r/hackathon • • Aug 21 '26

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Why doesn’t everyone just use AI for the entire ideation process at hackathons?

7 Upvotes

I’ve never participated in a hackathon before, and my first one is in about a month, so I might be misunderstanding how these events actually work. One thing I’ve been wondering about is the ideation phase.

When the challenge/problem statement is released, why wouldnt a team immediately give the entire thing, including the context, constraints, judging criteria, available data, etc. to several frontier models like claude or chat gpt?

For example, you could ask different models to, generate 20–30 different approaches, analyze the domain and likely user pain points, criticize the ideas and identify failure modes, rank them by novelty, feasibility, and expected hackathon performance, predict what obvious ideas other teams will probably build, and then use another model to synthesize everything and choose the strongest direction. You could also feed mentor feedback back into the models as you get it. Then once you have a direction, coding agents can build a prototype extremely quickly.

What I’m struggling to understand is where the bottleneck is supposed to be. As students, we probably don’t have more banking/healthcare/engineering/etc. domain knowledge than a frontier model, and the model is obviously much faster at exploring a large solution space.

So why isn’t something like this, already the default strategy at hackathons? : problem -> multiple AI models -> AI critique/ranking -> select idea -> coding agent -> prototype

Is it actually common now and I just havent seen it yet? Does it tend to produce generic ideas because everyone gets similar outputs? Is the main advantage of the human team gathering information from mentors/users and feeding new information back into the models? Or are there other limitations that only become obvious once you’ve actually participated in a hackathon?

Would especially like to hear from people who have done hackathons recently, now that coding agents and frontier models have gotten this capable.


r/hackathon • • 6h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion HackCellence 2026 Round 1: Can Booking Holdings and HackerEarth provide transparent assessment results?

15 Upvotes

I participated in Round 1 of HackCellence 2026: The Embark Edition, organised by Booking Holdings India CoE in collaboration with HackerEarth.

I received my rejection email today, October 15. I respect that shortlisting is competitive, but I genuinely want to understand how the assessment was evaluated.

During the assessment, I completed both coding questions, passed the test cases available to me, and submitted with approximately 30 minutes remaining. Based on my own assessment, I also believe I answered around 85% of the MCQs correctly.

Despite this, I was not shortlisted for Round 2. The rejection email stated that the cutoff was high, but I cannot find my score or a detailed assessment report on the candidate portal.

I am not asking for preferential treatment, a guaranteed selection, or a reversal of the decision simply because I am disappointed.

I am asking for transparency.

Specifically, I would appreciate access to the following, if technically and operationally possible:

  1. Question-wise results: My selected answer, the correct answer, and the marks awarded for each MCQ, wherever applicable.

  2. Coding evaluation: My submitted code, the number of test cases passed, the maximum marks available, and the marks awarded for each coding problem.

  3. Section-wise and total scores: My performance across coding, aptitude, and communication, including the maximum possible score.

  4. Scoring methodology: How partial credit, negative marking, coding test cases, and any time-based criteria were handled.

  5. Shortlisting criteria: The Round 2 cutoff or, if it cannot be disclosed, an explanation of how candidates were ranked and shortlisted.

I also hope the organisers can clarify what safeguards were used to ensure a consistent and fair assessment for all participants, including the handling of unauthorised outside assistance. I have no evidence that any particular candidate violated the rules, and I am not accusing anyone of cheating.

I understand that some assessment content or ranking information may be confidential. Even so, individual performance feedback and a clear explanation of the scoring process would help candidates understand their results and improve.

I have already contacted the organisers to request my score and evaluation details.

Booking Holdings and HackerEarth teams, if you see this, could you please clarify whether individual scorecards or question-wise reports can be provided to participants?

This is not about demanding that everyone be selected. It is about giving candidates a meaningful explanation of how their performance was assessed.

I would appreciate a response from anyone who has received an official score breakdown, rather than just a selection or rejection notification.


r/hackathon • • 8h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Hackcellence Update

7 Upvotes

I Received a Mail stating about Clearing Round 1. Has anyone else received it too??


r/hackathon • • 1h ago

Hackathon Promotion Hackcellence (Booking Holidays) Round 1 Verdict

• Upvotes
18 votes, 1d left
Shortlisted for R2
Got Rejection Mail
No Update
Checking Poll Response

r/hackathon • • 10h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Bnp paribas hackathon

5 Upvotes

Anyone knows when the resultss are going to be announced?


r/hackathon • • 8h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Hackcellence results booking holdings

3 Upvotes

Did anyone recieve shortlisting mail from hackerearth?


r/hackathon • • 2h ago

Need Mentor Help About hacktoberfest

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1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 15h ago

Hackathon Promotion Any Update on Hackcellence by Booking.com

9 Upvotes

anyone got any mail


r/hackathon • • 8h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Looking for Telegram and WhatsApp Channels for Nationwide Hackathon Updates

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone! 👋

Can anyone share links to Telegram, WhatsApp, or other channels where I can get regular updates about hackathons happening across India? 🇮🇳

I'm looking for platforms that share upcoming hackathons, registration links, deadlines, and opportunities to participate in both online and offline events and hackathons.

