I’ve joined countless of hackathons and coding events. Those things below are always happens, no matter which/ where the event is:

The internet sucks.

When hundreds of people gathering in one place and try to code something for their first time, they use internet a lot. Lots of common tools get downloaded in a short time (android sdk, I’m talking about you), package providers are overloaded… Hence, the wi-fi becomes super slow and everyone can’t do their work on time

Prioritize UI instead of feature

People trying to optimize their UI, and failed to provide the core features Some people are just into details. They carry that into Hackathons, and thought that it helps. Unfortunately, perfectionism takes lots of time - which make it harder to finish all the features in 24 hours.

Disagreement takes up too much time

Team spends so much time deciding the … name of their project, disagreement takes up too much time Some teams are just bad at team work. They argue over small details such as team name and lose focus on bigger pictures. The result is cut back on important features.

Someone bring outside project in.

I was in a hackathon where the winner competing with a multi-platform NFC payment solution. It’s ok, the guys may had finish the coding in 24 hours, for different platforms, with beautiful UI. Latter, they told people that it’s their startup idea, and the same team work on that for a while already, and it’s actually the leader’s dissertation. It’s up to you to judge.

Girls are rare.

Sleep, no sleep, sleep

“I must not sleep, this must be finished” “Omg I’m so tired, let’s sleep a bit…” “F**k it’s morning already”

Last-minute panic

1 hour left, damage control, make ppt instead of coding! Ok let’s demo, pretend like it works…

Prizes are determined by subjective measures

Judges are selected because they’re famous, success measurements are subjective. It’s a for-fun event after all.

The winning projects suck

Said all losing team.

Regret & jealous

“Mine project should’ve been the best if…”