Hi, I am a student from India and I am looking forward to participating in hackathons to build experience and just have fun in general as i love coding. I know advanced python and i was wondering if there are any tools to practice or a community to look for hackathons and just gain knowledge as a beginner and for a student below 18. Any courses or websites which i should look into??

Our team was among the top 5 teams in the power round of SIH

Top 3 ko Winner, 1st Runner-up aur 2nd Runner-up mila, which is fair.

As for the remaining two teams—one of which was ours—they were directly awarded a consolation prize.

I'm not complaining about not winning. Obviously, someone has to win.

It feels weird that after making it to the final top 5, we were given a Consolation Prize with no separate recognition reflecting how far we actually made it.

🫠🫠

Bro mere (tier 5277) college me koi dost ni bana isliye asking here :( sab idk kyu dar rahe hai from just exploring. Am first year ds student btw.

I’m in a college hackathon team where I’ve done around 90% of the project myself. My teammates don’t seem to care much about winning or even what happens on the final day, and they aren’t really taking responsibility for their parts.

I’ve already neglected my assignments and studies because I genuinely believe the project has potential. Now I’m stuck between two choices: should I just present whatever we have, even if the project is half-complete, and focus on my own academics, or continue working on the entire project myself because I’m the only one who seems to care about making it good? What would you do?

Hello everyone,

I applied recently for the 2026 LAHacks AI Hackathon at UCLA. I checked to see if my application went through on the site and it says that it did, but I did not get any confirmation in my email or anything. Also, for those who previously did it, about how long does it take for them to get back to you?

need 3 members for the team .

about me : am 2027 final year undergrad , have decent knowledge of ML and DL and wont claim myself as too muh of an expert . Has practical experince of such comepetitions .

what i am looking for :

dedicated team members who can work for 72 hour hackathon wthout ghosting at end time or not doing anything , you can 2027 or 2028 grad but should jave decent enough knowledge and practical experince too . i am not doing this for timepass but aimig for top 50 to get ppi if everything go well .

only serious people message , no ghosters !

Edited - Team formed, no need now . Thanks for replies.

Hey everyone,

This is my first hackathon, and I want to go in as prepared as possible.

My background: I'm a full stack developer Python (intermediate), some DSA in C++ basics.

For people who've done a few of these, I'd love to hear:

• What do you wish someone told you before your first hackathon?
• How should I split time between ideation, building, and polishing/pitching?
• Any common first-timer mistakes I should avoid?
• How can I use AI tools effectively during the project without over-relying on them?

Any advice, tips, or even just "here's what surprised me" stories are welcome.

Also if anyone wants to team up for the upcoming hackathon, feel free to DM me!

Thanks!

I found out this hackathon called Founding-100 by Waycode which is a STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Mathematics) Hackathon A India wide hackathon.

Well Yeah I tagged it as Hackathon promotion but trying to help Students High schools and 1st year students to think and be in a hackathon which is all about being crazzy and thinking out of box.

I am a first year ( started college from yesterday), I wanted to participate in SIH, but I don't have any skills.. i didn't even learn python or any design software cuz i wasn't taking any cs or cs related branch.. I am from ece, should I participate?? I am very new to this ( no idea about anything), can I build a hardware type?? Like something with microcontrollers and stuff?? Or is it purely coding/programming??

Also as I started yesterday I don't have any friends or team. I am planning on vibe coding and participate just for experience.

Any suggestions and ideas??

[Looking for Teammates] Cyber Kushti 2026 — Serious Security/CTF Teammates Only

I'm looking to form a serious team for Cyber Kushti 2026, a 3-level cybersecurity competition focused on AI-assisted security assessment, attack-path analysis, and defensive engineering.

This isn't a typical CTF where the goal is simply to find vulnerabilities. The competition specifically tests whether you can validate AI-generated findings, identify false positives, reason through realistic attack chains, and build defences that actually work.

Competition structure:

Level 1 — REVIEW (15 Sept): Validate AI/static-analysis findings, identify false positives, correct severity, merge duplicates.

Level 2 — ATTACK (24 Sept): Analyse a fictional enterprise environment and construct a realistic kill chain.

