What to expect at your first hackathon
Advice from an internationally recognized hacker
Hackathons can seem intimidating for both newcomers to the tech scene and experienced programmers who are new to the hackathon community. Will I be able to keep up? What if I don’t know how to code? What if I don’t have a team? When I participated in my first hackathon three years ago, I harbored some of these same reservations.
Since then, I’ve attended upwards of 70 hackathons and earned my place as a Major League Hacking Top 50 Hacker. (You can read my MLH bio here.)
In this article, I’ll be sharing some basic hackathon tips to help you go from beginner to hackathon veteran!
Is this legal?!
One of the biggest misconceptions people have is that hackathons are about illegally “hacking” into people’s bank accounts, stealing passwords, or other sketchy activities.
This couldn’t be further from the truth! Hackathons are not illegal, and they’re not really focused on cybersecurity (or anti security) at all.
Soo… what is a hackathon?
I describe hackathons as “competitive project-making sprints!” You’re given a theme or challenge (i.e. mental health or using AI to improve access to education) and…
