A Beginner’s Guide To Hackathons In India

Do you want to use your coding/ technical skills and leave a mark in the coding community? Be a part of something that will not only give you hands-on experience of the real world of coding and programming. A place where you can explore your talents by collaborating with like-minded people? Well, then hackathons are just what you need! It is rather easy to find an opportunity where you can be a part of a hackathon in India. In fact, there are many hackathons for beginners designed to help you kickstart your hackathon journey.

Typically hackathons in India are organized for the student community and can range from a week-long event to an action-packed few hours, fueled with excitement. Not only does it help you hone your skills and learn new ones, but it also builds your confidence. The word hackathons combine the words- “hacking” and “marathons”. They hence entail an intense, uninterrupted period of programming where participants need to come up with solutions within a tight deadline. All in all, hackathons in India provide their participants with the perfect adrenaline rush to experiment with their skills and talents. 

What is a hackathon and what is its purpose?

Think of hackathons as a technology festival, which is why they are also referred to as hackfests. They are the Coachellas of the coding community, where tech enthusiasts come together to solve a problem. These hackathons/ coding competitions can either be open-ended or be based on a particular theme. The key characteristic of these hackathon project ideas is to take advantage of combined and collaborative efforts by teams that are driven by reward incentives to come up with unique solutions to technical problems. 

The objectives behind conducting these hackathons vary for both hosts and participants. For hosts these objectives include- crowdsourcing ideas, building an idea bank, building a network, tapping into a wide talent pool, etc. For participants as well these hackathons come with an array of advantages. A hackathon for beginners, for example, helps novices cultivate coding skills, help learn new ones, and get insights into the world of real-world programming. 

This is how the community built around hackathons in India enables bottom-up and collaborative ideation in a company by giving a vast pool of talent the opportunity to come up with extraordinary ideas that are then prototyped. This fosters a start-up or intrapreneurial spirit toward new business opportunities in the nation. Wide-scaled, all-India hackathons also serve as effective social and educational events for a company and its stakeholders. From a company’s perspective, it helps them brand their awareness and scout for skilled individuals to hire.

Advantages of the hackathon in India

As mentioned before, for hosts conducting a hackathon for beginners is a great way to tap into the minefield of upcoming talent across the nation. It gives tech enthusiasts like you a platform to showcase their skills and attract the attention of potential recruiters. Here are a few reasons why you should participate in a hackathon in India:

1. Building a community through networking

Hackathon in India is one of the most engaging ways to meet people from the tech industry and form contacts with them. After all, networking is pivotal to boosting anyone’s career, and by using a platform like this you can form your own community with like-minded people. 

2. Job opportunities

Many industry giants conduct hackathons for beginners, and other online hackathons in India, especially for the student community. Once you are a part of a few such events, you’ll soon discover that these events are a convenient way to get noticed by recruiters across industries. These events offer hosts the chance to observe and test key skills and competencies such as functional skills, creative thinking, teamwork, communication, and motivation that are difficult to measure in a traditional interview format. And this is a boon for all those who would rather be judged on their skills, than only the words written on their resumes. 

3. Certifications

The certifications you receive after participating in a hackathon in India carry a lot of weight and indicate your skills to potential recruiters. It highlights your practical knowledge and gives you an edge over your competitors.

4. Honing and learning skills 

What better way to learn new things than by performing tasks which challenge and test your skills? Almost every hackathon in India, or any other part of the world for that matter, will push you to test your limits and come up with solutions in a pre-defined time frame. They are also a great opportunity to practice other soft skills like communication, team building, and leadership qualities. 

5. Innovative solutions to existing problems  

Don’t you want to be a part of the next big innovative idea? Or work with other talented techies, and brainstorm ideas to come up with solutions to existing problems? If yes, then hackathons are the answer. Every hackathon in India brings diverse teams together to solve problems and develop new solutions, which helps the host of these hackathons to view their problems from a fresh perspective. 

Which Hackathon in India should you participate in?