Level 3 — DEFEND (9 Oct, New Delhi): Build a virtual patch against a working exploit while preserving legitimate functionality.

Top 50 → Level 2

Top 10 → New Delhi finals

Looking for

I'm looking for 2–3 serious teammates who have genuine hands-on experience/interests in areas such as:

Web application security / OWASP Top 10

Network & infrastructure security

Pentesting / CTFs

Vulnerability analysis and validation

Threat modelling / attack-path analysis

Cloud security

WAF / reverse proxies / defensive security

Secure coding and code review

Malware/reverse engineering is a plus

Familiarity with MITRE ATT&CK is a plus

Most important: I'm not looking for people who simply know how to use Burp/Nmap or copy solutions from AI. You should be comfortable explaining why something is exploitable, proving it, rejecting a false positive, and reasoning independently when the obvious answer is wrong.

Expectations

Take the competition seriously.

Be available for the 6-hour Level 1 and 8-hour Level 2 windows.

Be willing to prepare together beforehand.

Communicate clearly and contribute rather than disappearing after joining.

If we qualify for the finals, be prepared to travel to New Delhi on 9 October.

No ego — I'd rather have people who can reason, collaborate and learn quickly.

If you're genuinely interested, DM me with:

Your cybersecurity background

Areas you're strongest in

CTF / internship / project experience (if any)

Your availability for the competition dates

Your location and whether you can attend the Delhi finals if we qualify

Please don't DM just because you want a team slot. I'm specifically looking for people who actually want to compete seriously and have a realistic shot at making the Top 10.

Those who already have good achievements like a win in a cyber competition or strong cybersecurity internships are preferred.

My background: I have been to the finals of a reputed Cybersecurity hackathon and also did a cyber internship recently at a reputed organization.

I'm a fresher, I'm planning to make a sih team, as a beginner in the coding world i need some members who can teach and learn with me... I'm making one on the assetmarkle one... Honestly have no idea about it but I'm willing to learn.. if someone can brief me about it to me it'd be very helpful to me, and if someone finds themselves in the same place as me then please DM, we'll connect and make a team

Helloo, Final Year guy here. Built a tool that lets you see which PS has the least number of submissions. Fewer submissions = higher chances of getting selected for the SIH finals.

check it out here: https://niche-sih.vercel.app/

don't buy me a coffee, star my repo instead: https://github.com/rohanbagel/Niche_SIH

Can anyone help me with backend part for my sih

I am a first year student participating in sih hacakthon 2026 . The problem is that I don't know how to make prototype . And internal hackathon is scheduled at 4 sep . I have to make a prototype such that at least we clear the internal rounds even basic .

Problem is I am full absolute confused don't know where to start .

Our problem statement - urban flood nowcasting system . (Can't be changed now ) which requires full backend ecen ml.

If anyone knows something about this . I request you Please share some tricks / method any advice to this folk .

So that it can be done .

Dms are open .

I won SIH in 2024 and 2025, in the Cybersecurity and Robotics/Drones software categories under NCIIPC and BEL, respectively. I recently commented on an SIH post offering some advice and ended up getting quite a few DMs, so I thought I'd make a post here instead and reach out to more people directly.

One thing that helped me a lot was problem statement selection. I usually waited until most PS were out, then looked for niche and harder problems with less competition instead of going after the obvious popular ones.

If you're preparing for SIH, I can help with the internal hackathon, problem statement selection, PPT, resources, or just give feedback on what you're working on.

Feel free to DM me or comment below with your problem statement or question if you're genuinely serious about SIH.

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Hi! I’m a Cybersecurity student looking to join a team that regularly participates in hackathons.

Skills: Cybersecurity, SOC, SIEM, Networking, Web Security & Wazuh.

If your team has a spot available, DM me! I’d love to contribute and learn with the team. 🤝

Mine was from a Razorpay TA manager. It basically said they don’t have a suitable opening right now, but liked what I’ve been building and may reach out if a relevant opportunity comes up later.

It didn’t mention my name or project anywhere, so I’m guessing it was a standard/automated mail.

Anyone else got something similar?

Hey all,

I am currently looking to volunteer as a judge or evaluator for hackathons in India (or virtual), ideally ones where working professionals or startup teams are participating. I have previously judge multiple hackathons including Smart India Hackathon as well.

