Timeline of a Hackathon
What to expect from the hackathon experience from applications to flying home
Hey everyone! I’m Stanford, a developer and marketing coordinator at nwPlus, the organization that hosts Local Hack Day and NwHacks. Since Grade 11, I’ve been attending hackathons across North America including NwHacks (UBC), Hack the North (Waterloo), TreeHacks (Stanford haha), PennApps (UPenn), and MedHacks (Johns Hopkins). Just because you haven’t been to a hackathon before, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start because they have been some of the most exciting and valuable experiences I’ve had. Here, I will show you what typically happens at a hackathon as well as some advice and tips to make your hackathon the best experience it can be.
In this guide, you’ll learn about:
- Hm? What’s a hackathon?
Here, I answer the common questions. - Preparing your technical skills for a hackathon
Resources, tools, free stuff! - Get ready to travel!
Transportation, lifesaving apps, and a packing list! - What happens before a hackathon
Team preparation. - During a hackathon
Starting your project, Food/Drinks, Sleeping, Hacker Experience, Demos - After a hackathon
Connect.
1. An introduction to hackathons.
Who can participate in a hackathon (affiliated with MLH)?
All students currently in post-secondary education are allowed to attend a Major League Hacking (MLH) hackathon. Each hackathon has different visions and may even allow high school hackers to attend. Additionally, anyone who has graduated within the last 12 months are also eligible to attend!
So yes, at nwHacks, we do allow high school hackers to attend!
What’s a hackathon?
By Major League Hacking’s definition (The official collegiate hackathon league):
A hackathon is best described as an “invention marathon”. Anyone who has an interest in technology attends a hackathon to learn, build & share their creations over the course of a weekend in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. You don’t have to be a programmer and you certainly don’t have to be majoring in Computer Science.
Ok, what exactly happens at a hackathon?
Under the umbrella of Major League Hacking (MLH), hackathons are free events and can be up to 12, 24, and 36 hours long. This includes meals, snacks, and swag! Some hackathons may even provide travel reimbursements (flight/train/taxi/gas) to get to the hackathon, you can usually find this information from the hackathon website’s FAQ or by contacting the organizers. Additionally, hackathons can include many recreational events and experiences such as dog petting, hiking, yoga, dodgeball, massages (yes even massages!) etc.
Where do hackathons happen?
MLH Hackathons are typically organized by students at universities, high schools. Sometimes they can be hosted by companies. They typically happen all across North America, there are some in Europe as well.
Many hackathons happen at the university itself. Usually large universities have a club or organization that hosts (a) hackathon(s).
When do hackathons happen?
Hackathons run year round and although it kind of slows in during the summer, there are usually online hackathons. You can check upcoming hackathons on the MLH website by clicking on “Attend a hackathon”
Why attend? (in no particular order)
- Bring an idea to life in a weekend! Make an impact on someone’s life!
- Fantastic opportunity to challenge yourself to grow and learn skills
- Gain real-world experience developing and practicing your technical and soft skills
- Meet like-minded people and grow your network (maybe even find a potential co-founder)
- At the end of it, you can use your projects to apply for internships and jobs
Did you know that the “Like” button on Facebook was created during a hackathon?
“But I don’t have a lot of experience programming or doing anything technical… How would I compete? Will I ever be good enough?“
A very common misconception to hackathons is that everyone there is a pro. “They probably all started programming when they were born from their mother’s womb”. While sometimes there are people who are very talented, often times you will find beginners and people who are just starting out. I mean you’ve got to start somewhere… and why not start now than never? Embrace this opportunity to challenge yourself to because nothing that is worth it comes easy. Luckily, there are plenty of resources to learn and later in the article, you will find some useful resources.
How do I get accepted to hackathons?
Be genuine and demonstrate enthusiasm and interest in creating/hacking things. It’s similar to writing college entrance essays (for those who are in high school, think of it as a cover letter or job application). Don’t put too much stress on yourself though. Effort and true character will shine through your application if that is what you show.
