking from technical skills to soft skills. Be open to all opportunities and tasks. You will get to do something you have never done before; you have to do something faster than you are used to, since the limited amount of time given pressures you.
3. Builds your CV: Participants can include their hackathon project in their CV for greater visibility among recruiters, which will help them have a technical topic of discussion in their interviews.
4. You'll get to pair-program: Pair programming is an agile software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. Pair-programming is excellent if you want to focus more and would enjoy discussing problems with a partner.
5. You'll learn and build something by the end of the weekend and will automatically contribute to open source.
6. You'll get lots of swags.
7. You'll grow as a developer: You'll learn from other people, from being forced to understand better the unfamiliar framework your team picked to use, and from being able to sit by your team and ask or answer any immediate questions.
8. Work Under Pressure: Hackathon is a real test of your time management skills and ability to work with a team. Teamwork is the key to success, and accepting and working on other people's opinions is crucial.
9. Enhance your creativity: Hackathon is about originality, so bring your craziest ideas. Be creative and original, think out-of-the-box, and show the awesome stuff you are capable of thinking.
10. You will get a skill-enhancing break from your regular schedule!

Hackathon Judges – What Do They Evaluate?

The evaluation criteria vary from one hackathon to another, but there are some common patterns:

1. Idea's originality– hard things that haven't been done before.
2. Visual aspects of the project: UX/UI are well-crafted and beautiful interfaces that will help your team better explain the idea.
3. Solid technical solutions: Technical complexity (how much learning the team did during the weekend)
4. Are judges at hackathons focused on a specific theme? If there are themes involved, you need to make sure to tie your app into one of the themes.

As you can see, it's hard to know the judging criteria. Therefore, invest your time building a project that you feel proud of. It's great to align your vision with the hackathon topic and context, but do not overthink while creating the project you think judges want. Play freely and create something you are passionate about.

The perfect pitching structure

• Focus first on demoing your project. You need to keep it realistic.
• Keep slides to a minimum: If you use slides, use them to tell a story, add some humor, introduce persons who will use your app, or describe the architecture from a high level.
• Don't let a lousy pitch ruin your chances of winning your next hackathon. And always remember, the most essential part of any hackathon is the 2-3 minutes of you and your team's pitch.

Here is an excellent structure to make your pitch:

Intro (presented in 15 seconds): Start the video with a brief introduction to your project (team name, project name) but don't introduce each member; you can eat up a lot of time. Problem statement (presented in 15 seconds): What problem did you identify for solving? How big is the problem? Impact (presented in 15 seconds): How could solving the problem add to the market? Product (presented in 1 minute):

1. What was the inspiration for the idea?
2. What is the app?
3. Who are your target users?
4. What are the core features?
5. What makes your app different?
6. What would you have focused on if you had more time?
7. What's the business value of this app?
8. What is your plan for the idea post hackathon?

Demo (presented in 1 minute): One minute to demonstrate and explain the hack. Core features of the app. Actually, demo your project. The judges need to see the working project, in addition to hearing what you did.

Wrap up (presented in 15 seconds): Be sure to mention what was used to build core features – Highlight all technologies used in your app, especially sponsor technology.

Project Demo Tips

1. Know the Rules: Every hackathon has different rules that will impact how you should structure your pitch.
2. The Demo Video must be three minutes or less in length. That's approximately 400 words and 27 sentences. Make every second count!
3. Always write a script on what you want to say and show, and practice it over and over again.

4. In a hackathon, you start making a concept of your product and then code it. Do the same with the pitch, get the storyline straight first and then build it. Bring the audience straight into the story.

5. What's the problem you're solving?

6. How big is the problem?
7. What does it cause?
8. How much detail? I have seen many technical pitches, which got utterly lost in the details of the technology. Don't disappear in the details! Keep to the headlines and ensure that you have time to cover all the topics, not just the specific product.
9. The Demo Video must be uploaded to an accessible site (e.g., YouTube, Dropbox, Drive, etc.) A working public link to the demo video must be created, and it should be playable from the web with the site's built-in player.
10. Make sure it provides a clear sound.
11. You do not need everyone to present on the Video. Select 1 person from the team to deliver the presentation.
12. Have a planned time to make your demo video, and don't wait till the last minute of the hackathon. Give yourself and your team time to make a nice video. If you want to do any editing on it, make sure you have enough time for that as well.
13. Landscape videos typically look better when viewed, so record in landscape mode, with your phone, held horizontally.
14. The Video's focus should be on pitching your project and not about the making of your project.
15. Review the Video; editing is Optional: Unless it's one of the event requirements, editing the Video is NOT required. But you should review the tape to ensure it says all the points you want others to know about your project and highlights what makes it unique.
16. Now, you just need to upload the video, get the link, and send it to someone else to verify if it plays to the end.

Post Hackathon Tips

You've worked tirelessly through the days and nights, built something extraordinary, and presented it to a panel of judges. It could also be that you gave it your best try but didn't make it up to your expectations. Either way, you left the hackathon with maybe a prize or two, a few new technical knowledge, new friends, and swags. But what's next? You could choose to continue working on the project, complete it if necessary, or add that cool features you didn't have the time to implement in the hackathon. On the other hand, you could forget about it, remembering it for fun and learning.

Wrap-up Session

The wrap-up session with your teammates to report what they accomplished or what they learned. If you won, then have a party (maybe virtual) and enjoy! If you have lost, talk to each other. What could have been better?

Before that:

Thank the mentors and organizers from whom you have taken help or guidance. If there was any feedback form or address form, fill it. If you got any credits, redeem them. If there is a post-event, attend it.

After the event:

Teammates should come together to talk about the event's success and hear each other out. Use feedback and new ideas (maybe the judges had great suggestions you hadn't thought about)

• What worked well?
• What could have been done better?
• Where does everyone see this idea heading?
• What're the other things everyone wished were implemented during the hackathon?
• What are the new ideas that came to mind since the event?
• Write down everything that went right, so you can repeat it next time.
• Write down everything that went wrong so you can avoid it next time.
• Write a note in your diary about the event.

A README.md

It's the most essential part of your project and perhaps even more critical than any landing page. Use it to tell everyone about your idea, the technologies that make it happen. This is the most straightforward addition with the most significant impact. No matter how cool your hack is or how well you know your own code, make it concise and detailed for everyone. What might you include?

A picture tells a thousand words, So capture everyone's attention with a banner or screenshot of the homepage.

• A logo is an excellent addition if you are hosting the code in a personal repo.
• Project name
• Description of the project to sum up the solution in one or two sentences.
• Implemented libraries or technologies in your project.
• A link to your deployed project.
• If you won any prizes for your project, mention them as well.
• Inspiration
• What it does
• How you built it
• Challenges you ran into
• Accomplishments that you're proud of
• What you learned
• What's next for your project
• Attach a team photo!

Pro Tip: Add as LinkedIn Project Go to your LinkedIn profile, Go to the project section and add the GitHub URL, the project's name, and a short description.

The Bare Minimum Maintainance

After the hack, you are probably stuck with a messy codebase on GitHub. While in most hackathons, the cleanliness of your code is not judged, you probably want to do your portfolio a favor Spend some time looking over the code as a whole and remove unwanted whitespace and fix any confusing variable names. Provide a few comments for others to understand.

Have FUN!

Feel proud of yourself, and don't take anything too seriously. You've got this! All the best for your next hackathon!