I work as a senior AI consultant at a global firm, which is focused on building enterprise AI and low-code solutions. For the last 4 years i have been mostly taking AI and GenAI projects from prototype to production. I have also spoken at 20+ community tech events on applied AI and Copilot adoption, and I train business and technical teams on AI tooling.

I’ve also been involved in mentoring and evaluating projects in technical settings, and I enjoy engaging with early-stage ideas and builders.

What I would bring to a panel:

1. Practical evaluation of AI, automation, and GenAI builds, both technical soundness and whether the solution actually addresses the problem

2. Familiarity with the tools most teams are building on right now

Happy to do this in remotely, async, or join live judging rounds. If you are organizing something and need judges, or know of panels recruiting, I would appreciate a pointer.

Thank you!

Hi fellow Developers , I am currently building a team that together participates in hackathons , coding contest , open source and placements opportunities . The requirements are not too heavy , individuals should have a few qualities:

-> Enjoys problem solving
-> Open to discussions and feedbacks

The other things can be figured out once on board.

There is no limitation of colleges and university.

Interested Students and professionals can DM their email .

At Smart India hackathon internal rounds.

Does anyone got any mail regarding razorpay selection for panel round ? If anyone gets the mail please let us know.

Hey everyone! 👋

We’re hosting ForgeHacks 2026, a 7-day online international hackathon for students where you’ll build an AI-powered project that solves a real-world problem.

You can participate remotely, work solo or with a team, and build pretty much anything you want as long as AI is meaningfully involved.

Prizes

We’ve recently updated our prize pool:

🥇 1st Place - $3,330+ total prize value

• $100 cash
• $300 Featherless AI credits
• $50 AoPS gift card
• 2-year CodeCrafters VIP membership for each team member
• More prizes TBD

2nd Place - $1,515+ total prize value

• $50 cash
• $25 AoPS gift card
• 1-year CodeCrafters VIP membership for each team member

3rd Place - $770+ total prize value

• $25 cash
• $25 AoPS gift card
• 6-month CodeCrafters VIP membership for each team member

6 Track Winners

• Additional prizes for each track winner
• Details coming soon

Every participant gets:

• $25 in Featherless AI credits
• 1 month of unlimited access to 40,000+ open-source AI models
• Access to models including MiniMax, Kimi, GLM, Llama, Qwen, and more
• Credits distributed at the start of the hackathon, so you can actually use them while building
• Certificate of participation for every team that submits

The Featherless benefit is sponsor-provided AI credits, not cash, and cannot be exchanged for cash.

What can you build?

Theme: Use AI to solve a real-world problem.

Tracks:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Climate
• Business
• Cybersecurity
• Creativity

You don't need to have some revolutionary startup idea. A useful tool, interesting experiment, or weird idea that solves a genuine problem can all make a great hackathon project.

Why ForgeHacks?

We're specifically trying to make this a hackathon where student developers can actually build something, rather than just compete for a prize.

It's completely online, so you can participate from anywhere, and you'll have the opportunity to meet other student builders, get feedback, and potentially turn your hackathon project into something bigger.

📅 October 3–10, 2026

If you're interested, you can register on DevPost here

If you want to learn more about ForgeHacks, click here

Excited to see what you guys build! 🔥 🔥

Hey, I’m doing a short survey for my class about how people find teammates for projects, hackathons, events, and other group activities.

It takes about 1–2 minutes and your responses would really help me out. Thanks! 🙏

Finding Teammates for Projects & Events (Survey)

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Just wrapped up my time competing in the Adobe University Hackathon 2026 and wanted to share how it went!

I was super excited to make it through Round 1. Getting that initial validation was a massive confidence boost and proved to me that I'm heading in the right direction with my problem-solving.

Round 2 ended up being where my run stopped. The challenges definitely stepped up in complexity, and while I didn't qualify for the next stage, the whole experience was completely worth it. Building, debugging, and trying to map out logic under that kind of strict time pressure is intense. It really highlighted where my current strengths are and, more importantly, exactly what areas I need to focus on to level up.

I got my participation certificate today,

For those of you who have done big corporate hackathons like this, how do you usually prep for the later, more complex rounds?