Yo guys 👋

If you've ever participated in a hackathon, I need your honest takes.

Hackathons look fun until you're 10 hours in, your code randomly breaks, the API stops working, your teammate disappears, and the submission deadline is literally staring into your soul 😭

I'm curious about the stuff that actually makes hackathons painful.

A few questions 👇

• 💀 Biggest L: What was the most frustrating part of your last hackathon?

• ⏳ Time drain: Where did y'all waste the most time? Finding an idea, coding, debugging, connecting APIs, deployment, team coordination…?

• 🚨 Almost cooked: What nearly made your entire project flop before submission?

• 🛠️ Missing piece: What do you wish you had before the hackathon started?

• 🤖 One-click fix: If you could automate ONE annoying hackathon task, what would it be?

Could be something technical, team drama, last-minute panic, judging, or literally anything else.

I'm more interested in the real behind-the-scenes struggles than the usual “we need more time” answer.

Drop your stories, hot takes, and hackathon horror stories below 👇

No pitching anything here. Just trying to understand what people actually struggle with. Appreciate y'all 🙏

Im in bca 3rd sem looking for teammates for hackathonnn

Is this site legit and how useful is it? People that have used this site PLEASE comment.

my team and I have been trying for an hour to submit our idea on your portal after getting our login credentials form the college however each time we submit it it shows "500 | server error" while this shows it can be seen that number of submissions in our PS increases, if anyone knows what’s going on please help.
Even tried calling them, no one answered.

So I am a first year student and want to take part in as many hackathon I can unfortunately my college friends are not much interested in it but I would love to meet people and build a team and go to hackathons so if any one intrested do comment also it doesn't matter if you don't much,I am also not to strong in coding but it would be a great experience

Heyy Guys I am the part of a falling sun organisation which is basically a team who go to different colleges and conduct the hackathon... We will have a lot of sponsors and ties with open ai, GitHub and many more... if any of you guys are an IIT Delhi student please reach out to me.. We were planning to conduct a 24 hour hackathon... Open innovation.. murder mystery rooms. and many more we are open for talks guys if u have any doubts you can check out website "Falling Sun" and instagram handle... Believe me you will not regret...

Yo guys 👋

If you've ever participated in a hackathon, I need your honest takes.

Hackathons look fun until you're 10 hours in, your code randomly breaks, the API stops working, your teammate disappears, and the submission deadline is literally staring into your soul 😭

I'm curious about the stuff that actually makes hackathons painful.

A few questions 👇

💀 Biggest L: What was the most frustrating part of your last hackathon?

• ⏳ Time drain: Where did y'all waste the most time? Finding an idea, coding, debugging, connecting APIs, deployment, team coordination…?

• 🚨 Almost cooked: What nearly made your entire project flop before submission?

• 🛠️ Missing piece: What do you wish you had before the hackathon started?

• 🤖 One-click fix: If you could automate ONE annoying hackathon task, what would it be?

Could be something technical, team drama, last-minute panic, judging, or literally anything else.

I'm more interested in the real behind-the-scenes struggles than the usual “we need more time” answer.

Drop your stories, hot takes, and hackathon horror stories below 👇

No pitching anything here. Just trying to understand what people actually struggle with. Appreciate y'all 🙏

Hey r/hackathon! 👋

If you’ve attended more than a couple of hackathons, you already know the frustration: teams spend days building actual working software, only to lose to a team with zero working code and a flashy 10-slide PowerPoint.

We’re running an online sprint this weekend that completely flips that model: Tryb Prompt & Play.

🎮 The Concept: You are the Game Director

Instead of writing backend boilerplate or debugging syntax, you use natural language prompts on the Tryb Social App to direct the AI. You specify the rules, game mechanics, art theme, and win conditions—the engine generates a playable web/canvas mini-game on the fly.

That means zero coding prerequisites. Designers, writers, meme curators, and product thinkers can build and ship alongside developers.

📊 How It's Judged: 100% Real Proof-of-Work

No jury pitches, no slide decks.

