Hackathon Tips for Beginners: Your First Hackathon Survival Guide
You don't need an idea or a team to go to your first hackathon. These hackathon tips for beginners cover what to set up at home and how to spend the 24 hours.
If you want to place, read the judging criteria first
Judges score on a published rubric, so read it before you write a line of code. A simple project that hits every item on it can beat a cooler one that doesn't.
You don't need an idea or a team just to show up and get something out of it, though. You can find both at the event.
You belong here
Events like HackMIT, HackUTD, and CalHacks run beginner tracks, mentoring, and workshops for people at their first hackathon.
Set up before you arrive
Do your setup at home so the event hours go to building. Sponsors and challenges usually drop 1-2 weeks early, so you'll have time to research them too.
Pre-hackathon checklist
Find a team that covers the gaps
No team yet? Join the Discord or Slack and find the #team-formation channel. Post an intro with your skills (basic is fine), and message people instead of waiting to be found.
Do This
- Diverse skills: frontend, backend, design, pitch
- 2-4 members total
- At least one confident presenter
- People you communicate well with
Avoid This
- ✕Four frontend developers
- ✕More than 4 people (coordination drag)
- ✕Nobody willing to present
- ✕Friends picked over skill diversity
Pro Tip
If you don't code, lead with your domain expertise and own the pitch.
Can non-coders actually win hackathons?
How to be useful on a team without writing code.
Build small, and plan the clock
Aim for achievable but impressive: something familiar with one twist. Our TalkTuahBank project at HackUTD 2024 was banking over a plain phone call, so it works for people with no internet or smartphone. If you want a sponsor's prize, use their API too.
Hours 0-2: Setup and plan
Scaffold the project with basic routing, then split up the tasks.
Hours 2-8: Core build
Build the 2-3 features your demo depends on, and nothing else yet.
Hours 8-12: Sleep and polish
Rest. Then clean the UI and fix rough edges.
Hours 12-20: Integrate and prep
Connect the pieces, write the pitch, record a backup demo.
Hours 20-24: Submit and rehearse
Finish the Devpost writeup and submit early. Then practice the pitch.
Take the sleep block
Rest in hours 8-12 instead of pushing through. The last 12 hours go to integration and the pitch, and you'll want a clear head for both.
Mistakes that cost first-timers the win
Watch for these
Pro Tip
At the 30-minute mark, ask a mentor. If there's no quick workaround, cut the feature.
Record the backup demo video. A 60-90 second screen recording with voiceover lets judges understand your project even if the live demo dies on stage. The clip below is SoundSearch, a solo first-place accessibility tool from the AIATL hackathon that guides users through complex websites with real-time voice over a phone call. After the event, that recording reached a recruiter and turned into an internship offer.
Demo video by Bill Zhang.
Pro Tip
At some events the deadline freezes your code but not the Devpost entry, so you can record the video after you submit. Check the rules first: some events count any edit after the deadline as a violation, or need the video link to submit.
Screen Studio is what I use to record hackathon demos
Auto-zoom, cursor smoothing, and webcam overlay are baked in, so you barely edit, which matters at hour 22. Worth a look if you're on Mac.
Affiliate link: I may earn a commission.
Hackathon Submission Playbook
Demo video examples, README templates, and the recording setup I use.
Win or lose, walk away with more
I started doing hackathons to land an internship. My first internship came from LA Hacks 2023, where I spent the weekend learning vector databases for a RAG-style chat app and we didn't win. I posted about it on LinkedIn anyway, and an interviewer who was building the exact same thing saw it. A week later I had the offer.
During
Go to the workshops, and talk to other teams and the mentors.
After
Push the project to GitHub and your portfolio, even unfinished.
Share it
Post your story on LinkedIn or Twitter.
If you don't place, go to another one. The UC Berkeley AI Hackathon 2023 fell on my UCSC graduation day, and I went anyway. I drove about an hour to get there, left midway through for a ceremony that ran about four hours, and ended up driving roughly four hours that day. That's how dedicated I was to hackathons back then. I didn't win anything. A year later, we won the Grand Prize there with Dispatch AI.
Key Takeaway
Finishing one project is a fine goal for a first hackathon.
How to Win Hackathons: The Complete Guide
When you're ready to compete, the full 7-phase system.
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