Hack the Hackathon
Some useful tips to win the hackathon you haven't thought about
Generally, any hackathon (a hackfest or a codefest) is a developers’ event in which specialists from different areas of software development (programmers, designers, and managers) collaborate intensively on software projects to solve a particular problem. The goal of a hackathon is to create usable software as a functioning product by the end of the event.
Each hackathon is focused on a specific area, for example, a programming language, operating system, application, software interface (API). After you realize your app or software meet hackathon standards and suits the contest framework to be integrated and run, a specific dev problem can be solved; you have all the reasons to take part in the event and win. You also get networking and investment opportunities, and business incubators’ participation as a bonus.
Usually, teams spend lots of time preparing for the hackathon: make your back end and front end operate well, set the goals, test in advance everything that is possible to test, and so on. However, the main work will be done at the hackathon itself. Meaning, there is an excellent chance for many things to go wrong (especially when you think they won’t). Here is a list of problems we have faced at Tendermint hackathon in Paris in April 2019.
Ref. For Paris Hackathon, we were going to make a demo of NODR script running inside the browser and registering all transactions inside Tendermint’s distributed ledger. We expected the code eventually to be available in a separate repository, which would be open-sourced on Github as an example of integration with a Tendermint blockchain platform.
- Our application relies on web-clients’ being able to negotiate a WebRTC connection through WebSockets.
- To work correctly an application also requires a steady Internet connection, so we couldn’t have used our mobile broadband, because it would’ve worked for a couple of minutes before all the traffic was gone.
Key success factors we want you to take into account and perfect your hackathon showcase:
- Code that showcases the technologies or themes that a hackathon promotes.
- A working demo. Better still if the viewers on their phones can access it.
- A clear presentation in fluent English (or any other working language).
Do not neglect our insights; sometimes even the smallest tips taken into account may guarantee a big victory.