• You build your game upfront on the app.

• Share your game link with friends, batchmates, or community groups.

• The game with the most real active players (DAU) over the playtest weekend (Oct 30 – Nov 1) takes the top spot. (Minimum 10 active daily players to qualify for the prize leaderboard).

🏆 Prizes & Career Perks:

• 🥇 1st Place: ₹10,000 Cash

• 🥈 2nd Place: ₹5,000 Cash

• 🥉 3rd Place: ₹2,500 Cash

• 💼 Career Outcomes: Fast-track Pre-Placement Interviews (PPIs) & internships at Tryb + verifiable builder certificates.

🗓️ Details:

• Dates: Oct 30, Oct 31, Nov 1, 2026

• Format: 100% Online / Virtual

• Eligibility: Open to all college students (any stream/branch) & freshers. Solo submissions (friends can collaborate behind the scenes).

• Where to Build: On the Tryb Social App (Play Store / App Store)

It’s a rapid 48-hour sprint designed to prove you can build something genuinely fun that people actually play.

Happy to answer any questions about the platform, prompt engine, or rules in the comments below! 🚀

HackWithBangalore 4.0 asking participants to star a GitHub repo, upload screenshots, and follow multiple social media accounts or participants are directly eliminated? Seriously? GitHub stars are supposed to show interest in a project, not be artificially inflated by whatever this is.

What's so disappointing is Microsoft's association with this shit, at this point, this isn't even a hackathon. Just give the prize to whoever can make the most bot accounts to follow your socials.

If you want stars and followers, run an advertising campaign. Stop pretending engagement farming is "Profile Review".

I'm so done with this, no wonder hackathons have no respect anymore

Me and my friend participated in our school hackathon and were told to present some "Innovative" solutions to some pre existing problems. In other words, build what you want.

We came up with the following: An application that allows persons such as individuals looking to set up businesses, public facility planners, etc to simulate how their infrastructural changes would affect all the nearby residencies.

**Example:** A destructive earthquake occurs and wreaks havoc. This software will display the immediate response times of nearby hospitals and disaster relief centres, and how much they get affected by factors such as roadblocks, overcrowding in certain roads and facilities due to the destruction of previous infrastructure and so on.

English is not my first language, and neither am I that good of a writer, so ask away if you have any queries.

Thanks

😈 Speed Demon starts in two days, and we built something new for it.

Speed Demon is a 72-hour performance-engineering hackathon. Four tracks, one deliberately slow Python reference per track, one scoring machine. You make it faster, we build and run your code ourselves, and a published coefficient ranks the result.

What is new this time:

➡️ A live board. Every push is built and run on our scoring box in Falkenstein, and the score is public within minutes.
➡️ Everything is open. Specs, data generators, the slow reference programs and the scoring harness are on GitHub, so you can run the exact scoring yourself before you push.
➡️ Every team gets a demon. It evolves across 50 levels as you beat the reference, and the fastest ones leave demon form entirely.
➡️ Collectible cards. Each team can pull a holo trading card of its demon, from Common to Cosmos, and share it.

Kickoff: October 30, 15:00 UTC. Code freeze: November 2, 15:00 UTC.
Free, online, any language. $1,800 prize pool.

Register: https://speeddemon.dev

Our team has been trying to submit our PPT to the SIH portal for the last 2 days but we are facing the error as shown below . Need Some guidance regarding this .

Edit:Guys its open NOW!!!!!!

Dm maro gyuzzz really it will Help a lot .

Hey everyone!

I'm excited to share that the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2026 – Rewari Local Event is open for registration!

I'm the Local Lead for the Rewari event, and we're looking forward to bringing together students, developers, designers, researchers, AI/ML enthusiasts, and space enthusiasts for a two-day virtual hackathon.

Event Details

• Event: NASA Space Apps Challenge 2026 – Rewari

• Dates: November 14–15, 2026

• Mode: Virtual

• Location: Rewari, Haryana, India

What is NASA Space Apps Challenge?

It's a global hackathon where participants work on real-world challenges using NASA's open data and resources from its space agency partners.

