Hackathon Hacks - A Guide for Web3 Hackathons

A simple hackathon guide with tips and tricks to win hackathon bounties.

Introduction

Hackathons have become globally popular for becoming the colorful and vibrant place where creativity, technology and collaboration comes together. These events often bring together developers, entrepreneurs, designers and tech-enthusiastics from diverse background to innovate or build brilliant projects within a tight timeframe, usually spanning 24 to 48 hours. But online hackathons can be longer than that. Becoming a hackathon winner isn’t just about having incredible coding skills. It involves planning, strategic teamwork, effective collaboration and contribution. In this hackathon guide, we’ll dive into the essential tips and tricks that can improve your hackathon experience and boost your chances of taking home some hackathon bounties.

Before the Hackathon: Laying the Groundwork

The very first step towards having your hackathon win is figuring out your interest and strengths. Every hackathon has it’s own themes healthcare, environmental sustainability or amazing tech products use-case or adoption which is the case for most web3 hackathons. Once you know which hackathon aligns with your interest, you’ve to assemble a team together (unless you’re hacking solo which is very unlikely).It's always amazing to bring together people with diverse backgrounds, such as a designer, a backend engineer, and a frontend engineer. Sometimes, having one senior full-stack engineer and even 1-2 junior engineers can be helpful. However, if you're a fresh graduate or new to hackathons, make sure you identify everyone's strengths and weaknesses first. It’s important to assign tasks/roles based on each members strengths and clearly defined responsibilities so that everyone has clear understandings of what is expected of them. In this way it would save the confusion and increase efficiency as a team.

Idea Brainstorming

Coming up with an idea to build during hackathon is an important task, the best way to do it is holding hackathon idea session with the whole team. Sometimes researching current industry trends and also reviewing previous hackathon winning ideas could be an important way to get inspirations.

It’s important to pick an idea which can be achievable rather than setting the bar way too high. Pursuing a complex idea can lead to not completing the hackathon project and too difficult to execute within the time constraint of the hackathon.

Technical Preparation and Skill Enhancement

Preparing for the technical part could save you a lot of valuable time. Make sure that each members have the all necessary softwares, libraries, and development tools installed and configured on their laptops or computers.

Creating a simple boilerplate code or templates for common functions can be the life saver.

It’s important to familiarize yourself with certain frameworks or API beforehand and have some basic code snippets ready to integrate. Additionally ensure that all the team members are proficient with collaboration tools like Git for version control.

To save time and add functionality, make use of existing APIs and open-source libraries. This allows you to focus on the unique aspects of your project rather than reinventing the wheel.

For example, integrating APIs for payment processing, mapping,oracle integration, having connect wallet function with the boilerplate/template ready or data analysis can enhance your project's capabilities without requiring extensive development time.

During the Hackathon: Execution and Efficiency

The most precious resource during hackathon is time. It’s really important to outline the project and break down the development process into smaller manageable tasks by setting a specific milestone and deadlines to keep the team on track.

It’s important to focus on building a functional prototype that showcase the key feature of your main idea. The goal is not to have whole application completed as a product but is to develop an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that clearly demonstrates what your solution and use-cases are.

Priortizing features that are essential to demonstrate your idea’s core value will often fetch better results. It’s better to have some polished features than a multiple half-finished ones. Remember, judges often prefer quality over quantity.

Overcoming Challenges

Maintaining a clear communication with the team is important. Doing a daily check in and sharing updates and even asking help while addressing challenges can help to adjust the plan as needed.

Make sure that the team members feel comfortable voicing concerns and suggestions. A collaborative environment where everyone can share their ideas and concerns lead to effective development of the solutions and avoid misunderstandings.

Hackathons are quite unpredictable and intense so the team can face technical glitches, integration problems or even ideas that don’t come out as expected. Stay flexible and be prepared to pivot if needed.

But in case, you hit a blocker, don’t hesitate to seek help. Web3 hackathons often have dedicated mentors and organizers even make sure thet there are office hours with the senior devs from sponsored companies. Utilize all of these available resources to overcome blockers more efficiently.

Consider having build in time buffers to account for unexpected challenges. This can prevent last-minute scrambles and reduce stress.

Presentation: Selling Your Vision

Hackathon Demo & Presentation

An engaging presentation that helps the audience to connect with your idea will convince the judges of your project’s value. Clearly explain the problem and explain how your solution take that into consideration while creating the use-cases. Highlight your unique approach and the impact it could have.

A live demonstration of your MVP in action can be far more pursuasive than just presenting slides. Slides are mostly good for emphasizing important data and visuals for your narrative.

Be prepared for the question-and-answer session that often follows the presentation. Anticipate potential questions the judges might ask and think about how you'll respond.

Listen carefully to each question, and take a moment to compose your thoughts before answering. Respond thoughtfully and confidently, demonstrating your depth of understanding of the project.

Tips and Tricks: Secrets to Stand Out

Understand the Judging Criteria

It’s necessary to understand what the judges are looking for. Normally judges asses the projects based on innovation, impact, technical achievement, and presentation quality.

Ensure that your project showcases originality. There are often times where teams submit their old ideas or not even creating some significant changes. As hackathon participants it’s important to be aware of these bad actions.

While submitting your projects, make sure you go through all the submission requirements and ensure all the resources are there. Often times many good projects becomes disqualified for simple mistakes like changing github repository names after the hackathons, not writing a proper README.md file and even not including proper links. Oftentimes the organizers mentions that it's quite alright to submit old project with freshly implemented innovative new features, keep in mind that it doesnt mean submitting old ideas/code that hasn't been worked on for months.

While building for hackathons, it’s necessary to understand all the sponsored technologies and their-use cases. There are different tracks and criteria while submitting the project. Make sure your project meets those, this increases the chances of winning hackathon bounties.

Hackathons can be stressful, but maintaining a positive and supportive team environment can make a significant difference. Encourage your teammates, celebrate small victories, and keep morale high.

Resilience is key. If you encounter setbacks, approach them as learning opportunities rather than failures. A can-do attitude can propel your team forward even when things get tough.

After the Hackathon: Leveraging the Experience

Hackathons are not just about winning; they're also about connecting with like-minded individuals. Take the time to network with other participants, mentors, and judges. These connections can lead to future collaborations, job opportunities, or valuable mentorship.

Engage with the broader community by sharing your experience on social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter. This can increase your visibility and open doors to new possibilities.

Document your project by uploading the code to a repository like GitHub and writing a brief overview. This not only preserves your work but also enhances your portfolio for potential employers or collaborators to see.

Remember that every hackathon is a journey. Regardless of the outcome, the skills you develop, the relationships you build, and the knowledge you gain are invaluable. Embrace the challenge and stay open to learning.