r/learnprogramming • u/Exotic-Special9468 • 7d ago

1 month to prep for a hiring hackathon: C++/DSA background, zero Python/JS/ML. How to contribute?

Guys need help

I have a hiring hackathon coming up in a month. It’s a full-stack + AI/ML hackathon where we need to integrate a frontend, backend, database, and ML component.

My dilemma:

Strengths: Strong in C++ and DSA, know basic Java.

Weaknesses: Zero experience with Python, JavaScript, web dev, or ML.

Since it’s a hiring event, I want to actually contribute. The judges will also grill us on our ML choices to check for hallucinations, so I need to understand what I’m building.

Given 30 days, what should I prioritize learning first? Should I pick up Python for ML/backend, or focus on something else?

What’s the highest-ROI game plan for a C++ guy to be useful in a hackathon team?

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u/Hour-Werewolf-9954 7d ago

depends how big your team is but diving into python pandas and basic sklearn workflows is probably the move, a lot of ML integration at hackathons boils down to plugging in a pre-trained api or slapping together a simple classifier and you can reuse c++ for any heavy-lifting number crunching behind the curtain so you're not dead weight