Recently I participated in my first-ever online hackathon on devpost.com. It was quite a surreal experience. In this article, I will be explaining my full experience of the hackathon, why should you even do a hackathon, and the dos and don'ts. Make sure to read this full article because I believe it will be very useful.
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Why you should do Hackathons
Why should I even participate in hackathons? What do I get from doing online hackathons? For one, hackathons are a great way to get better at coding. Me personally, I learn how to integrate the ChatGPT library in frontend websites. Secondly, if you are a teenager aspiring to get into a prestigious university, hackathons look great on college applications. The third and final reason why hackathons may interest you is money. Many hackathons award their winners with prizes like money and gift cards. Even if you don't win, hackathons are a really great to participate in.
How to Find Online Hackathons
There are many websites that host online hackathons. Some of the best hackathon websites include Devfolio, HackerEarth, and Eventbrite. My personal favorite Devpost. When you are searching for hackathons on Devpost you must make sure that it is for your age. Most hackathons have certain age restrictions. Then you want to find a niche that you are talented or interested in. If you like working with AI then find AI-related hackathons. There is also a filter that helps you find beginner-friendly hackathons on Devpost. Lastly, you want to make sure that the hackathon suits your schedule. Once you've found a hackathon that suits you simply apply for it.
Teaming Up
You can either choose to work solo like me or build your project with a team. If you have friends that code you can simply ask to team up with them. Otherwise, you can find people on Devpost to team up with. Make sure to team up with people that will actually benefit your project. For example, if you are a front-end guy don't team up with another front-end person. Instead, partner up with a person who specializes in back-end so both of you can contribute to your project. At first, it may be hard to find good teammates but as you continue participating in hackathons and gain more and more experience, it will become a lot easier.
My Experience
The hackathon that I entered had quite an open-ended prompt. The only instructions were to build something on the theme of entrepreneurship. I didn't really find anyone else to team up with so I just worked solo. We had 5 days to work on the project. However, I was busy the other 3 days so I has only 2 days to work on it.
I decided to build an app that gives you a brief summary of the current news. Since it was my first hackathon I decided not to make it complicated. Building the app itself was pretty straightforward. I decided to make it on the web and used Vue.js. To get the news itself I used the NewsAPI and to summarize it I used the OpenAI API. Very simple. I did all of this in around 8 hours. Unfortunately, I did not come in the top 3 but I came close. Considering it was my first hackathon, I was pretty proud of myself.
My Regrets
Instead of doing everything on my own, I should have teamed up with others to produce a better project. I also should have made sure that I was able to use all 5 days to work on the project. In the end, to finish the project on time, I kind of slacked off on some parts of the project. If I had used my time effectively that wouldn't have been an issue.
Conclusion
Overall, considering that this was my first hackathon I am somewhat proud of myself. There were many ways I could have improved of course. I hope I can use what I learned to do better in my next hackathon. If you liked this post please give it a heart and comment down below what you found most helpful.