Mastering the Hackathons : Top Takeaways for Success in the Ultimate Tech Challenge
Empowering Success: Navigating Hackathons with Winning Strategies and Valuable Resources
What are Hackathons? 🤔
Hackathons are dynamic and fast-paced events that bring together aspiring and seasoned developers, designers, and innovators to tackle real-world challenges within a limited timeframe, often 24 to 48 hours. Hackathons encourage participants to think outside the box, explore innovative solutions, and showcase their technical skills. Whether it's web development, mobile apps, hardware integration, or AI solutions, tech hackathons serve as a breeding ground for new ideas and a springboard for future opportunities in the tech industry.
Types of hackathons
Hackathons are of two types:-
Virtual Hackathons:- In the virtual format, participants take part remotely from their preferred location, connecting through online platforms and collaboration tools. These hackathons have gained popularity due to their accessibility, enabling individuals from around the world to participate without the need for travel. Virtual hackathons often span several days, offering a flexible schedule for participants to work on their projects and submit their entries online.
Offline Hackathons:- Offline hackathons, also known as in-person hackathons, require participants to gather physically at a specific venue. These events typically last for a concentrated period, ranging from a few hours to a couple of days. Participants collaborate face-to-face, benefiting from direct interactions, team dynamics, and the shared excitement of working together under the same roof. Offline hackathons offer a unique social experience and can foster strong networking opportunities, allowing participants to form lasting connections with fellow enthusiasts and industry professionals.
🔥My Take:- The format doesn't always dictate the experience, but I have a soft spot for in-person hackathons. The energy of being physically present at these events creates a unique vibe that keeps me hooked. The fast-paced environment encourages close collaboration with teammates, making the entire process incredibly enjoyable and rewarding. Meeting fellow developers and professionals from renowned companies adds an exciting networking element, while the whirlwind 24-hour timeframe becomes a treasure trove of learning experiences. For me, the wholesome experience of in-person hackathons is unmatched, making them my preferred choice.
Picture of our team at NITK Surathkal for final round of a 24hr hackathon recently.
We got to explore Mangalore after finishing our hackathon. Trust me offline hackathons are so much fun😁
Now let's take about important things i.e, the benefits of attending hackathons (especially offline / In-person )
Benefits of Hackathons🏆
Skill Development: Hackathons provide an excellent platform to enhance technical skills. Participants are encouraged to learn new programming languages, tools, and technologies while working on real-world projects.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Hackathons foster a collaborative environment, promoting teamwork and effective communication.
Problem-Solving Abilities: Hackathons present participants with time-sensitive problems that demand quick and innovative solutions.
Networking Opportunities: Hackathons attract professionals from various industries and companies, providing participants with opportunities to network and make connections that could lead to internships, job offers, or collaboration on future projects.
Hands-On Experience: Participants get hands-on experience in building projects from scratch, translating theoretical knowledge into practical applications, which can be valuable for their portfolio and resume.
Creativity and Innovation: Hackathons encourage participants to think creatively and explore unconventional approaches to problem-solving, fostering innovation and pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
Boosting Confidence: Successfully completing a hackathon project within a limited timeframe instills a sense of accomplishment and boosts self-confidence, empowering participants to take on more significant challenges in their careers.
Access to Resources: Many hackathons provide access to mentors, workshops, and resources from sponsors, enabling participants to learn from industry experts and gain insights into cutting-edge technologies.
Exposure to Industry Trends: By participating in hackathons, attendees stay updated on the latest industry trends, gaining insights into emerging technologies and advancements.
Portfolio and Recognition: Winning or even participating in hackathons can serve as a remarkable addition to one's portfolio, and if the project gains recognition, it can open doors to potential opportunities and accolades.
Another benefit:- You'll get to meet and converse with the brightest minds you look up to like one time we had an amazing oppurtunity to have a casual conversation with our beloved Hitesh Choudhary sir
Storytime💥
Embarking on my hackathon journey during my first year of college, I was still a novice in the world of coding and technology. In my debut hackathon, I felt uncertain about my abilities and ended up contributing mainly to the design aspects, like selecting colors, and patterns, and crafting logos. Even during my second hackathon ( during 3rd sem ) I only contributed to CSS and templating even though I had some knowledge about Javascript and Vue JS. Because I was pretty new to frameworks and I didn't know how frontend and backend communicate, APIs, DB connection and so on.
So what I am trying to say is hackathons are not about being a master in every aspect of development. Rather, they are dynamic environments that encourage learning on the go and exploring the unknown. Waiting until I felt "expert" in all aspects was impractical – the true growth came from jumping in and immersing myself in the experience.
Some Gyaan / Advice🔍
Hackathons became a catalyst for learning. Each event exposed me to new concepts, frameworks, and technologies, even ones I hadn't anticipated encountering. The rapid pace of the hackathon forces you to adapt quickly, and you'll find yourself picking up valuable skills along the way.
