What is a hackathon?

the short definition

A hackathon is a competition with a deadline. Organisers set a theme and a time limit, participants form teams, and every team spends that time turning an idea into something that runs. At the end each team demonstrates what it built, judges score the entries against published criteria, and prizes go to the strongest.

Four things make an event a hackathon rather than a workshop or a conference: it is time-boxed, work happens in teams, the output is something built during the event, and it is judged.

what the word means

“Hackathon” joins hack and marathon. “Hack” is used in its older engineering sense — solving a problem quickly and inventively — and not in the sense of breaking into systems. “Marathon” describes the format: one continuous, fixed block of time rather than a series of sessions. So the word literally describes a long, uninterrupted stretch of inventive building, which is what the event is.

how a hackathon runs

The order is close to the same everywhere:

• Kickoff — the organiser sets out the theme, the rules, the judging criteria and the deadline.
• Team formation — people either arrive as a team or form one on the spot.
• Building — the bulk of the time, usually with mentors on hand.
• Submission — work stops at a hard deadline and teams submit whatever state their project is in.
• Demos — each team presents, typically in a few minutes.
• Judging and prizes — judges score against the criteria set at kickoff and announce winners.

how long they last

There is no standard length — the organiser sets it. Of the 269 hackathons listed on this site right now, 160 run inside a single day and 109 run across two or more. The longest currently listed is HTCJ × PROOF Aviation Futures Challenge, which runs 125 days (25 Jun – 27 Oct 2026).

Shorter events are usually built around a single narrow brief you can finish in an evening or an afternoon. Longer ones leave room for a bigger build, and normally include food, sleep and mentor sessions in the schedule.

what it costs to enter

Less than people expect, and often nothing. 201 of the 269 hackathons listed on this site publish a free ticket, 16 publish a price between $2 and $500, and 52 have not announced one yet. Where an organiser has published a figure it is on the listing, so you can check before registering.

do you need a team

Almost always, and the organiser sets the size rather than leaving it open — it is one of the first things stated on a listing, because it decides how you show up. The limits vary more than people expect, from a pair to a room, so read the one on the event you are entering rather than assuming. If you arrive alone, most events run a team-forming session at kickoff.

in person or online

Worth checking before you plan around one. Of the 269 hackathons listed here, 234 are in-person and 16 are hybrid, which still means a session you attend in the host city, and 19 run entirely online.The listings sit in 75 cities, so the practical question is usually which one you can get to — the locations index splits every listing by city.

the types you'll see listed

Hackathons are usually named for their subject or their audience. These are the filters this directory keeps, with what is on each right now:

ai hackathons

A listing appears here when the organiser describes the event around AI or machine learning — the theme it is judged on, the tools teams build with, or the problem set it hands out. (229 listed)

free hackathons

A listing appears here when the organiser publishes a price of zero — the ticket price on the listing reads Free, or every ticket it sells is $0. An event whose price is still TBA is not counted as free, and neither is one that publishes no price at all. (213 listed)

student hackathons

A listing appears here when the organiser aims the event at students — a student or university hackathon by name, or an event whose stated audience is students. A hackathon that merely happens to book a campus room is not one. (59 listed)

online hackathons

A listing appears here when you can take part without being in the room: the organiser marked the event Online or Hybrid, or filed it under Online instead of a city. Hybrid events are included because they run a remote track — they keep their city on the card, so you can see which ones they are. (35 listed)

datathons

A listing appears here when the work itself is data — teams are handed a dataset, a data platform or a data question, and are judged on what they get out of it, rather than on a shipped app. (13 listed)

game jams

A listing appears here when teams build a game inside a fixed time limit — video games or tabletop, solo or team, from a theme or a constraint handed out at the start. (11 listed)

Events are also split by format — in person, online or hybrid — and by city. You can browse every listing by city from the locations index.

who can enter

Hackathons are open to more than programmers: teams that win are usually a mix of engineering, design and someone who can present the idea clearly. Plenty of events are aimed squarely at people who don't write code, and say so in their own description.

33 of the hackathons listed here are tagged beginner-friendly by their own organisers, including Build With AI: Basics and InterWell Hack2.0. If it is your first one, scope small: a finished small idea demos far better than an ambitious half-built one, because judging happens on what actually runs.

what you can win

Prizes are set per event and published on the listing. They are not always cash — mentoring, credits, hardware and introductions are common — and the amount varies enormously between a community jam and a sponsored event.

faq

find one to enter

This site lists every upcoming hackathon it can find in the US, updated weekly. Browse all 269 upcoming events, narrow to ai hackathons, free hackathons, student hackathons, online hackathons, datathons or game jams, or pick a city from the locations index.

Running one? Submit your hackathon — free to list.