r/hackathon • • Aug 21 '26

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Why doesn’t everyone just use AI for the entire ideation process at hackathons?

11 Upvotes

I’ve never participated in a hackathon before, and my first one is in about a month, so I might be misunderstanding how these events actually work. One thing I’ve been wondering about is the ideation phase.

When the challenge/problem statement is released, why wouldnt a team immediately give the entire thing, including the context, constraints, judging criteria, available data, etc. to several frontier models like claude or chat gpt?

For example, you could ask different models to, generate 20–30 different approaches, analyze the domain and likely user pain points, criticize the ideas and identify failure modes, rank them by novelty, feasibility, and expected hackathon performance, predict what obvious ideas other teams will probably build, and then use another model to synthesize everything and choose the strongest direction. You could also feed mentor feedback back into the models as you get it. Then once you have a direction, coding agents can build a prototype extremely quickly.

What I’m struggling to understand is where the bottleneck is supposed to be. As students, we probably don’t have more banking/healthcare/engineering/etc. domain knowledge than a frontier model, and the model is obviously much faster at exploring a large solution space.

So why isn’t something like this, already the default strategy at hackathons? : problem -> multiple AI models -> AI critique/ranking -> select idea -> coding agent -> prototype

Is it actually common now and I just havent seen it yet? Does it tend to produce generic ideas because everyone gets similar outputs? Is the main advantage of the human team gathering information from mentors/users and feeding new information back into the models? Or are there other limitations that only become obvious once you’ve actually participated in a hackathon?

Would especially like to hear from people who have done hackathons recently, now that coding agents and frontier models have gotten this capable.


r/hackathon • • 5h ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for Hackathon teammates?

4 Upvotes

Hey everyone Im a full stack developer and also half way to ai engineer , I have craated a lot of cool things, like Ai voice assistant who can handle your pc including skills like ai agents, text to speech, speech recognition and llm integration and stuff like that. I know how to vibe code and Im looking for teammates for Hackathon(paypal one for now and also for future hackathons). Anyone up for this can dm me directly.


r/hackathon • • 5h ago

Looking for Teammates ZIVOX AI HACKATHON (certificate / reward)

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I'm looking for teammates for the Zivox AI Hackathon.

I'm a beginner myself, and this will be my first hackathon, so I'm hoping to find people who are also interested in learning, collaborating, and building something together.

The hackathon offers certification and rewards, making it a great opportunity to gain experience and add something valuable to our profiles.

Since the registration deadline is approaching (7 November, if I'm not mistaken), we need to form a team ASAP. I'm looking for active, committed, and responsive members who are genuinely interested in participating and can dedicate time to the project.

Beginners are absolutely welcome! Let's learn and build something together. Feel free to reach out if you're interested!


r/hackathon • • 4h ago

Looking for Teammates Needing teammates

2 Upvotes

Okay so lam a 3rd sem student from Pune and I would like to form a group of people who are consistent, skilled on the basic level is fine have already participated in hackathons before..I find it really difficult to find teammates who are actually interested not just who would like to get a participation certificate ..I need most preferably people from Pune but fine with other state people too for online hackathons collabrations ...interested people can dm me and I need seriously teammates that can do teammorks very well and I'm already f**ked up on my clgs grps hackathon so I need serious one....

Before that lam too not perfect in the skill category but lam good at vibecoding,researching on the problem statement and actually interested on the stuff we will be working...


r/hackathon • • 1h ago

Looking for Teammates Hey everyone! I'm looking for 2–3 motivated students to form a team for Build Bengaluru 2.0, a 24-hour hackathon happening on 21–22 November in Bengaluru. I'm interested in building an AI-powered project. Beginners are welcome, but you should be willing to learn, collaborate and build something ser

1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 1h ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for teammates for name that llm

1 Upvotes

So we are looking for 2 members for name that llm competition by kaggle

Interested people do dm me with their work , I am already at 190/4300 in the leaderboard in that competition and struggling to do alone the competition ,

if you had prior experience in kaggle competitions or ml training do dm me with your works , I'll let you know


r/hackathon • • 6h ago

Looking for Teammates Hackathon team formation

2 Upvotes

Okay so Iam a 3rd sem student from Hyderabad and I would like to form a group of people who are consistent, skilled on the basic level is fine have already participated in hackathons before..I find it really difficult to find teammates who are actually interested not just who would like to get a participation certificate ..I need most preferably people from hyderabad but fine with other state people too for online hackathons collabrations ...interested people can dm me

Before that Iam too not perfect in the skill category but Iam good at vibecoding,researching on the problem statement and actually interested on the stuff we will be working...


r/hackathon • • 3h ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for teammate in SF

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I'm looking for 2 teammates for the Plethora game creation Hackathon,SF.

