i signed up for my first hackathon expecting to learn something. i left with no sleep, a half-working project, and a third-place certificate. it was chaos, but the good kind.
before the hackathon
the announcement came through our college coding club. 36-hour hackathon, teams of 4, open theme. the prize was modest but that wasn't the point. i wanted to see if i could actually build something under pressure.
found three teammates:
- a friend who knew react
- someone from another branch who was "good at backend"
- a random guy who joined because his team bailed
we had never worked together before. this would be interesting.
hour 0: the panic
theme announced: "solutions for everyday problems"
vague enough to be anything. we spent the first two hours just brainstorming:
- "what about a study planner?" (too common)
- "food delivery app!" (we're not swiggy)
- "smart attendance system!" (our college already had one)
finally settled on: a split-expense tracker for hostels. we all had the pain of splitting chai money among roommates. relatable = good.
hours 2-10: the grind begins
division of labor happened organically:
- i handled the frontend (react, obviously overengineered for an mvp)
- backend guy set up node + express + mongodb
- random guy worked on the "math" (splitting algorithms, surprisingly complex)
- react friend... well, he helped me
the first few hours were productive. then reality hit.
// me at hour 6
const calculateSplit = (expenses, members) => {
// this should be simple
// why is it not simple
// who owes whom what amount???
}
the settling algorithm (figuring out minimum transactions to settle all debts) took us 4 hours. we could've googled it earlier.
hours 10-20: things break
around midnight, everything started falling apart:
the database crashed. something about connection limits. backend guy was panicking.
our merge had conflicts. three people pushing to main without pulling. classic.
the ui looked terrible. i was focusing on functionality, forgot that judges would see this.
/* my css at 2am */
.button {
/* why won't you center */
margin: auto;
text-align: center;
/* please */
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
/* i hate css */
}
pizza arrived at 1am. temporary morale boost. then back to debugging.
hours 20-30: the comeback
something magical happens when you're sleep-deprived and caffeinated. you stop overthinking.
- backend: simplified the database schema. worked.
- frontend: copied a css template. looked decent.
- the algorithm: finally made sense after random guy explained it with money emoji on the whiteboard.
by hour 28, we had a working demo. barely.
hours 30-36: polish and pray
last stretch. focused on:
- making the demo flow smooth (practiced what to click, what to show)
- fixing the most obvious bugs
- adding a logo (canva, 10 minutes)
- writing a README (github requires it, apparently important)
submitted with 30 minutes to spare. then crashed on chairs for a power nap.
the presentations
watching other teams present was humbling. some had ar/vr features. some had ml models. we had a calculator that told you who owes whom money.
but when we presented, something clicked. the judges related to the problem. they'd split bills with friends too. our demo worked (mostly). we could explain why we built it.
hackathons aren't about having the most advanced tech. they're about solving a real problem convincingly.
the result
third place. certificate, small cash prize, and more importantly: proof that we could build something under pressure.
the project was rough. the code was spaghetti. but it worked, and we made it in 36 hours.
what i learned
teamwork under pressure is different. no time for proper planning. you just divide and trust.
scope down aggressively. our original idea had accounts, friend requests, notification reminders. we shipped with basic input and calculations.
demo > code quality. judges see the demo, not your elegant async/await. make the demo work.
sleep is optional, but judgment suffers. some of our 3am decisions were... questionable.
just submit something. imperfect and submitted beats perfect and unfinished.
would i do it again?
absolutely. that hackathon was one of the most fun, stressful, rewarding experiences of college. no class teaches you to build and ship in 36 hours.
the project is still on my github. the code is embarrassing. but the memory is golden.
if you're thinking about joining a hackathon: do it. worst case, you get free pizza and a story. best case, you build something cool and win something.
also, learn the split-expense algorithm before you need it at 2am.