National-level Hackathon 🛠️🥇

How to win hackathon? How Shajin won the national-level hackathon as a school student competing with college students.

Shajin KP

20th June 2021

What was the hackathon about?

It was on the topic: Health issues faced by society 🧬 in today's world.

Rules and regulations of the hackathon:

1. Max 4 members in a team (I was alone)

2. 12 hours hackathon

3. Can use any software technology (I used Flutter + Python + Node)

4. No age limit (I was 17 years old)

5. No need to be a student, can be an employee or anyone

Highlights of me at the hackathon:

1. I was the only school student in the hackathon

2. I was the only one who was alone in the hackathon

3. I was the youngest in the hackathon

4. I didn't have any prior experience in hackathons (it was my first hackathon)

5. I was not good at public speaking or pitching my idea to judges

Do you need to have any prior experience to win a hackathon?

No, I didn't have any prior experience in hackathons. I just had an idea and I implemented it with planning and determination.

What was my expectation before the hackathon?

I was not even expecting to win the hackathon. I just wanted to participate and learn something new and network with people. But I spent a lot of time planning and validating my idea and product.

What was my idea?

My idea was to build an app that can track diseases and provide personalized health recommendations with a live diseases spreading map and tracking.

Potential of my idea:

I can track and find the diseases spreading in my area and I can take precautions to prevent it or even get personalized health recommendations based on my health condition and diseases spreading in my area. We are trying to fill the gap in communication between the medical team and the common person and society.

What was my plan?

1. I planned to build an app that can track diseases and provide personalized health recommendations with a live diseases spreading map and tracking inside a map.

2. Giving dashboard and API for medical institutes and hospitals.

3. Giving dashboard and API for the government.

4. Giving dashboard for parasitical companies & small medical stores for understanding the demand for medicines and medical equipment.

Yes, I was unable to implement all this within 12 hours. But I was able to implement the core idea and I was able to win the hackathon.

Do you really need public speaking skills to win a hackathon?

Maybe, I don't know. But I was a normal person (or kind of introvert) and I was not good at public speaking. But I was able to win the hackathon. I was able to express all my ideas and thoughts to the judges and audience. I was able to convince them with my idea and product.

Teamwork or individual work?

It depends on the hackathon. Some hackathons allow teamwork and some allow individual work. In my case, I was alone and I was able to win the hackathon. But I would recommend having a team because you can divide the work and build the product faster, and also balance your weaknesses with your team members' strengths.

Then why not I had a team? I was not able to find a partner; I asked many participants to join me, but no one was ready to join. So I was alone 😉

Who were my competitors?

College students (B.Tech, BCA, etc.). I am not sure if there were any employees or not because this hackathon was in hybrid mode (online + offline) and I was not able to see all the participants online.

Yes, I was the only school student in the hackathon, competing with college students. But I was able to win the hackathon. Yes, I was the youngest in the hackathon.

[Bonus tips]:

1. Use Notion to plan your idea and product.

2. Use Figma to design your product.

3. Create a Todo-list and plan your work.

4. Use GitHub to manage your code.

Get my Notion page: Here