97 Free Resources, Tips and Tricks to Know Everything About Hackathons

A hackathon, also known as a codefest, is a social coding event that brings computer programmers and other interested people together to improve upon or build a new software program. The word hackathon is a portmanteau of the words hacker, which means clever programmer, and marathon, an event marked by endurance. The goal of a hackathon is to create functioning software or hardware by the end of the event. Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, which can include the programming language used, the operating system, an application, an API, or the subject and the demographic group of the programmers.

99% of the hackathons are free of cost. The only expense you might have are the travel expenses to go to the hackathon venue. Hackathons offer the chance for people in the same industry to come together and learn from each other’s successes and failures. Professionals get to meet and collaborate, solve problems, share skills and help build better products. Not only are there plenty of hackathons for beginners, a growing number welcome participants who have never coded before. The more interactive a learning experience, the better, and many hackathons bring this element and more to learning to code.

In this collection of resources, you’ll find 97 high quality articles, stories, tips, tricks, guides and videos on Hackathons catering to beginners, regulars, hackathongoers and hackathon organizers. The majority of the content here are online articles and videos, so very little downloading is required. Happy programming!

Hackathon Awareness

1. WTF is a hackathon?
2. Hackathons are like gyms
3. Hackathons are taking the world by storm
4. The Rise of the High School Hackathon
5. PennApps X Application Stats
6. Everyone’s watching hackTECH
7. Let’s hack the west coast
8. A brief history of hackathons
9. Why I call myself a hacker
10. A Hacking Hiatus
11. Love in the time of mega-hackathons
12. Hackathons are for Hacking
13. Hackathons: The Golden Value Prop
14. Hackathons aren’t about the hacks
15. Back to the Hacks
16. Selling Out and the Death of Hacker Culture

Hackathon Stories

1. My hackathon journey
2. MHacks IV, my first Hackathon: I wouldn’t trade it for anything
3. I Survived MHacks

Planning a Hackathon

1. Hackathon Fundraising: Getting Started
2. Hackathon Prizes
3. Hackathon Sponsorship Questions Answered
4. Hackonomics 101: The economics of who pays for a hackathon, and why
5. Hosting Hackathons: Getting Awesome Sponsors
6. How to Judge a Hackathon
7. How to Make Your Hackathon Last
8. How to throw an Epic Hackathon
9. How we built HackBU at Binghamton University
10. MHacks: From Dream to Reality
11. MLH Hackathon Organizer’s Guide
12. Running an Inclusive Hackathon
13. The first step in planning a successful hackathon
14. The Hack Day Manifesto
15. The Hackathon Boilerplate
16. The Hackathon Budget
17. The HackCon Experience
18. What is it like to organize HackMIT?
19. Why hackathons should conclude with a demo
20. Wi-Fi that Works
21. Your Sponsors Are the Most Important Part of Your Hackathon

Sponsoring a Hackathon

1. Hackathon Playbook Part 1: How to Sponsor
2. Realizing Rewards from your Hackathon Sponsorship