HN Explorer

Ask HN: Best Hackathon Practices?

5 points by curiouscat321 ↗ HN
As many of you may/may not know, there's a pretty awesome hackathon starting in a couple hours (MHacks!). What kind of tips does HN have for going to hackathons? What should the people who want to learn do throughout the weekend? What about the people who want to win prizes? Or those who want to connect with recruiters? Or meet/date people?

Let's hear it, HN. How do you handle hackathons?

4 comments

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kayhi
Slightly off topic, know any details about MHacks only seeing start and end times on their website.
zachlatta
Time is your biggest constraint. Work accordingly. Choose a project that you think you'll be able to implement in a quarter of the time allotted. You'll be grateful when you run into snags during development and you'll have some extra time for polish and presentation.
lsiebert
Pick a target that you can make worse/better depending on time constraints.

Focus on what is essential vs. What is nice.

Focus on your strong suits. Have an artist doing visual elements? Build the visual interface first.

thejulielogan
Meet people. There is a wealth of talented and interesting people at a good hackathon.

If you're joining a team, be very clear about your abilities and limits so they can resource properly.

Find people who need a break and chat to them about what they're working on, what they do normally. Again, meet people.

Talk to the sponsors, even if you don't need help. Those guys/gals are usually rad.

Presentation matters. Practice yours.