2. Technical Preparation
Read this great article by CS Dojo, an ex-Google software engineer!
Awesome-list (literally)
A list that contains many libraries/boilerplates/components. Familiarize yourself with the resources out there to fast track your building process during the hackathon.
Programming Preparation
If you have a particular skill that you want to develop, make time in the weeks beforehand to go through the basics! Here are some places to start:
- Web Development:
- LeetCode — Algorithm Practice for coding interviews:
- AI/Data science/Machine Learning:
Development Environment and Essentials to get started:
- Download your text-editor of choice (Currently the most popular one is Visual Studio Code) and install emulators, necessary dependencies, plugins, as needed (depends on the type of project you’re working on such as web app, VR, iOS/Android, etc.)
- Sign up for Github Student Developer Pack — Get free private repositories and “access to the best developer tools in one place so they can learn by doing”.
3. Sign up for DevPost — a commonly used platform for presenting and judging your projects
4. Knowing how to use git is a major asset.
3. Travel Preparation
Arranging travel plans
If the hackathon provides travel reimbursement, I would recommended booking your plane tickets/bus tickets as soon as possible to take advantage of the lowest prices (a good rule of thumb is usually 3–4 weeks in advance). Additionally, the hackathon organizers should be sending you a time frame of when to arrive at the hackathon, typically arriving before 7PM and leaving after 6PM local time.
Optional — I like purchasing a Thursday night ticket or early morning flight so I get a chance to explore the culture of the city I’ll be participating in.
Visas
This might sound obvious but every year, I hear about someone not being able to attend hackathons because they didn’t apply or get a Visa on time. As a result, they miss incredible opportunities. (But you don’t need a Visa to travel to the United States from Canada as a Canadian citizen, but check the government website just to be sure)
Time to book your flight/bus/midnight train going anywhere!
Flights
- For plane tickets, I highly recommend Google Flights, they usually are pretty accurate with their pricing compared to other sites.
- Try to book your full flight on a travel rewards card to get maximum benefits — such as health insurance, emergency trip cancellation/delay, etc. I personally use the TD Visa Infinite Aeroplan card.
- Frequent flyer miles — book on the same flight
Bus
- Although I haven’t taken a coach bus to a hackathon, here are some popular websites to book bus ticket. (Mostly targeting students on the East Coast because there’s not too many bus lines in the Pacific Northwest)
Emergency contacts
- Have close people readily available in your contacts.
- Know how to contact emergency services in the country you’re attending. (Google Trips is great for this)
Data/service
- Check your own service provider for good deals on roaming rates.
- This was recommended form a Reddit post I read a while back for Canadians travelling to the US.
Travel Apps
- Google Maps — Download offline maps
- Uber/Lyft — depending on your location (contains referral link)
- Citymapper — Some cities will indicate total cost for a trip. Very useful app, saved me from getting lost every time
- Google Trips — is great for obtaining local information including emergency phone numbers, modes of transports in a particular city, attraction information, food spots, unique traits about a city, and much more!
Packing List
Essentials
- Government issued ID + Student ID
- Sleeping bag
- 2 Hoodies
- 1 Jacket
- 1 Pair of flip flops — For showers and airing our your feet
- Deodorant
- Headphones — noise cancelling would be ideal
- Earplugs
Technology
- Laptop
- Powerbank
- Laptop Charger
Toiletries
- Toothbrush & Toothpaste
- Face wash/body wash/soap
- Face towel (can substitute as an actual towel)
Reusable water bottle
Optional:
- Hardware — check with MLH hardware lab to sign out hardware ahead of time so you don’t need to lug it around https://hardware.mlh.io
- Plastic bag or extra room in your backpack for swag!
