Abhishek Gupta

Posted on Oct 15 Edited on Nov 5

DevFest 2026 — Gemini CLI Game Challenges

#ai #cli #devchallenge #gemini

Welcome to the Gemini CLI Game Challenges at DevFest Ranchi 2026, organized by Google Developer Groups (GDG) Ranchi!

These challenges are designed to help participants explore AI-assisted development, solve practical problems, build applications, and experience how Gemini CLI can support real-world software development.

Whether you enjoy designing user interfaces, building AI-powered applications, or testing your knowledge of Gemini CLI, there is a challenge for you.

1. Challenge Overview

Challenge	Time Limit	Maximum Score
UI Makeover Challenge	5–10 minutes	100 points
Build with Gemini — AI Chatbot Challenge	30–35 minutes	100 points
AI Faster Finger First Challenge	20 minutes	10 points

All challenges are conducted at the DevFest Ranchi 2026 booth.

Important: These are on-the-spot competitions. Participants must complete their assigned challenge and demonstrate their work to the booth organizers. There is no Google Form submission for the UI Makeover or AI Chatbot challenges.

2. How to Participate

Visit the Gemini CLI Game Challenges booth at DevFest Ranchi 2026.
Meet the organizers or booth volunteers to learn about the available challenges.
Get your assigned challenge, instructions, and starter project, where applicable.
Read the requirements carefully before beginning.
Complete the challenge independently using Gemini CLI and the provided resources.
Demonstrate your completed work directly to the booth organizers within the allotted time.
The organizers will evaluate your work according to the published scoring criteria.
Participants with the highest scores and best completion times will be considered for exclusive DevFest goodies.

First Come, First Serve: Participants should be ready to begin when their turn is announced. For challenges with equal scores, the participant who successfully completes and demonstrates the challenge first will receive priority.

3. General Rules

Individual participation: Each participant must complete their assigned challenge independently unless the organizers announce otherwise.
Use Gemini CLI: Gemini CLI is the primary AI development tool for these challenges.
Follow the starter project: When a starter repository is provided, use it as the starting point and follow its instructions.
Understand before building: Read the challenge instructions and requirements before making changes.
Original work: Do not copy another participant's solution or prompt.
Protect secrets: Never commit API keys, passwords, tokens, or other sensitive information to a public repository.
Test your work: Verify that the application runs and its required features work before demonstrating it.
Follow time limits: Complete and demonstrate your work within the allocated time.
Ask for assistance: If you face an environment, setup, or tool issue, contact the organizers through the support channel or at the booth.
On-the-spot evaluation: Your work must be demonstrated to the booth organizers for evaluation. Merely completing the code without showing the working result may not qualify for full marks.

4. Winner Selection and Exclusive Goodies

The Gemini CLI Game Challenges are designed to reward practical skills, creativity, problem-solving, and effective use of AI development tools.

Participants who successfully complete their assigned challenge will be evaluated by the booth organizers.

How winners are selected

Highest score wins: Participants are ranked according to their total evaluation score.
First Come, First Serve: If multiple participants achieve the same highest score, the participant who completes and demonstrates the challenge first receives priority.
On-the-spot judging: Organizers will evaluate the participant's actual work, functionality, originality, and understanding of the solution.
Exclusive goodies: Participants who achieve the highest scores and satisfy the challenge requirements will have a chance to win exclusive DevFest goodies.

For the AI Faster Finger First Challenge, the first participant to submit all answers with the highest score wins.

Please note: Participation does not guarantee a prize. Goodies are awarded based on the organizers' evaluation and the available prize allocation.

Challenge 1: UI Makeover Challenge

Time limit: 5–10 minutes

Maximum score: 100 points

Objective

Improve an existing website's user interface using Gemini CLI.

You will start with an existing project and redesign its interface to make it more attractive, readable, usable, and responsive while preserving its important functionality.

This challenge focuses on how effectively you can communicate design requirements to an AI coding assistant and turn an existing interface into a better user experience.

What You Need to Do

Open the starter repository and inspect the existing project.
Run the application and understand its current interface.
Identify areas that need improvement, such as layout, spacing, typography, colors, navigation, or responsiveness.
Use Gemini CLI to implement the improvements.
Run the application and check that the redesign works.
Demonstrate your updated interface to the organizers.

Design Expectations

Your redesigned interface should aim for:

Visual quality: A clean, consistent, professional design.
Layout and spacing: Proper alignment, spacing, and content hierarchy.
Typography: Readable font sizes, appropriate font weights, and clear headings.
Color consistency: A balanced color palette with sufficient contrast.
Responsiveness: A layout that works on mobile, tablet, and desktop screens.
Functionality: Existing important features and interactions should continue to work.
User experience: Navigation and content should be easy to understand.
Accessibility: Readable text, meaningful labels, and appropriate contrast.
Creativity: Thoughtful improvements rather than unnecessary visual decoration.

Starter Project

GitHub repository: https://github.com/abhishek-nexgen-dev/gdg-ranchi-ui-challenge
Live demo: https://gdg-ranchi-ui-challenge.vercel.app/

Example Gemini CLI Prompt

Adapt this prompt to the actual interface and the time available.

Inspect the existing project and understand its current UI,
components, routes, and functionality.

Improve the interface to make it clean, modern, professional,
and responsive. Improve layout, spacing, typography, colors,
visual hierarchy, and navigation where needed.

Make sure the application works well on mobile, tablet, and
desktop screens. Preserve existing functionality and avoid
unnecessary dependencies or unrelated features.

