Hackathons - Dev Retro 2022
I won more than $1800 taking part in 15+ hackathons, this is how
I am a developer from Nepal who loves playing with tech.
My first hackathon was this year, and I have completed nearly 15 online hackathons this year. Let me share my journey, achievements, and my failures.
Introduction
According to me, Hackathons are no more than (mostly) the use of new technology to solve a particular program in the minimum time possible. Also, most of them have swags and prizes.
Nah Nah Nah, It isn't that much money, but you get in a fair amount. Let me now share my participation and achievements.
My participation
I have won quite good prizes from taking part in hackathons this year. And I learned a heck lot of things just because I took part in hackathons.
Let me just create a timeline of hackathons:
1. Thirdweb x Hashnode
It was organized by our very own thirdweb and hashnode. I didn't have any idea but it was on January 2022. Meaning I started hackathons at the beginning of 2022. Yes, it feels strange now knowing when I started.
It was my first hackathon so I just wrote a lot of thing, now let me just wirte in short.
Date: January 2022
Duration: 1 month
Won? -> Nah
Tech to use: Thirdweb
Project: A NFT marketplace (Buy, sell and mint NFT)
Learnings:
It was my first web3 project. I learned about metamask wallet, and how to use the Ethereum network. And most important of all, I learned data once written can't be erased from the blockchain. This is the only reason why I haven't continued in web3 afterward.
2. Netlify x Hashnode
Date: February 2022
Duration: 1 month
Won? -> Nah
Tech to use: Netlify
Project: A place to write your last wish and fulfill others
Learnings
I learned to use netlify better. I used netlify form submissions with React. I used firebase, I used to be scared of it at that time. Also, learned to edit videos (for demo).
3. Hasura x Hashnode
Date: March 2022
Duration: 1 month
Won? -> Yes, Runner up
Tech to use: Hasura
Project: Learn programming while typing or vice-versa
Learnings
The very new thing I learned during this hackathon is that fonts have different widths . Also, monospace letters have equal width.
4. Linode x Hashnode
Date: June 2022
Duration: 1 month
Won? -> Yes, Winner
Tech to use: Linode
Project: Track price of your product or stock
Learnings
In this hackathon, I learned web scraping using puppeteer. Also, to host a MERN web app on a raw linux server and map to a domain using Nginx.
Two hackathons in a row. Oh boy, that was epic.
5. Redis x Dev.to
Date: August 2022
Duration: 1 month
Won? -> Yes, Runner up
Tech to use: Redis
Project: Search Engine
Learnings
In this hackathon, I enhanced my learning of web scraping using puppeteer. Also, to host a MERN web app on a raw digital ocean droplet and map it to a domain using Nginx. And using Redis as a database on its top.
Wow, three in a row 😅
6. Aws Amplify x Hashnode
Date: September 2022
Duration: 1 month
Won? -> Nah
Tech to use: AWS Amplify
Project: Generate a dev card with the number of lines of code you have written
7. NASA Spaceapps hackathon
Date: October 2022
Duration: 36 hours
Won? -> Nah
Tech to use: NASA APIs
Project: International Space Station tracker
After this, Hacktoberfest started and I started taking part in a lot of hackathons. Let me share only few of them in details.
8. Nhost x ReacPlay
Date: October 2022
Duration: 14 days
Won? -> Yes, Third
Tech to use: Nhost
Project: Know if your email was read or not
Learnings
In this hackathon, I learned pixel tracking. Also, to use Nhost as a database, doing Graphql requests, and use Nhost serverless functions.
9. Notjust.dev x Nhost x Stream
Date: November 2022
Duration: 48 hours
Won? -> Yes, Special price winner
Project: A mobile app that gives you updates on the world cup 2022 match
Learnings
In this hackathon, I learned to build a mobile application with React Native. Also, to use Stream for chat messaging.
10. Steel city code
11. Findcoder.io x locofy.ai
12. Medusa js hackathon
13. Inov-8-hackathon
14. MongoDB x Dev.to
I don't even remember other hackathons😅.
Yes, I don't have any experience with offline hackathons, I know some of the rules and time periods but for the most, I have only participated in a 5-hour-long offline competition (which I will not call a hackathon). At least I have participated in some online hackathons, so here is my experience with online hackathons.
Achievements
I feel great looking at my hackathon journeys, I built a lot of good projects this year. And want to build a lot more. Before that let me share some of my achievements here:
Got featured in Linode's craft of code
Got a participation certificate from steel city codes
120kg CO2 offset
Special prize from Notjust.dev
Got a participation certificate from the Medusa hackathon
Third position
Findcoder.io hackathon participation certificate
NASA Spaceapps participation certificate
Linode hackathon winner
Summary
To summarize the whole journey, I got various opportunities to learn more stuffs, explore new technologies, and engage with the community. Most importantly I was able to manage some time for these events. I don't know how but I passed two exams during these hackathons. I have also participated in other hackathons but I didn't find any room to fit that in here so I left it.