To anyone hesitating due to lack of expertise, my advice is simple: just start! Find like-minded friends who share your curiosity, or venture into online communities like Discord or Slack, where you'll discover potential teammates from diverse backgrounds. Don't let the fear of going solo hold you back – many participants have embraced the challenge individually and found teammates right at the hackathon.
Through my hackathon journey, I've come to realize that these events are about much more than just winning or building the most complex project. They're about growth, camaraderie, and discovering the true potential of your skills. So, seize the opportunity, dive into the world of hackathons, and watch how each experience shapes you into a more capable and confident developer. Remember, every hackathon is a chance to unlock new abilities and add valuable tools to your arsenal. Embrace the adventure and revel in the knowledge that your journey has just begun.
I have some tips ( I wouldn't say to win but to get the most of these hackathons ) to share from my experiences. Ok let's go.
Tips💡
Define roles clearly:- Identify what each of the teammates is good at ( For ex. Frontend, Backend, UI/UX ) and assign a role to each one of the teammates. Trust me this is going to save a lot of time and will help you a lot, especially in 24hr hackathons.
Choosing Teammates:- This tip is a bit opinionated. As said earlier to get started, it doesn't matter if you are a beginner or an expert. So I would say don't pick teammates based on their technical knowledge, pick your best friends who are interested to learn. Because there's always something new to learn in every hackathon and picking someone willing to learn and someone whom you can trust and learn together is great. Also if you pick some random teammates (who might be good at coding) you'll get bored in long hackathons like 24hrs and 36hrs setting. That's why I suggest you participate with your best friends so that you can learn, build, enjoy and grow together.
Adaptability:- This is a very important tip and we also faced this issue. See the thing with tech is ( especially in the JavaScript world ) everything is evolving so fast. There is no one right tool or wrong tool. There are multiple ways to achieve the same thing. So what I'm trying to say is you should be adaptable. You should have an open mind and be willing to learn or at least give a try to new tools. Most of the time, the tool you were hesitant to learn or adapt might save you a lot of time in hackathons. So be adaptive.
Don't reinvent the wheel:-This is also a thing we learned after 2-3 hackathons. In software engineering, the principle of reusability encourages developers to leverage existing solutions rather than reinvent the wheel. When faced with a problem or a feature that has already been addressed by well-established libraries, frameworks, or modules, it is prudent to use those resources instead of implementing a new solution from scratch. What I mean by this is if a solution is already available in the form of a package/library use it. Don't try to build everything from scratch in 24hrs.
A good example for the above point is:- Don't build authentication from scratch. Use tools like OAuth, Next Auth, etc. It will save you a lot of time and you can utilize that time to focus on core features.
Focus on MVP:- This is also one of the things you'll learn after participating several times. Whenever you are given a problem, don't directly jump into coding. Discuss with your teammates the core features, plan it out, create a flow of how the application works, and then start coding. The thing about hackathons is no one expects you to build a perfect full-stack application with all the features in 24hrs but everyone expects at least a MVP with core features or a solution that solves the given problem. What I'm trying to explain is Your app might have the fanciest landing page, your custom built-in auth, and your own UI library or whatever but if it doesn't solve the problem then it is of no use. So try to build the MVP first then if you have time use it to customize your app, add more features and so. This will help you a lot to get into the top 10 teams.
Don't just code:- Yes coding is an important aspect of hackathons but I suggest you that don't just code. Take breaks in intervals. Go and network with other teams. See what are they trying to build, engage in conversations with them ask them about tools they are using to solve a particular problem, give and take positive feedback, network with mentors and other professional individuals and engage in meaningful conversations. This will help you in many ways.
Note down Ideas:- Many of the hackathons recently have an initial round called the Idea submission round and to be honest, I have had many ideas in the past and I forgot them as I didn't note them down somewhere. Whenever there is an idea submission around me and team mates go blank and we have missed many opportunities because of them. Thus note down your ideas or save them somewhere however crazy the idea might be.
These are a few of the important tips that I would like to give and we had to learn these the hard way. Now that we have covered the tips, I'll share a few resources which will be helpful for you
Resources📚
The biggest resource, following are the few websites where you can find hackathons to participate
Apart from these, you can also check out hashnode.com and dev.to , they also conduct hackathons with other companies which span across 4 - 6 weeks.
Here's a Twitter thread that contains some great ideas for hackathons that you can build:- We Make Dev's hackathon ideas
You know about hackathons, you know your domain well, you've built your project, you've built it with the latest tech stack and tools, you've built more than an MVP, and you've even submitted your project on time but still you may not win. Do you know why? Because of presentation.
Presentation plays a key role and it is very important that you present your idea and project clearly and thoroughly. The presentation can make your team stand out from competitors so I would suggest you take it seriously and put some time and effort into it. Here are some resources to help you out
Create beautiful readme:- Our goto website for creating beautiful Readme files for our projects. I would highly suggest you create a Readme file for your project. This is also another thing that sets you apart from other teams.
If you want to know more about hackathons then I would recommend you to check out these youtube videos about hackathons:-
That's it for this article guys. I hope you learnt something new from this. If you have any doubts and questions feel free to comment down. Have a great day👋.