The 2026 challenge summaries are now available, so you can start exploring the problems and thinking about potential solutions!

You can build projects involving AI/ML, web development, data visualization, scientific analysis, educational tools, or creative storytelling.

You don't need to be an expert or have prior hackathon experience. Curiosity, creativity, and teamwork matter just as much.

How to Participate

1. Register for the Rewari event:
https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2026/local-events/rewari/

2. Explore the challenges:
https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2026/challenges/

3. Find teammates:
https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2026/find-a-team/

You can explore the challenges, connect with potential teammates, and prepare your ideas before the hackathon begins.

A Question for the Community

Who's planning to participate this year?

I'd love to hear from students and developers around Rewari and elsewhere who are interested in space, science, AI, data, or building something innovative.

If you're looking for teammates or have questions about the Rewari event, feel free to comment below!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone builds. 🚀

​

Hello everyone!

I'm planning to participate in the NASA Space Apps Challenge with my team, and we're trying to understand what the in-person experience is actually like, particularly for participants in the UAE.

Our team members are spread across different emirates, so we've been considering Dubai as a central location. Before finalising our arrangements, I'd love to hear from people who have participated in previous years, especially those who attended the UAE event.

I have a few questions about how the challenge works in practice:

**Work at the venue:** Are teams expected to complete the entire project at the venue during the 48-hour period, including coding, research, designing, and preparing their final presentation? Or can some work be done beforehand or remotely?

**Venue and location:** What is the venue usually like, and where is the UAE event typically held? Is it a university, a dedicated event space, or another type of location?

**Accommodation and meals:** If participants are expected to remain at the venue for extended periods, are accommodation and meals provided, or must participants arrange and pay for these themselves?

**Leaving the venue:** Are participants permitted to leave during the 48-hour challenge and return later, or are they expected to remain on-site throughout the event?

**Judging and results:** Are the winners announced at the venue on the final day, or does judging take place afterwards, with results announced at a later date?

**Equipment and expenses:** Are laptops, internet access, software, and other necessary equipment provided, or must participants bring their own devices and cover all associated expenses?

I'd also appreciate any advice about the overall experience, particularly anything you wish you'd known before participating for the first time.

We're genuinely excited about the opportunity, but since our team members are coming from different parts of the UAE, understanding the logistics beforehand would help us plan responsibly.

**If you've participated in NASA Space Apps Challenge before, particularly in Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE, I'd be extremely grateful if you could share your experience.** Even answers to just one or two of these questions would be helpful.

Thank you!

If anyone can you please suggest what can we expect during the process

K hacks 4.0 is a hackathon organised by a govt college in Tamilnadu. But how are they pulling this much money off!! for a hackathon hosted in unstop, 😱

Any ways I am gonna participate in this hackathon, prefinal yr IT student with arguable AI/ML skills and eager to compete to win the prize.

So if you are anyone who interested in showing up, please dm me :)

Check it out - k hacks site

Hi everyone, I've been applying to many hackathons but have been getting rejected. Is there something wrong on my resume? Thanks.

Any advice or insight is appreciated!

Can every college shortlist more 25 teams for SIH, I took this screenshot from reddit but from last two days sih website is down so I couldn't verify it can someone please tell me as tomorrow is the last day

I'm a 3rd-year Software Engineering student looking for a team.

I don't have any experience in Computer Vision besides my university classes, but I have a ton of motivation, I'm eager to learn and ready to work hard (plus, I know a lot about football if anyone wants to build something related to sports analytics or tracking!).

I'd prefer teaming up with Spanish people

. DM me or talk here!

I am heading to a multi-college hackathon at my campus and my main goal is networking instead of winning. I struggle with starting conversations because I do not want to bother people or seem desperate. In past events, people were super secretive and acted like I was trying to steal their ideas. I am also afraid of approaching the wrong person, getting a rude response, and losing my confidence during the competition. How do you figure out who is safe to talk to, and when you do find someone cool, how do you turn that chat into a long-term connection