It is evident that being a part of any hackathon in India/ diverse hackathon project ideas comes with a great many benefits. So if you too want to be a part of a quality hackathon for beginners/ all India hackathons, check out the list of some well-known hackathons in India ahead:

1. Smart India Hackathon by AICTE and MHRD

Smart India Hackathon (SIH) is a national initiative launched by AICTE and MHRD aimed at providing students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives and to inculcate a culture of product innovation and problem-solving mentality. The authorities have successfully conducted six seasons of SIH which have proven to be extremely successful in promoting innovation and out-of-the-box thinking in young minds, especially engineering students from across India.

2. TVS Credit E.P.I.C- IT Challenge

EPIC stands for Enrich, Perform, Innovate, Challenge; terms that rightly summarise the objective of this annual all-India hackathon conducted by TVS Credit. Through this IT Challenge, TVS is offering talented individuals in the nation an opportunity to apply their technical knowledge and skills to real-life business problems. By being a part of this hackathon you stand the chance to network with the best minds in the industry, hone your skills and win exciting cash rewards.

3. TezAsia Hackathon

Tezos India, a leading blockchain entity provides blockchain strategy assistance to companies and developers in India. They believe that Tezos, their blockchain network, is the future of the internet with user participation and governance at its core. Tezos launched the TezAsia Hackathon with the aim to build an innovation-driven culture by solving real-world challenges. It gave all coders/ developers an opportunity to showcase their skills and win amazing prizes worth $100k+, grants up to $100k+, and an opportunity to get hired.

4. Swiss Re ReImagine Challenge

Swiss Re is one of the leading providers of reinsurance, insurance, and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer in India. The entity launched the Swiss Re ReImagine Challenge, a unique reverse ideation program to push to-be graduates to dissect real-world problems and work on creating a solution/ prototype. They aimed to mentor the talent into honing the skills they possess and learning new ones along the way. A collective prize pool of INR 1.5 lakhs and PPI opportunity were up for grabs. 

5. EPAM Flip The Script Challenge

EPAM Systems Inc. an IT service and consulting company, launched this hackathon for beginners to help participants take the first step in their careers. The aim of EPAM Flip The Script Challenge was to provide bright minds in the country with the exposure and opportunities that would help shape their future. 

The participants of this hackathon had the opportunity to win interview opportunities with EPAM, for full-time roles with approx compensation of INR 6 LPA + benefits.

6. Codegoda 

Codeagoda is one of the biggest coding challenges in the region, presented by coders for coders. Conducted by Agoda, a leading digital travel platform, the purpose of this annual hackathon is to call out to coders and developers and have them solve the challenges facing the travel industry today. For its latest edition, the organization gave out exciting cash prizes and PPI opportunities to winners.

7. HackerRamp by Myntra

As an e-commerce retailer, Myntra conducts hackathons in India inviting young tech enthusiasts to showcase their talents. The recurring event- Myntra HackerRamp has had two successful editions so far- a Campus Edition and a WeforShe Edition. Both editions gave participants the perfect opportunity to create and innovate through technology. 

8. Walmart CodeHers

This is one of the biggest hackathons in India that is exclusively for women, organized by Walmart Global Tech India. The organization wanted to give women coders equal opportunity of showcasing their talent for innovative coding. The goal of these all-India hackathons is to fill the gaps in the tech workforce created due to the lack of female representation in the field. 

Walmart ended up adding 350+ talented female coders to its workforce across both the seasons of Walmart CodeHers hackathons, with a compensation range of ₹23-25 lakhs

9. Flipkart GRiD

Flipkart’s flagship engineering campus challenge, GRiD is a recurring hackathon for beginners in their educative years. This is the perfect opportunity for students from various engineering courses (across departments) to test the waters in the world of e-commerce and tech. 

In this hackathon participants are presented with a problem faced by the e-commerce industry. They are then required to use their knowledge, skills, and talents to solve the problem, and win exciting prizes & internship opportunities. 

Hackathons in India have without a doubt opened up many opportunities for techies like you, across the nation to test and showcase your skills on various platforms. Ensure that you make the best out of these opportunities, and keep hacking!

The list of popular hackathons in India is endless, explore more hackathons here. If you want to learn more about hackathons, then check out the following links:

1. This is my First Hackathon, how should I prepare?
2. Strategies to win a Hackathon
3. How to Organise Hackathons & Coding Competitions?
4. Hackathons are not only centred around coders as Preconceived
5. Hackathon - A Litmus test for Machine Learning Talents