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Introduction to Hackathons

Brief introduction to what a Hackathon is, and how to participate.

Introduction to Hackathons

What is a Hackathon?

A Hackathon is a type of competitive programming event wherein people work individually or in a team (often 3-5 people) to solve a problem. Often times the problem has a theme, or main idea, a few examples of this could be everyone need’s to use Python, or they’re submission needs to have a specific parameter like AI. Hackathons can last from a few hours to a few days to even a couple months. Your design, prototyping, testing and deployment can only happen within the timeframe.

Why Participate in Hackathons?

Hackathons and programming competitions are a great way to improve your skills. Even if you feel confident in your abilities, there are plenty of other reasons to join one. First of all, many hackathons offer prizes for the winners, which vary depending on the event’s sponsors. Another reason is that participating in a hackathon can strengthen your resume, competing in a hackathon shows you’re capable of working under pressure, collaborating with other people, and creative thinking, all of which are very important in any job, especially those in Computer Science. Hackathons are also a great way to network with other developers and expand your professional connections. Whether you’re competing solo or as part of a team, the experience can be very rewarding, and will help you grow as a developer.

Hackathon Resourses

If you are interested in competing regularly, devpost is a site that connects people to the various hackathons happening all around the world. In addition to using devpost, here is a link to a repo that cover’s hackathons much more in depth.

Issues / Feedback / Contributing

If you see any problems with these pages (incorrect information, misspelled words, incorrect formatting), please create an issue on the repo, or let one of the executives know.

If you have an idea for a resource or page that could be useful, please make a pull request so it can be added to the site, see more detail in the README.

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.