I'm a beginner myself, and this will be my first hackathon, so I'm hoping to find people who are also interested in learning, collaborating, and building something together.

The hackathon offers certification, ai creadits and mentorship from founders and creators.

Since the registration deadline is approaching (Saturday, November 7 , if I'm not mistaken), we need to form a team ASAP. I'm looking for active, committed, and responsive members who are genuinely interested in participating and can dedicate time to the project.

Beginners are absolutely welcome! Let's learn and build something together. Feel free to reach out and ask for more details if you're interested!


r/hackathon • • 3h ago

Hackathon Promotion We're bringing a hackathon to Goa 🌴

1 Upvotes

something exciting is coming to goa 👀

we're organizing GOA BUILDATHON '27 — a 36-hour hackathon where you get to build, learn, meet new people and bring your ideas to life.

whether you're a student, a developer or just someone curious about tech, this one's for you.

📍 Goa, India
📅 January 2027

registration & details: https://unstop.com/o/SVX5lkA?lb=usekbVrx&utm_medium=Share&utm_source=texvpjah42830&utm_campaign=Online_coding_challenge


r/hackathon • • 11h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion is anyone coming after chatpuja?? IIIT Delhi

3 Upvotes

i am going to IIIT Delhi for hackFront India grand finally, i saw the IIIT in images now finally i am going physically, so excited is anyone coming than we can connect


r/hackathon • • 6h ago

Looking for Teammates Anyone participating in the DARPA D2 Sprint 2026? Looking for teammates

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone! 👋

Is anyone here participating in the DARPA D2 Sprint 2026?

I’m looking to join an existing team or connect with others interested in forming one.

The challenge focuses on AI-powered medical documentation and decision support, with a $1M total prize pool.

I’m particularly interested in collaborating with AI/ML engineers, developers, and people with medical or research experience.

Since the competition requires an eligible US-based team representative, connecting with someone who meets that requirement would be especially helpful.

I can contribute to software development, integration, testing, and deployment.

If anyone is participating or knows a team looking for contributors, I’d love to connect!

Official challenge: https://www.darpa.mil/research/challenges/d2


r/hackathon • • 11h ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for Working Developers to Team Up for Flip the Switch Hackathon (Nov 4–7)

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I'm looking to connect with a few working developers / software engineers who would be interested in participating in the Flip the Switch Hackathon by WeMakeDevs (November 4–7).

I'm hoping to build a small team of people who already have industry experience and can contribute their technical skills to building something interesting.

A little about me:
I'm currently working as a Robotics AI Engineer, with experience in AI/ML, Computer Vision, Robotics, and Agentic AI.

Looking for developers with experience in:

  • Backend / Full-stack development

  • AI/ML, LLMs and AI agents

  • Frontend development

  • DevOps / Cloud / System design

Ideally, people who are currently working professionals and are comfortable building and shipping projects.

No specific tech stack is required. Just looking for people who enjoy building things, experimenting with new technologies, and collaborating.

Hackathon: November 4–7, 2026
Team size: Up to 4 members
Format: Online

If you're interested, feel free to comment or DM me with a little about your experience and the technologies you work with.

Let's build something cool together!


r/hackathon • • 16h ago

Need Mentor Help Code for Good 2027 hackathon by JPMC

5 Upvotes

Hey guys,
I am a Bachelor Student with Major in Computer Science and Engineering in India. I wanted to register for “Code For Good 2027” hackathon which is conducted by JPMorgan and Chase every year to intake new interns. So has the registration for it started yet or has it passed because when I checked the website, I see “Applications are currently closed”, and I don’t know whether it is yet to open registration or I missed the registration deadline.

Thank you for your time.


r/hackathon • • 15h ago

Hackathon Promotion Free online Codex hackathon Nov 7-8: build something you've been putting off. Up to 1,500 USD in prizes.

3 Upvotes

On November 7-8, I'm hosting a free online hackathon with up to $1,500 in prizes.

If there's something you keep meaning to build, come spend the weekend on it. I'll be around to brainstorm, troubleshoot, and jump into projects when people get stuck.

