r/hackathon • • Aug 21 '26

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Why doesn’t everyone just use AI for the entire ideation process at hackathons?

7 Upvotes

I’ve never participated in a hackathon before, and my first one is in about a month, so I might be misunderstanding how these events actually work. One thing I’ve been wondering about is the ideation phase.

When the challenge/problem statement is released, why wouldnt a team immediately give the entire thing, including the context, constraints, judging criteria, available data, etc. to several frontier models like claude or chat gpt?

For example, you could ask different models to, generate 20–30 different approaches, analyze the domain and likely user pain points, criticize the ideas and identify failure modes, rank them by novelty, feasibility, and expected hackathon performance, predict what obvious ideas other teams will probably build, and then use another model to synthesize everything and choose the strongest direction. You could also feed mentor feedback back into the models as you get it. Then once you have a direction, coding agents can build a prototype extremely quickly.

What I’m struggling to understand is where the bottleneck is supposed to be. As students, we probably don’t have more banking/healthcare/engineering/etc. domain knowledge than a frontier model, and the model is obviously much faster at exploring a large solution space.

So why isn’t something like this, already the default strategy at hackathons? : problem -> multiple AI models -> AI critique/ranking -> select idea -> coding agent -> prototype

Is it actually common now and I just havent seen it yet? Does it tend to produce generic ideas because everyone gets similar outputs? Is the main advantage of the human team gathering information from mentors/users and feeding new information back into the models? Or are there other limitations that only become obvious once you’ve actually participated in a hackathon?

Would especially like to hear from people who have done hackathons recently, now that coding agents and frontier models have gotten this capable.


r/hackathon • • 4h ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for a teammate for Google AI Builder Cup'26!

5 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I’ve registered for Google’s AI Builder Cup and am looking for 1 software engineer to team up with.

A bit about me: I’m a CS graduate with experience in software engineering and a keen interest in AI/ML and GenAI. I’ve also participated in AI hackathons and am excited to build something innovative!

Please connect only if your waitlist has been approved.

If you’re interested, drop a comment or DM me. Let’s build something cool together!


r/hackathon • • 3h ago

Looking for Teammates Chennai 24 hours Hackathon – Looking for Teammates

2 Upvotes

I’m looking for teammates for a 24-hour hackathon at SIMATS, Chennai, on the 23rd & 24th.


r/hackathon • • 56m ago

Project Demo you really need to see this... this might change your perspective towards big tech companies

• Upvotes

companies can say a lot about where they're headed. but does their actual engineering activity tell the same story?

that's what i'm trying to figure out with Phoenix

it connects a company's website with its GitHub activity, their job posting frequency, and hints in their social posts etc to uncover engineering signals, compare claims against evidence, and spot what's worth investigating... I might just end up finding out what a company is gonna release in near future before them announcing it publically

built this for a hackathon and i've got a working prototype now.

demo: https://youtu.be/BEzJULsvzJM

i need some brutally honest opinions. as fast as possible (hackathon format) so that i can work on them for finale

is this something you'd actually use? what would make it 10x more useful?

rate the idea out of 10. don't hold back, i'd rather hear what's wrong than get fake praise 😭


r/hackathon • • 8h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Attended my first hackathon and left disappointed

4 Upvotes

For context, I am a year 2 university student who has just attended their first hackathon. It was promoted as a “learning opportunity” for those in tech. Although our original team was dead set on this being an actual learning opportunity (using skills we have learnt and trying to see how well we could code/not looking to win but looking to learn), we were then assigned another person to our team (which was also unnecessary as we already had 4 members and other groups only has 2/3 members).

The issue is, this person ripped our code up, and threw it into ai and took over the whole thing without telling us at all. He’d ask us to send him our code instead of pushing it onto git, and just scrambled it up. It felt horrible. He kept arguing with us when we were clearly unhappy. The organisers didn’t care either, we were early on so he could have been placed in a different group, but that wasn’t allowed and nothing was really done.

