DEV April Fools Challenge
Build something completely useless or silly!
Tired of building world-changing, hyper-optimized production apps? Sick of reading about clean architecture, scalability, and practicality for a moment? Then we have the perfect challenge for you! It's time to lean into the chaos of the internet: Welcome to the DEV April Fools Challenge. 🦄
Five total winners will each receive:
- A surprise teapot or coffee maker with appropriate fixings (approx. $50 USD value)
- DEV++ Membership
- Exclusive DEV Badge
All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile.
Key Dates
- Contest start: April 01, 2026
- Submissions due: April 12, 2026
- Winners announced: April 16, 2026
Badge Rewards
Challenge Prompt
HTCPCP IYKYK
Your mandate for this challenge is to build something completely useless or silly. We want software that solves zero real-world problems. A CSS-only site that un-centers divs? Great. A volume slider that requires you to shake your phone to turn up the music? Awesome. Your only goal is to make us laugh, scratch our heads, or ask Why on earth did they build this? Make a fool of yourself and have fun with it!
Additional Prize Categories:
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Best Google AI Usage: Tell us how you leveraged Google AI for this submission. Did you build with Antigravity, experiment in Google AI Studio, or use the Gemini CLI? Or is there a Google AI product embedded in your build such as the Gemini API or any Google Cloud product such as Cloud Run? Tell us all about your experience!
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Best Ode to Larry Masinter: we're talking teapots and intentional 418s.
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Community Favorite: Awarded to one of the most popular submissions based on comments, reactions, and overall quality based on final judge discretion.
Judging Criteria:
- Anti-Value Proposition
- Creativity
- Technical Execution
- Writing Quality
How To Participate
Publish a post on DEV using the submission template above. Your post should give us an overview of what you built and a demo of your project.
Please review our judging criteria, rules, guidelines, and FAQ page before submitting so you understand our participation guidelines and official contest rules such as eligibility requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Participation
Can I submit more than once?
Yes, you can submit multiple submissions but you'll need to publish a separate post for each submission.
- In the event that you may win multiple times, and your submission is very close with another participant, we will favor the other participant.
- In the event that you do win multiple times, you will only receive one winner badge.
Can I work on a team?
Yes, you can work on teams of up to four people.
- If you collaborate with anyone, you'll need to list their DEV handles in your submission post so we can award a badge to your entire team! Please only publish one submission per team.
How old do I have to be to participate?
Participants need to be 18+ in order to participate.
If I live in X, am I eligible to participate?
For eligibility rules, see our official challenge rules.
Submission
Can my submission include open source code?
Riffing on open source code and borrowing and improving on previous work/ideas is encouraged but it's important your changes are significant enough to ensure your submission is valid.
What happens if my submission is considered plagiarized or invalid?
Anything deemed to be plagiarism will not be eligible for prizes. Incidental plagiarism may simply result in your disqualification from the challenge (regardless of the number of other valid submissions you have published). Egregious plagiarism will result in your suspension from DEV entirely. Any non-generic, non-trivial usage of prior work, including open source code must be credited in your submission.
Do submissions have to be in English?
Non-english submissions are eligible for a completion badge but not eligible for prizes due to the current limitations of our judges. We will not be judging on mastery of the English language, so please don't let this deter you from submitting if you are not a native English speaker! We hope to evolve this in the future to be more accommodating.
Can I use AI?
Use of AI is allowed as long as all other rules are followed. We want to give you a chance to show off your skills in realistic scenarios. If you use AI tools to help you achieve your submission, all the power to you.
Judging and Prizing
Can there be ties?
In the event of a tie in scoring between judges, the judges will select the entry that received the highest number of positive reactions on their DEV post to determine the winner.
How will I know if I won?
Winners will be announced in a DEV post on the winner announcement date noted in our key dates section.
When will I receive my DEV badge?
Both participation and winner badges will be awarded, in most cases, the same day as the winner announcement.
When will I receive my prizes?
The DEV Team will contact you via the email associated with your DEV profile within, at most, 10 business days of the announcement date to share the details of claiming your prizes.
DEV April Fools Challenge Rules
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends April 12, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entries must be submitted during the contest period. For Official Rules, see DEV April Fools Challenge Contest Rules and General Contest Official Rules.