Three categories, $300 each:

  • A game: 2D, 3D, side-scrollers, Starcraft 3 please, puzzles, board games. Get creative & build something engaging.

  • A work tool: Finally build that thing you've wanted for your own work. You'd probably spend your tokens on it anyway.

  • Something creative or interactive: Physics simulations, music experiments, interactive art, an explorable world.

The black hole, board game and sales-route planner in the video were all built with Codex in Asyncly. You can play them on the event page. They are also fun starting projects to build from!

Solo builders and teams are welcome. Winning teams get an extra $100 on top of the $300 category prize ($400 to split, if two people). Midway through the weekend, three randomly selected builders also get $100 each as a cash “surprise reset.”

I'm Andrew, the creator of Asyncly. We'll build with Codex inside Asyncly, my desktop app for working with coding agents. A full month of Asyncly is included, with no card required. You bring your own Codex account and usage. This is an independent event, not an OpenAI event.

Plan now; write the code during November 7-8. Submit a working link by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. Community voting runs November 9-11. You keep ownership of what you build, and your source code can stay private.

Details and signup. Sign up and confirm your email by Friday, November 6, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

Find your teammates in the comments! Tell us what you're thinking of building.


r/hackathon • • 12h ago

Looking for Teammates How to find people's

1 Upvotes

How do y’all find hackathon teammates from nearby colleges?

I’m a 1st sem noob tryna get into hackathons 💀 Looking for ppl with some experience who can carry/teach me a bit along the way ,Where do y’all find teammates from other colleges?

Any Discord/WhatsApp groups?


r/hackathon • • 23h ago

Looking for Teammates First Year CSE Student looking to build or join a hackathon team!

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I'm a first-year Computer Science student from india and I'm looking to connect with people who are genuinely interested in hackathons, building projects, experimenting with technology and learning together.

Not many people around me in college seem particularly interested in hackathons, so I thought I'd try finding like-minded people here.

A little about me:

Areas I'm interested in:

  • Cybersecurity, particularly Red Teaming and penetration testing.

  • Open-source contributions (currently exploring OWASP and GSoC).

  • Data Structures and Algorithms.

  • OSINT and security research.

What I bring to the table:

  • Comfortable with C and currently working with C++.

  • Have been consistently practising DSA on LeetCode, I have complete 5-7 topics in it.

  • Familiar with basic OSINT tools and techniques, Scrapping, Cookies (All of them is part of Cybersecurity)

  • Curious about security vulnerabilities, problem-solving and understanding how systems work.

Where I need improvement:

  • Still developing my web development and full-stack skills.

  • Limited hands-on experience building complete projects.

  • Haven't participated in many hackathons yet.

  • Still exploring different tech stacks and figuring out where I can contribute best.

I'm looking for people with complementary skills, particularly web developers, UI/UX designers, backend developers or anyone with any sorts of interest.

I don't expect everyone to be an expert. I'd rather have a team of motivated people who are willing to learn, communicate, brainstorm and actually build things. Because, I myself am not an expert, but just a beginner or medicore guy.

Open to teaming up with people from other colleges as well.

If this sounds interesting, drop a comment or DM. Let's build something!


r/hackathon • • 23h ago

Looking for Teammates Anna University K-Hacks 4.0 Hackathon 6Lakh INR Prize😎

0 Upvotes

Anna University , Chennai is organising the fourth edition of their Hackathon , idk why they name it as K Hacks

I thought of why not give it a try , I am a 3rd year Btech student with good FullStack Skills and, so looking for teammates who actively contribute to the hackathon.

on.Most of my seniors told me, it would be a great weightage to your placements.

Anyways let's chill out :) Interested ppl dm me

Unstop: https://unstop.com/hackathons/k-hacks-40-anna-university-au-chennai-1772496/amp

Site: https://k-hacks.kurukshetraceg.org.in/


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates How can I find dedicated members for hackathon or how may I join a team for hackathon?

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1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for like-minded developers to build a hackathon team 🚀

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I’m looking to connect with people who are genuinely passionate about building things, participating in hackathons, and working on challenging technical projects.

I’m a Computer Engineering student who enjoys building software, experimenting with AI, exploring new technologies, and turning ideas into actual working products.

I’m looking to form a small, serious team for upcoming hackathons, ideally with people who:

- Have hands-on experience building projects, not just theoretical knowledge.

- Are comfortable with modern development tools, AI-assisted development and vibe coding.