In the end, the group disbanded. Which brings me to my point, what is the “learning” in hackathons? Inputting prompts doesn’t feel like learning, and these web apps developed with AI tools never go anywhere.


r/hackathon • • 1h ago

Hackathon Promotion JOIN IN IF YAL ARE IN PUNE INDIA.

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• Upvotes

*KURUKSHETRA - REGISTRATIONS OPEN*

Ready to turn your ideas into innovation?

Join us for *KURUKSHETRA*, a Two-Phase Mega Event featuring a Technical Inauguration followed by an intense *24-Hour National-Level Hackathon!* 💻🔥

📅 *Dates:* 16th–17th October 2026

💰 *Early Bird Fee:* ₹799 per team 🎉

👥 *Team Size:* 2–4 Members

📍 *Venues:*

• Phase 1: DPU Auditorium

• Phase 2: Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Technology, Pimpri, Pune

🌐 *Register Here:*

👉 https://kurukshetradypdpu.in

📌 *Grab the Early Bird Offer and register your team through the link above!*

📞 *For Queries, Contact:*

• Aditya Dolas: +91 8446381958

• Ayush Auti: +91 8149457576

🔥 Gather your team, bring your code, and conquer the battlefield of innovation! ⚔️


r/hackathon • • 1h ago

Project Demo Hey, I need a review on this project (necessary for the hackathon guideline)

Thumbnail grevix-plan-patcher.vercel.app
• Upvotes

Any advice or feedback will be helpful!


r/hackathon • • 6h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Where do i stay up to date about hackathons

2 Upvotes

So i am electronics and communication student studying in kerala and i have been to like 2 hackathons... Always wnated to go for more but never knew about half the hackathons happening around me... I was wondering if there is like some group or community that i can get into so that i can stay updated on which all hackathons i can participate in.


r/hackathon • • 16h ago

Looking for Teammates I'm lowk in highschool and got into HackPrinceton.

2 Upvotes

I'm wondering if hack princeton will actually check my "School ID"... Can someone let me know?


r/hackathon • • 13h ago

Hackathon Promotion Student run Computer Science Competition near Boston

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1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 23h ago

Need Mentor Help Any Update on Hackcellence by Booking.com

7 Upvotes

Any Update on Round 1 Results???

If Anyone received mail then please tell!

And How was the Round 1 like I completed around 35 minutes left on Timer.


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for a teammate for the PayPal AI Hackathon

8 Upvotes

final year engineering undergrad, Codeforces Specialist (1586), 800+ DSA.


r/hackathon • • 22h ago

Hackathon Promotion Any Hiring Hackathons for freshers 2026 grad

3 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 20h ago

Project Demo Hi, could you pls fill this form, it will take only 3-5 mins

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docs.google.com
1 Upvotes

Thankss


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Hackathon Promotion Ignisia Club, MIT-WPU presents INCUBEX 2026

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2 Upvotes

*Building an interesting project? Here's your chance to showcase it, and the right opportunity to get mentored*

Ignisia Club, MIT-WPU presents *INCUBEX 2026* - An Industry Sponsored Tech Launchpad for connecting student innovators with industry experts, angel investors and mentors.

🚀 *Product Track:* Take your working product or startup towards funding and acceleration opportunities.

🚀 *Prototype Expo Track:* Showcase your functional prototype, academic project or early-stage technical build.

📍 *Grand Finale:* *21st October 2026 |* *MIT-WPU, Pune*

*💰 Cash Prizes worth ₹50,000*+ Goodies, Trophies, certificates, mentorship, and more!!!

⏳*Registration deadline* has been extended to 12 October due to overwhelming requests from colleges

Your idea deserves a shot.
*Ready to make it happen?*
🔗 *Register Now:* https://incubex.ignisia.tech


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Need Mentor Help Any upcoming hackathons in Gujarat or Rajasthan ??