Follow the project's existing technology stack and coding
conventions. Implement the changes in the codebase, then run
the application and check for obvious errors or broken
interactions.

Evaluation Criteria

Criterion	Points
Design Quality	35
Responsiveness	10
Functionality	20
Creativity and Originality	15
User Experience and Accessibility	20
Total	100

On-the-Spot Judging

After completing the redesign, participants must demonstrate the updated website directly to the organizers.

The organizers will evaluate the actual interface, check important functionality, and assign scores according to the criteria above.

Participants who achieve the highest scores will be considered for exclusive goodies.

Challenge 2: Build with Gemini — AI Chatbot Challenge

Time limit: 30–35 minutes

Maximum score: 100 points

Objective

Build a functional AI-powered chatbot using Gemini and the provided starter project.

This challenge focuses on integrating the Gemini API into an application and using an agent or tool to perform a useful action, rather than building only a static chat interface.

Your application should allow users to interact with the chatbot, receive useful responses, and use at least one meaningful tool or agent capability.

What You Need to Do

Open the starter repository and read its README and setup instructions.
Understand the existing codebase and identify the parts that need implementation.
Configure the required environment variables securely.
Integrate the Gemini API using the supported project setup.
Implement the chatbot's conversation flow.
Add or complete at least one useful tool or agent action.
Test the chatbot with different user inputs.
Demonstrate the application and explain its main functionality to the organizers.

Core Requirements

1. Gemini API Integration

Connect the application to the Gemini API.
Send user messages to the model and display the generated responses.
Handle loading states and API failures.
Store API keys in environment variables rather than hardcoding them.
Never expose private API keys in frontend code or a public repository.

2. Chatbot Functionality

Provide a clear interface for entering messages.
Display user messages and AI responses distinctly.
Handle empty input and basic errors appropriately.
Keep the conversation flow understandable and usable.

3. Agent or Tool Usage

Implement at least one useful tool or action appropriate to the application.

For example, the chatbot could:

Perform a calculation.
Search or filter information from a provided dataset.
Convert units.
Look up information from predefined local data.
Perform another meaningful action supported by the project.

The tool should do useful work and produce an understandable result. A button that does nothing or a tool that is never invoked does not demonstrate meaningful tool usage.

4. User Interface and Experience

Keep the interface clean and easy to navigate.
Make the chat input and response area readable.
Show loading or processing feedback.
Display understandable error messages.
Make the application usable on different screen sizes where practical.

Starter Project and Resources

GitHub repository: https://github.com/abhishek-nexgen-dev/AI-Chatbot-Challenge-Build-with-Gemini-API-Agents
Gemini API documentation: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/get-started

Suggested Implementation Workflow

Time	Activity
First 5 minutes	Read the README, inspect the project, and understand the requirements
Next 10 minutes	Implement or complete Gemini API integration
Next 10 minutes	Implement chatbot behavior and the required tool or agent action
Next 5 minutes	Test the main features and fix obvious issues
Remaining 0–5 minutes	Prepare the demonstration and explain your implementation

This is a suggested time allocation, not a separate scoring rule. The total challenge time is 30–35 minutes.

Evaluation Criteria

Criterion	Points
Gemini API Integration	25
Agent and Tool Usage	30
Functionality and Response Quality	20
UI and User Experience	15
Creativity and Demonstration	10
Total	100

On-the-Spot Judging

Once the application is ready, participants must demonstrate it directly to the organizers.

The organizers may ask participants to:

Send a message to the chatbot and show the response.
Demonstrate the implemented tool or agent action.
Explain how the Gemini API is integrated.
Show that the application handles errors appropriately.
Explain the main implementation decisions.

The organizers will evaluate the working application and assign scores according to the published criteria.

Participants who achieve the highest scores will be considered for exclusive goodies.

Challenge 3: AI Faster Finger First Challenge

Time limit: 20 minutes

Maximum score: 10 points

Objective

Test your knowledge of Gemini CLI, Gemini API, and AI agents in this fast-paced multiple-choice question challenge.

This challenge rewards participants who can answer accurately and quickly.

Challenge Rules

10 multiple-choice questions.
1 point per correct answer.
Total: 10 points.
Answer as quickly and accurately as possible.
Submit your answers using the official challenge process.
The challenge must be completed within the 20-minute time limit.

Winner Selection

The first participant to submit all answers with the highest score wins!

First Code, First Serve: Participants who achieve the same highest score will be ranked based on their submission time. The participant who submits first will be declared the winner.

The organizers will verify the submitted answers and completion time before declaring the winner.

Submission Process

The AI Faster Finger First Challenge uses the official Google Form for answer submission.

Participants must ensure their answers are submitted successfully before the challenge deadline.

5. Help, Support and Announcements

Official WhatsApp Group

Join the official WhatsApp group for GDG Ranchi DevFest 2026 Gemini CLI Game Challenges to receive important updates and support.

Join here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/IMFmeH0VXX5C2Fn8hl7tfe?s=cl&p=a&mlu=4&ilr=4&iam=2

The group will be used to share:

Challenge instructions and important announcements.
Starter project and submission links.
Updates, clarifications, and reminders.
Help with setup and challenge-related issues.

Important Reminders

Complete your assigned challenge within the specified time.
Demonstrate your work directly to the booth organizers.
Keep your project and implementation ready for evaluation.
Follow the official instructions provided at the booth.
Do not share API keys, passwords, or other secrets.
For the AI Faster Finger First Challenge, ensure your answers are submitted through the official Google Form.