Rules

Rules & judging criteria

Published before the event and fixed. Judges score against exactly this — nothing here changes after submissions open.

How submissions are scored

Innovation & originality
30%

Is the idea genuinely yours, and does it approach the problem in a way we have not seen twenty times already? Novelty of approach counts more than novelty of topic.

Technical execution
30%

Does it actually run? Is the code organised enough for someone else to follow? Judged relative to where your team started, not against the strongest build on the leaderboard.

Impact & usefulness
20%

Does this solve a real problem for a real person? Can you name who would use it and why they would care?

Presentation & clarity
20%

Your demo video and README. Can a judge understand what you built and why in three minutes without asking you a question?

First-years are scored within their own track. The same four criteria apply, but a team where nobody has been to a hackathon before is also ranked against teams with three years more experience.

What you may and may not do

Allowed

  • Open-source libraries, frameworks and templates
  • AI coding assistants — Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude and similar
  • Free-tier APIs and hosting
  • Stock assets and icons you are licensed to use
  • Planning, research and environment setup before kickoff
  • Asking mentors for help as often as you need

Not allowed

  • Writing project code before kickoff — judges check commit history
  • Submitting a project you did not build
  • Reusing a project from another hackathon or coursework
  • One person registering on behalf of several people
  • Sharing your submission with another team before the deadline
  • Any form of harassment or abuse — see the code of conduct

Team rules

  • Teams of 1 to 4 people. Solo entries are welcome and judged on the same rubric.
  • Every member registers and pays individually. A team is not registered until all of its members are.
  • You may form and change teams freely until the first round opens. After that, composition locks and members cannot be added or removed.
  • Members may be from different colleges, different years and different cities.
  • Each person may be on one team only.

What you must submit

  • A public code repository link with visible commit history from during the event window.
  • A demo video, maximum 3 minutes. Screen recording is fine. Judges stop watching at three minutes, so lead with what it does.
  • A README covering what it is, who it is for, how to run it, and what you would build next.
  • A live link if you managed to deploy it. Optional, but it counts toward technical execution.

Submissions missing the repository or the video are marked incomplete and are not scored.

Disqualification

We disqualify for plagiarism, pre-written project code, fake registrations, and breaches of the code of conduct. Disqualification is decided by the organising team, communicated by email with the reason stated, and carries no refund.

If you believe a decision was wrong, reply to that email within 72 hours and a second organiser who was not involved reviews it. That review is final.

Judges' decisions are final

Scores are not published per-team and results are not open to appeal on the basis of disagreement with a score. What you can always ask for is feedback — email support@firsthack.in after results and we will share what the judges noted about your submission.