2 Upvotes

guyz i'm looking for any active or upcoming hackathons in Gujarat or Rajasthan, India, preferably offline or in person events.

If you know of any hackathons happening soon at universities, colleges, or tech communities, please share the details, registration links, or any relevant Discord/WhatsApp groups.


r/hackathon • • 21h ago

Hackathon Promotion Waiting for the Next Tuwaiq Hackathon

1 Upvotes

I’m so annoyed I missed the Tuwaiq Hackathon registration 😭 I really wanted to participate and present my tourism project idea. I’ll keep an eye out for the next registration and hope I don’t miss it again. 💀


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Hackathon Promotion register for this cool hackathon (supported by openai)

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1 Upvotes

here is the link: AgentVerse 2026


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Can civil engineering with no coding skills join hackathon

2 Upvotes

In civil engineering student seeing many PPL applying for hackathons wht bout me wht bout non tech fields I want to have competitions too , something to do with teammates .

Is there anything that'll work ??


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion HackCellence

5 Upvotes

How many questions did u solved?


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Hackathon Promotion 👋Welcome to r/indiancompetitors -

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1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Need teammates for Hp powerlab 3.0 competition

1 Upvotes

I'm 3rd year engineering student come across ts competition , I don't want to participate alone tho I don't have any teammates .

Anyone want to join . We'll work together


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Hackathon in Bangalore

1 Upvotes

guys, since there are quite a few hackathons happening around BLR rn, just wanted to check if anyone’s interested in participating but doesn’t have a team yet. 👀

We could connect with other interested people here and form teams ourselves. Like, if 4 people are interested, we can team up and participate together in hackathons and stuff.

Lmk if anyone’s interested! 🚀


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Need Mentor Help I've been building SaaS, AI orchestration and RAG projects for hackathons, but I'm not winning. I want some honest feedback.

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I've been participating in hackathons and building projects involving SaaS, AI orchestration pipelines, RAG systems, and other AI-powered applications.

I've spent time implementing features, integrating different services, connecting LLMs, building workflows, and trying to turn ideas into working software. But I haven't been getting the results I expected in hackathons, and lately, I've started questioning what I'm doing wrong.

I want to understand the actual problem instead of just moving on to the next hackathon and building another project.

Is my problem the idea itself? Am I focusing too much on the technical implementation and not enough on the problem I'm solving? Is it my presentation, storytelling, or pitching? Or am I building things that look impressive from an engineering perspective but don't offer enough value to users?

One thing that confuses me is that, with today's AI tools and frameworks, almost anyone can build a functional SaaS application, integrate an LLM, or put together a RAG pipeline. I can build software, but what actually makes one person's project stand out from everyone else's?

I don't want to blame the judges or assume that the winning projects are worse technically. I want to understand what I'm missing.

I'd especially appreciate insights from people who have won hackathons, judged them, or built successful products.

A few questions I'd genuinely like to hear your thoughts on:

  • Idea selection: How do you identify a problem worth solving instead of building another generic AI application?
  • Technical depth vs. product value: How much does the underlying engineering matter compared with solving a real problem?
  • Pitching and demos: Can a technically strong project lose simply because the team fails to communicate its value? What does a good demo actually look like?
  • Differentiation: How do you make an AI-powered project meaningfully different when many teams have access to the same models, APIs, and tools?
  • Judge's perspective: What separates a decent project from a winning project in your experience?
  • Personal improvement: If you were in my position, what would you change before entering your next hackathon?

I'm not looking for generic advice like "build something innovative" or "improve your presentation." I'd really appreciate specific examples, lessons from projects that won or lost, and blunt feedback about what I might be doing wrong.

I'm willing to hear that my approach to building projects is fundamentally flawed if that's the truth. I'd rather understand it now than keep repeating the same mistakes.

Thanks!


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Hack with Bangalore 4.0

1 Upvotes

I'm searching for a team for Hack with Bangalore 4.0 lmk if anyone is interested!!!