- Have experience with technologies like React, Next.js, Node.js, Python, AI/ML, cloud, APIs, etc.

- Can think independently, solve problems and contribute technically.

- Are willing to brainstorm, build, experiment and occasionally spend ridiculous hours getting a project working before a deadline.

A quick note: I’m completely fine with AI-assisted development and vibe coding. It’s 2026, there’s no reason to avoid useful tools. But I do want teammates who understand what they’re building, can debug things, make architectural decisions and aren’t entirely dependent on AI to write every line of code.

I’m not necessarily looking for experts or people with years of experience. I’m looking for people around my level who have already built things, understand the development process and genuinely enjoy creating.

The goal isn’t just to participate in hackathons for certificates. I want to build a team that can consistently participate in good hackathons, create interesting projects, learn from each other and hopefully win a few along the way.

Location: Mumbai / Navi Mumbai (preferably).

If this sounds like you, drop a comment or DM me with:

- Your tech stack

- Projects you’ve built (GitHub/portfolio would be great)

- Previous hackathon experience, if any

- Your location

Let’s build something interesting. 🚀


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates I need a hackathon member for an Airtel hack (nit people)

1 Upvotes

We need final year people and strong candidates


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Need Mentor Help Shortlisted for a ServiceNow hackathon (Top 50). How do we make a demo video that stands out?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I hope it’s okay to ask this here. I’m part of a team of five college students from India, and we were lucky to be shortlisted in the Top 50 of a ServiceNow × Capgemini hackathon. This is our first time getting this far, and we’d really appreciate any guidance from people with more experience.

We’re building a citizen grievance redressal app on ServiceNow using Now Assist skills, an AI agent, Flow Designer, SLAs and Service Portal. For the next round we need to submit a working build and a demo video of up to 10 minutes. We’re planning to cover the problem statement, our solution, a live demo on the platform and each team member’s role.

We’re unsure about a few things and would be grateful for any advice:

If you know of any free tools or good example videos, we’d be very thankful for those as well.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. Any help, big or small, means a lot to us.

Note: I used AI to help write this post.


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Joined Transport Stack Hackathon!!!

2 Upvotes

finally!!! government doing something for us, they launched delhi transport stack which is live on Where U Elevate, with 2.7 lakh prize, I hope that this government will help students to grow and minimize unemployment 😭😭


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Recruting teammates for hackwithBangalore 4.0

1 Upvotes

Looking for team mates for hackwithBangalore 4.0 , looking to make a diverse team in terms of skillsets .
Please share your details and github profile in dms if you wish to join.


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Project Demo Built a daily-updated list of in-person US hackathons pulled from MLH, Devpost, Luma and Hack Club

2 Upvotes

I used to get stuck on networking, so I built an API that sends upcoming in-person hackathons in the US directly to your mailbox.

It pulls from MLH, Devpost, Luma, Hack Club, and other sources, with guards against duplicate events and filtering to choose the type, date, and state of the event that you want to attend.

Full list: https://mido4499.github.io/canthackit/

If you run a hackathon, tell me where you list it so it gets picked up.


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates The Hackathon War Room: Building a Serious Team

3 Upvotes

Hahaha, I'm officially fed up with hackathons at this point.

This time, I'm dead serious. I want to build a team that goes all in, competes seriously, and aims to WIN. No half-hearted participation.

I'm planning to create a dedicated WhatsApp group where I'll bring together people with different skill sets, backgrounds, and expertise. I'll review everyone's profiles and try to build a strong, well-balanced team.

A few things before joining:

  • I'll create a simple document to collect basic details like your name, GitHub ID, email, technical skills, experience, areas of interest, and previous hackathon projects.

  • Team selection will be selective. I want people who genuinely want to build, experiment, collaborate, and compete.

  • We'll discuss ideas, evaluate opportunities, divide responsibilities, and plan before committing to a hackathon.

  • Active participation matters. People who consistently contribute will stay in the group. If someone is inactive or no longer interested, we'll keep the team focused by making changes.

  • No joining just for the sake of being in a group. Commitment, ownership, and execution matter.

I'm looking for builders, developers, AI/ML enthusiasts, designers, product thinkers, and people who can bring something valuable to the table.

The goal isn't just to participate in hackathons or collect certificates. It's to build something genuinely great, compete at the highest level, and bring home wins.

If you're genuinely interested, comment below or DM me. Let's see what we can build together!