How to Take Part in a Hackathon and Win It

These days, hackathons are everywhere. You can use a special API to hack good cases, or hack hardware. If your company decides to do so, you can participate indoors. There is reason to believe that these events are perfect for the development of your technology, networking, etc. Is there a technique for winning over a safe fire? Not at all! Every single hackathon is supposed to be dissimilar to the previous one. For example, for many other events, the last presentation counts – if you succeed, the chances increase.

Win a hackathon: The preparation phase

Know What You Want To Achieve and Why

It is more than a hackathon – it’s important to set goals before you start anything. Are you coding something? Create an API application you’ve never worked with before? A network of job openings? On the other hand, be sure to check the basics:

  • Are there any topics or areas you should follow?
  • What technology should you use?

Investigate the Topic before You Start

As soon as you register as a beginner, start thinking about what you want to do. If the hackathon is organized by a company, consider integrating your product. Most likely a hackathon theme or subject is defined. The theme can, for example, be related to music or sponsored by a specific company. If work is your goal, explore. Think of ideas for relevant programs or applications. Learn about your company’s API sponsors and create the pre-coded framework that you can customize on the fly. Pay attention to which the judges are and use their specialities to inform you about the tasks that are being built. If that were easy, right? Creating compelling revolutionary thinking isn’t that simple, but there are ways to ensure product creation that people might be genuinely interested in:

  • Think about your needs and how to meet them – you don’t need massive programs that people wouldn’t use. And judges don’t like each other either.
  • Come up with a general idea for solving the problem and then formulate it
  • Be realistic about what can be done on time

Form a Dream Team

Once you’ve set your goals and done research, the next step is to form a team! It’s tempting just to hire a programmer – after all, winning a hackathon requires knowledge of hacking. The thing is you need other people too – if one of your teammates isn’t a true master then must gain some experience from cyber security certification like Cisco training and CEH. You need visual experts first to make your app attractive, then content designers/engineers to translate it for judges. You have more control over your hackathon experience than bringing in a pre-trained team. But it also means starting behind those created in the past for teammates, ideas, and technology.

Hype People Up

On the other hand, it is believed that when an individual takes a part as a non-technical one, the dynamism along with concern move accordingly. The presentation at the end is also important to your cause – if you can’t encourage the team to your idea, you can’t expect the excitement of the judges. So, in short, you can pump!

Choose the Tech-stack

Hackathons are sometimes defined, for example, by technology – competitors must use angular. If you have the freedom to make a technical choice, it can be difficult to know which way to go. Think about flexible solutions, easy prototyping technologies and frameworks that work best for your business.

Be Ready

It is especially important if you have a team of trainee hackers on your team – they should know what to expect. If you spend time creating real work plans, keep in mind that we are usually too ambitious for the event. You can tell yourself they’ll get fired in 48 hours, but trust me, it won’t happen.

  • Don’t be a fool who doesn’t come to you on your laptop. On a hackathon day you want to shoot all four cylinders, so do whatever it takes to prepare.
  • Do we have enough space for people to work and sleep comfortably?

It Takes A Week To Prepare (At Least!)

Once your team, ideas and goals are strengthened, it’s time to get started! Book yourself to prepare for at least a week. Are you looking for a network? Find participants and make a list of people you want to find. Where to work? Make your tires, design elements and logos – and now practice it. Dive into the course and make a dummy project to learn new languages and frameworks. Note that although hackathon rules require that coding occurs at the event itself, work without coding can be removed.

Don’t Act As an Unprofessional

Teams win – not individuals. No matter how much you want to earn, be sure to think about your teammates. Remember, this is just the starting tone – it’s not life or death.

Take Care of Yourself

Hackathons are designed as stimulants. They will lock you in space, give you breathing, surround you with snacks and tell you not to sleep. The environment is intense, but you shouldn’t let it push you beyond healthy limits. Try to eat healthily and in the doses, you are used to (this is an appetizer, not a snack!), and be sure to determine a sleep schedule that you must adhere to. Taking care of yourself increases your work ethic and productivity, and ultimately your work.

Conclusion

Concerning a hackathon, it can already turn out that the project is well adapted to the market – in this case, consider how you could turn it into a full-fledged product that you could monetize. Did you know the hackathon or did you win one big prize? Listen carefully to the judges’ comments and add them to your column. For those unfamiliar with the Hackathon concept, this is a competition where teams of three to five people take place daily. Though, it usually involves creating software.

Comments are closed.