Free, no signup required. Written for students who have never been to a hackathon and are not sure they belong at one.
A month-by-month plan for someone starting from zero, the five ways first-years lose a year, and four things to do this week.
What happens to your CV in the first twenty seconds, the four things that make a project worth listing, and how to write the entry in three lines.
Sorted by what you know so far — from one semester of C to a bit of web — with an honest note on how long each one really takes.
Most roadmaps are written for placement season two years away. This one is for someone who has just finished a semester of C, and it says what not to learn yet.
Ordered so each problem uses what the last one taught, with a hint that points at the idea rather than the code. Every one is solvable with a first-semester syllabus.
The eight commands that cover 95% of what you will do during a hackathon, plus how to not overwrite your teammate's work at 3 AM.
Presentation is 20% of your score and the easiest 20% to win. A structure, a script template, and the free tools to record it.
What to install, what to decide in advance, and the six mistakes that account for most first-timers not submitting anything at all.
Forty starting points sorted by difficulty, plus the reason judges score each type well or badly — so you can pick one you can actually finish in a weekend.
No jargon, no assumptions. What actually happens, what you are expected to produce, and what nobody tells you before your first one.
We publish these as we write them. If there is something you wish existed before your first hackathon, tell us and we will write it.
Suggest a topic Hackathon glossary