…And H is for Hackathon: My First Hackathon Experience At Findworka Academy:

Just like a hungry child waiting anxiously to be fed,
Just like a hungry lion chasing an antelope,
We all at Findworka academy were waiting for the Hackathon event. Looking at the event calendar at Findworka Academy, Hackathon is boldly written in all caps, as part of the needed experience in making us better developers.
We have been on frontend web developers track for eight weeks plus, and hackathon would be the icing on the cake.
A quick search on google defines hackathon “as an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming”.
Being new to tech, that alone was “scary”, I didn’t know what to expect, or how to go about that, It was my first time, but I was optimistic and looking forward to the event.
Hello, Hackathon:

On the day of the hackathon, I was excited but cold. It rained heavily and I hoped the event would be canceled because I felt unready, I was cold not because of the weather but because of fear of the unknown. I had a long thought a night before the event on what to expect and wondered if I would be ready for that. I managed to pull myself up, and went for the event, despite the rain. :(
When I got to the venue, I met them all smiling and enthusiastic about the hackathon, that alone leveled up my morale. :)
Team Omega:

The event started with a bit intro on what to expect, some rules set for the hackathon, and brief fun moments to calm down our nerves. At the end of all that, came the time to form teams for the hackathon.
We got divided into a group of two, front-end and back-end web developers, each group was made to go through a balloting process to form our teams.
In the end, we had five teams…
- Team Alpha
- Team Beta
- Team X
- Team Omega
- Team T5
My team got two front-end and two back-end developers…named TEAM OMEGA!
Pitching Ideas:
Ideas were pitched on various issues/challenges developers could proffer a solution to.

Altogether 17 amazing ideas were pitched by the participants after a few minutes of brainstorming and deep thinking. The ideas pitched went through a voting process, the top 5 were selected and assigned to the various teams.
- Team Alpha — Event Creation + Attendance App.
- Team Beta — Online Library App.
- Team X — Online Job Test and Assessment Portal App.
- Team Omega — Religious places directory App.
- Team T5 — Online Donation Campaign Site App.

With just less than 48 hours to go, It was time for us to get our hands dirty with code and our minds occupied with the task ahead.
Down But Not Tired:
The hackathon proper; My team and I spent some hours talking about the task ahead, We drew a mock-up site for the task with detailed user journey experience on what a visitor should expect throughout the app, A slack channel was created for further discussion on the project at hand.

I had a few assignments. They all involved creating and styling some of the pages for the project, I literally turned into a UI/UX designer. I was glad to take the task because it was something I knew how to do, or at least I could figure out how to do. I was reminded to ask Google when I got stuck. As easy as it sounds, I think there is a technique to it. I had to make sure I was asking the right question and that the answers I found were the answers I needed.

As the event went on, I was able to learn from other developers especially the backend guys, and other senior devs readily willing to help kill some bugs. I learnt a little bit about PHP and how it works.
We talked through code as we figured out how to abstract data from our database so we could display the data on our site.
Actually, I helped solve one of our problems when I wanted to push myself to try something new, All thanks to team collaboration. :)
The Demo:

During the demo, My team did quite well with the presentation, The judges were a bit tough with their judgment but then they were only trying to make us better developers…We had lots of feedback ranging from the user journey to how to generate revenue for the app if need be.

At a point, We felt discouraged by the feedback we got, but when they mentioned that we had one of the best UI/UX, that alone was enough to put some smiles on our faces. They made us understand that the goal was not to have a winner but to learn from working and achieving a result as a team. Impressive!
Final Thoughts:

Beyond the technical knowledge and experience, I learnt a lot from this event. It emphasized the importance of hard work, team collaboration, and excellence…
I got to understand that;
1: No idea is a waste no matter how little, do not give up on your idea.
2: When working on a project, always create the user journey; Always think of yourself as the user.
3: When working as a team, expect anything, sometimes things do not go according to plan, but be ready for disappointment.
4: Have confidence in yourself and in what you are working on.
5: When presenting your product, know and understand it very well, be able to explain it perfectly well. Be mindful of your words.

This is not the end, But the beginning of many hackathons I would gladly be part of.
P.S. -No particular team won, We all won! :)
