background
I’m writing this as I am waiting 2 more hours for my plane boarding from HackTheNorth, Canada’s biggest hackathon. It was such an amazing feeling being able to complete a project, meet cracked people all over the world, and just enjoy all the vibes and free foods :D.
intro
What is hackathon? Hackathon is an event, where you usually build projects and solve problems (usually through code) in the span of 12-36 hours. Every hackathons have various durations and sizes. Some of the example here in BC here are:
- nwPlus (UBC) - Western Canada’s largest hackathon (24hr)
- SystemsHacks (SFU) - SFU’s Software Systems Annual Hackathon (12hr)
- HackTheNorth - Canada’s largest hackathon (36hr)
- StormHacks (SFU) - SFU (Burnaby)‘s largest hackathon (24hr)
Each hackathon has different sizes and motives to succeed. I usually would recommend attending the biggest one as it has more workshops, networks, talents, sponsors, and prizes. Though there is merits on attending smaller ones as it’s easier to network with everyone and you can focus on learning there.
motivation
So why join hackathons? for one, my personal reason is simple, because university life is short - and I want to make the most out of it.
There are also more than these of course:
- One of the fastest way to learn skills in 24 hours
- You learn more about yourself - doing things under pressure
- Crazy networks - meet many driven people, company sponsors, and industry mentors/ judges
- University time is short
- It’s just honestly fun!
Of course, I do acknowledge the drawbacks of it, which are not a replicate of how a true software development looks like - no project management, bad code practices, no sleep. However, as we acknowledge it, there are of course many other ways to learn about all these other practices. Hackathon is a really good medium to learn solve problems fast.
My opinion is that hackathon projects are not as good for resume - as there are many other ways to solve how you can build and maintain software in longer period of time. However, it is indeed one way to get there if you don’t have much experience.
personal experience
My initial drive for hackathons was free food, but it stays for the people and projects
I have attended:
- nwHacks 2023, 2024
- StormHacks 2023, 2024 (mentor)
- HackTheNorth 2024
- SystemsHacks 2023, 2024
- FaithTech HackVan 2023, 2024
All these hackathons have been detrimental in growing my motivation to learning to code again - as school and/ or work sometimes do not train me on just hacking and building things for fun/ sake of it. I have also had the pleasure of winning few of them!