How to Take Part in a Hackathon and Win It
Hackathon is a kind of competition or an event in which the participants have to build any software or hardware of their choice in 24 hours. The participants may be teams or individuals from all over the world who are efficient enough to take part in this event. These Hackathons consist of a specific theme that may lie between solving a particular problem of delivery to improving the whole community altogether.
Hackathons may take place in an open area or they may be conducted by a specific company consisting of its members only. These competitions take place either to see the ideas and extent of the imagination of the participants or to implement the idea and earn some profits. Either way, these Hackathons are considered to be a Disneyland for any developer out there.
Tips to Win Hackathon
You may come up with some good ideas which you never got the chance to share or implement but this competition gives you the perfect opportunity to do it. But before entering this competition, you need to have a plan to make it all work. There are some things that you must keep in mind to win this Hackathon and they are mentioned below:
- Preparation of the Idea
In a competition, a lot of ideas get jumbled upon each other and you may mistakenly choose the less effective one in a hurry. Therefore, it is advised to thoroughly go through every idea one by one and select the one which is the most effective one according to your thinking. After selecting the idea, elaborate all the steps and then plan the entire idea in parts so that you won't get confused when the times comes. This step also shows your agility and ability to develop something in the time of three working days.
- Choose the Most Suitable Team
These competitions tend to go on for a long time, thus; you need to find yourself that team that is willing to stay awake and help you out with what you are building. It requires a team effort to win the Hackathons so you must choose that team that shares the same passion and agility as you to win it at any cost. You don't need a marketing executive or any product owner in your team, you need those developers who know what they are doing.
- Open-Source Projects
Critically choose the project to work with because some projects can take a lot of time to build software or hardware whereas others can do the job real quick. Therefore, thoroughly go through every open-source project and identify the one that all of your team members are okay to work with. You can even play around with some of the projects and if you think that it'd be better to add some more features, you can even send a pull request. It's all about winning the Hackathon, so you must go to every extreme to build an effective and winning software or hardware.
- Set Up the Machines
It is highly recommended to set up your machines prior to the Hackathon because setting up your machines on the spot can be extremely time-consuming. Installing all the databases, servers, systems, and accounts that provide Cloud services can affect the overall creation of your software or hardware. That is why you must keep everything downloaded to avoid the last-minute pressure and breakdowns.
- Productivity Tools
Every project or idea consists of specific tools and methods which can only be advised by the one who imagined it. You should keep all the tools that are necessary for producing hi-tech software or hardware to win this Hackathon. For example, you should get accustomed to using a specific manager known as the Clipboard Manager which can contain all the important scripts. These scripts can automatically carry out various tasks such as clearing tables, starting DBs, generating various frameworks, and launching DB shells, etc.
Final Thoughts
Take all your supplies with you, comfortably start implementing your ideas, and stay focused on what you are doing at every point. If you remember all of the above-mentioned tips, you will certainly come out victorious after a 24-hour timespan. However, be prepared for anything that may come in your way and if by any means you don't make it this year, never hold yourself back to try again.
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