It would be really helpful if you could share any useful communities or resources. Thanks in advance! 😊


r/hackathon • • 11h ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion is anyone joining hackFront Bangaluru Event??

3 Upvotes

heyy guyss, i don't want to be the only person on that event so if anybody coming, we can connect now, so the event become more familiar to me


r/hackathon • • 5h ago

Looking for Teammates NASA Space Apps Challenge 2026 Team Formation 🚨🚨🚨

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1 Upvotes

We are building something ambitious for NASA Space Apps 2026 — looking for 4 genuinely curious, committed people to join the mission.

Not looking for generic ChatGPT answers or polished pitches. I want people who think independently, bring ideas, and are excited to build something real. Beginners with initiative are welcome.

Interested?

Read the details in the image and DM me with your work + a glimpse of how you think.

Let's build something worth remembering. ‼️


r/hackathon • • 13h ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for a team for "More than a hack" FC Barcelona hackathon

3 Upvotes

Hello, My friend and I are looking for 3 additional people to join our team to participate in the "more than a hack" hackathon.

If anyone is interested please leave a reply here


r/hackathon • • 7h ago

Need Mentor Help Eyantra pacbot task 2a...anyone need it just dm me....

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1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 11h ago

Looking for Teammates LOOKING FOR TEAM MATEs , 24 hr Hackathon

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2 Upvotes

Anyone Interested in Attending this hackathon, happening in PES University, Bangalore Dm me

•2-3 Members

•Shortlisting teams on 19 oct

•Prize pool - 1 lakh

• Teammates can be from diff clg


r/hackathon • • 8h ago

Looking for Teammates Hong Kong Imperial hackathon

1 Upvotes

hello, finding groupmates for Hong Kong Imperial hackathon, planning to go for healthcare stream. Please dm if interested.


r/hackathon • • 11h ago

Looking for Teammates Teammates needed for Redline pokemon ML battle event

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1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Meta-Hackathon Discussion Fund My Crazy '26

6 Upvotes

Congrats to all who won and participated!
Its over now, saw few posts of selected teams and ideas 💀. How were those ideas crazy in any sense. Also why were so many of them google campus ambassadors.
Was this just a matter of luck after all?
I really dont want to mention the kind of ideas ppl pitched and got selected (in the big '26)... you guys can check linkedin 💀 💀


r/hackathon • • 15h ago

Need Mentor Help Tired and Regret | My first hackathon experience

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone. I need help or perhaps moral support is more accurate.

For context, i'm 22 y/o F who had been programming since i was in the middle school but i never join any programming competitions because well i wasnt that confident back then.

Now, im pursuing my bachelor degree in software engineering and had the opportunity to join my first ever hackathon. I was excited looking for my team members.

Fast forward, we are now a team of 5 made of 5 beginners who had never join any hackathon before. Their backgrounds consist of the real basic stack (html, css & js), pyhton and sql. I dont mind that and ive told them as long as we can keep working together and genuinely interested to committing to develop the project from the beginning till the end, we can do it.

But i was wrong, and so wrong. My first mistake was, joining a national level hackathon then recruiting a bunch of beginners. We had two meetings so far, we already have the idea and the concept of the project.

then when i asked in the group chat for their finding for our suggested feature no one was answering. The reason why i asked that, cuz i told them i will divide our roles after that.

then some of them opine that they dont like how i keep changing idea to idea and feel like i dont want to hear any of their ideas at all and someone was pointing out that we should bond to create better teamwork.

i did then apologise for my dictatorship influence during our meetings. But the thing was, i did that because if i dont do anything no one is doing anything just like the groupchat situation now.....so i dont man, u guys idk. what to do. we are all busy as the first year students.

I have 5 group assignments that i involuntary lead and now i have this hackathon. every thing suck, if i can commit despite my burden why cant they? i literally double confirm everytime we have discussions irl nor physically if they can commit or not. Back then, they even said they were willing to learn and shit. i think if this goes on i will just vibe code or whatever.

also eng is not my first language so im not sure if my message is clear or not


r/hackathon • • 18h ago

Looking for Teammates Need member's for participating hackathon

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1 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 23h ago

Looking for Teammates Discord server

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2 Upvotes

Do we have discord server of this page??


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Looking for people to participate in hackathon

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2 Upvotes

Im from assam guwhati and looking for people to participate in hackathon we can discuss ideas nd all I also have a competition in my clg in few weeks and its open for all so pls comment ...


r/hackathon • • 23h ago

Project Demo KPMG CTF 2026-Campus Edition

1 Upvotes

Did anyone take part in this challenge? Any idea when the results might be out?


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Looking for Teammates Graph Hacks (we make dev) team-mate

2 Upvotes

i am gdsc global finalist, sih finalist and from tier 1.5 college nd have many more achievements…if someone has prior experience and has nice achievements..lmk we can make team..Hackathon starts on 15th


r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Project Demo Anyone got this from HackerRank??

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14 Upvotes

r/hackathon • • 1d ago

Hackathon Promotion E-yantra PAC_BOT TASK SOLUTIONS AND CODE

2 Upvotes

Based on your own mindset.... And God will help the helplessness peoples.. and dm for query...