4. Before a Hackathon — Team Preparation
Generally, here are the typical roles of a team (Note this is not an exhaustive list and really depends on the type of app you’re trying to build. Often you will find someone who does more than one role):
Front-End — Responsible for user-facing features such as the functionality of the user interface and the user experience of the app. For example, the buttons, dropdown, inputs, and the layout of the app to name a few. (In a car, this could be the climate control switches, automatic opening doors, door handle, etc.)
Back-End — Responsible for inner works of the application. For example, implementing databases, connections to API’s, account management, and algorithms, to name a few. (The engine of a car)
Designer — responsible for laying out the user interface and user experience, usually works alongside the front-end person. (The person who makes draws out the plans for the appearance and aesthetics of a car, internally and externally)
Business person/Presenter — responsible for making a brilliant presentation. Responsible for aspects such as performing a case study on the problem, considering the viability of your app, selling the app to the judges or “potential investors”, etc. (The sales person who sells someone a car)
Team Preparation
I recommend forming a team before you arrive at the hackathon so you can have an idea beforehand to maximize productivity. You can find teammates through Slack, Facebook Group, or in person. But it’s absolutely fine and normal to meet your team at the hackathon. Typically, there is a team-formation event near the beginning of the hackathon that is. There is usually a scheduled time for team formation.
Why should I find and work with people I’ve never met before?
Pros:
- The opportunity to learn from people with different experiences
- Learn to work with other people and develop a better understanding of team dynamics
- Network and connections for the future!
Cons:
- Varied/unknown skillset
- May not enjoy working with your teammates (doesn’t happen often though)
5. During a hackathon
Starting your project
- Use boilerplates
- Setup Github and version control
- Research on sponsor API’s to figure out what type prizes you can potentially win — Looking at DevPost or hackathon brochure
Meeting sponsors
- It’s almost like a mini career fair. Hackathons aren’t possible without the generous support from their sponsors. Companies come to hackathons because they want to hire interns/new grads.
- Can be a great idea to bring your resume along with you for those opportunities. Plus they usually give out a lot of free stuff. Who doesn’t like free stuff?
Food/Drinks
The food situation is subject to the hackathon organizers. Many hackathons have late/midnight snacks available, but some may not.
Sleeping
- Some hackathons may designate certain classrooms/lecture halls/rooms for sleeping quarters. But don’t expect to be living in a hotel. Most of the time, it’ll be a quiet hallway or under a table in a classroom
But sleep is for the weak!
- While there is a time crunch, I try to keep a good balance of sleep and coding. Most of the time my teammates and I take turns sleeping for about 2 hours each.
Hacker experience
- Hackathon isn’t just coding all the time.
- Some activities that may be available in order of occurrences: MLH Cup Stacking, Morning Yoga, Hikes, Massage (What? yup… Hack the North 2018), Capture the Flag, Band performance, the list goes on...
Submitting project
- Make sure you submit your project onto Devpost or whatever platform the hackathon uses. The organizers will probably give you a lot of reminders to do so.
Prepping for demo
- Polish a powerpoint if you can.
- Video demo if you can.
- Create mockups if you can
- Get some great screenshots of the app
- Creating a simple logo helps a lot
Pitching
- Probably one of the most important parts of the trying to win at a hackathon
- MLH typically gives out a sticker indicating that you presented/pitched at the hackathon
6. After a hackathon
- Remember to stay connected with friends via Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.
At the end of the day, the hackathon experience is what you make of it. So while this is just one perspective, I highly encourage you to utilize or not utilize these tips to craft your worthwhile journey at hackathons.
If you have any questions or would like to add more to this list, feel free to contact me at stanford (at) nwplus (dot) io
P.S. Make sure to sign up for nwHacks 2019 at nwhacks.io! We’re Western Canada’s largest hackathon and will bring 650 hackers together on January 26th — 27th, 2019. Applications are now OPEN!
Deadlines:
December 1, 2018 for those requesting travel reimbursements.
December 15, 2018 for everyone else!
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