Hacktoberfest 2025

Here i'll share some observations, learnings and advices after i've reflected on hacktoberfest 2025's event

TLDR: I co-organized one of Georgia's largest hackathons with 110+ teams. Here are my key learnings from both the organizer's and participant's perspective - from handling logistics to winning strategies, networking tips, and how to make the most of hackathons

Intro

On 18-19th of October, Four Loop Podcast (which I'm a part of) co-organized one of, if not the, largest hackathon in Georgia: Hacktoberfest 2025. It was kind of amazing. So many hackers, in a single building, hacking their products non-stop for 2 days. During these 2 days, I've had so many new observations, realizations and experiences gained, that in this essay I want to reflect on them publicly and share some of the most important points that might be interesting for you.

Context

For you to better understand the scale & intensity of the event - there were over 110 teams, hacking non-stop for 2 days straight. Bunch of the teams did full-nighter coding sessions, without even going home. Personally I've never even been to a hackathon of this scale, not to mention organizing one. So there were a handful of new learnings and experiences, some of them from the perspective of organizing the event and others from observing the different behaviors of participants.

Organizer's Perspective

Most important is finding people with the same values to organize the hackathon with

Organizing any kind of event is quite hard. Organizing a hackathon of this scale is even harder. I can't imagine doing it without the right people around. There are so many challenges, and due to the dynamic nature of hackathons, you can't plan everything ahead. You will have lots and lots of f*ckups. So you need to have people around who will have the same motivation and urge to react to these challenges and solve them. A 2 day long hackathon might sound easy, but actually it's quite nerve racking, so when you get a bit tired or overwhelmed with intensity, looking at your co-organizers giving their all, you get motivated as well to do your best.

Organizing a hackathon is very much like building a product

While planning the hackathon, it appeared to me that organizing a hackathon (maybe even any kind of event) is very much like building a software product. You have to understand what resources you have, what kind of infrastructure you need and what is the maximum traffic that your system should handle. If this wasn't enough, one of the things we were also doing is building and writing down the flows of user personas. All the potential user flows of our participants were thought through and written down. Which, for those of you who have built a software product, will sound familiar.

Key learning: If you are building software products the patterns will be familiar, you just have to do all of this much faster and in a much more dynamic way.

Food and other resources are never enough - take more

This is one of the biggest learnings. Everybody knows that food and any kind of energy refuel shouldn't be underestimated, but everyone still always does it. I'm not sure yet why this happens or why people are always overly focused on other verticals and not food, but one thing is for sure - GET A LOT MORE FOOD THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED. That's it.

Bridging the gap between participants and the jury

As an organizer, you spend the whole time with participants, talking with them and observing their work. This makes you the only person with enough context to make the jury's judging process more fair and valid.

You as an organizer are interacting with all the participants a lot. Most of them are asking you questions, maybe you are proactively starting to engage with them, but overall - during the hackathon you are the one getting the most context about what is happening and what kind of products are being built. This is actually very important context to share with the jury. Since for a person who might only look at source code or the product idea and label it as good enough - you can introduce additional variables that will be much fairer, since all the context you introduce allows for much fairer normalization of assessments (especially in large hackathons where there are 100+ teams and each jury can't assess every single project)

Participant's Perspective

Be more creative, take more risk

One of the things I've observed is that most people at hackathons don't take enough risks, just as in real life. They don't try to build something amazing and they are ok with good enough or something trivial when it comes to the topic. I think hackathons, at their core, are the place for doing some crazy things, challenging every single aspect of your creativity and skills. So why not use it? It's literally a space where nobody will be judging you (if you are afraid of it of course). So when you get some topics of hackathon - think outside the box, don't follow the rules too much. Follow them exactly as much as it takes someone on the other side to not say "This is out of the rules" and let your imagination and creativity do the rest.

Use AI more for ideation and brainstorming (didn't know that I would have said this tbh) - not only for coding

Now if you think that you aren't creative enough or due to some specific reason you can't let yourself be, use AI for ideation and creativity more. I've noticed that everyone is using AI for coding, but not everyone is using it for brainstorming ideas. Those who do often use it in a very shallow manner, not providing enough context and not prompting it correctly. My suggestion would be to use AI for brainstorming, idea validation and the creative part more.

Network more! - it's one of the most valuable assets you can take from a hackathon

I know everyone says this. During hackathons it's not as easy to network since you have so many things to do. So at least try to share your ideas with your desk mates or the teams sitting beside you. Ask them for feedback and show them a working demo. The topic of being afraid that someone might steal your idea - isn't that relevant. Most probably someone is already doing something like yours, and I don't think that an idea in and of itself has that much value. It's more about execution, implementation and presenting it in a clear manner.

If you want to win - do a background check on the jury members (kind of human engineering)

When you have an idea and start working on it, on the last step, ask one of your team members to do a background check on the people who are going to assess it. Do a bit of human reverse engineering. It will for sure provide valuable context to your presentation. For example, if only technical people are going to assess your idea, there is no reason to focus on the business side of the project.

Disclaimer: Don't use this when coming up with your idea - only for tailoring the presentation.

If you fail, learn to fail gracefully

I've noticed some participants (especially students) getting kind of angry when not winning or proceeding to the next phase of the hackathon. This isn't the right approach. The whole idea of participating in a hackathon shouldn't be to win it and boost your ego. It should be to challenge yourself, learn as much as possible and get to know people who are better than you. Try not to get annoyed or start a blame game - instead reflect and extract as many learnings from the experience as possible.

Face your fears! - public speaking

People go to hackathons for different incentives, but remember hackathons are one of the best places to challenge your fears. One of the most popular ones among engineers is fear of public speaking. Challenge yourself. Trust me, if you are going to fail in the future (and you most probably will) - a hackathon is the best place to do so.

Don't boost your ego in case of winning

If you happen to win - congrats. But winning shouldn't be the main goal, it should be a side effect of the process. Don't let your ego drive you. This applies generally to life as well.

Summary

To sum up - go to hackathons as much as you can. Challenge yourself. Network with other hackers and improve your hacking skills. Don't be afraid to take risks, fail gracefully, and use every opportunity to learn and grow.

The experience you gain, the people you meet, and the lessons you learn are far more valuable than any prize. Whether you're organizing or participating, remember that hackathons are about pushing your limits and becoming better - everything else is just a bonus.