We are so excited to announce the winners of the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend, the first of five challenges kicking off this year's Hacktoberfest!
This was our most participated-in challenge to date, nearly tripling our previous record for submissions. We asked you to build something with open-source AI at its core for one real person in your life, and you showed up for your parents, grandparents, siblings, classmates, roommates, and friends. Many of you told us how the person you built for reacted, and those stories made judging both a joy and a challenge.
Thank you to everyone who participated. Your projects show exactly why open models matter: private data stays at home, tools run without a credit card, and builders get to shape AI around the people they care about.
Now, let's celebrate our winners!
🎉 Congratulations To…
Featured Prize Category Winners
Best Use of Gemma
Best Use of TabPFN
Prize Category Winners
Best Use of Mastra
Best Use of SerpApi
Prizes
Our overall winner will receive:
- $250 USD
- DEV++ Membership
- Exclusive DEV badge
Our featured prize category winners will each receive:
- $200 USD
- Exclusive DEV badge
Our prize category winners will each receive:
- $100 USD
- Exclusive DEV badge
All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.
A huge thank you to our partners, Render, Prior Labs, Thinking Machines, Arduino, DigitalOcean, Google, Backboard, ElevenLabs, Entire, GitHub, Mastra, MongoDB, SerpApi, Sentry, Temporal, and Tiger Data, for making these prizes possible!
What's Next?
Hacktoberfest is just getting started! We're launching a new challenge every week this month. Each challenge is a fresh start, so it's not too late to jump in. Week 1 is happening now:
Week 2 launches Monday, October 12, with a brand-new theme. Register for the upcoming challenges to be notified as details drop:
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 2
October 12, 2026Register now to be notified as details drop.
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 3
October 19, 2026Register now to be notified as details drop.
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 4
October 26, 2026Register now to be notified as details drop.
Happy Hacktoberfest 💜
Top comments (17)
And congrats to our prize category winners! 🎉
@coffeeandcommits @rahullkumr @iamwasih @dosunmu_hassan_46f2ac141d @bipul_chamoli_09b5f0cc719 @raphelevator @arqamwd @muhammadmurtuzahussain @prateek11rai @priyanshu_jha_eee132b17e5
We'll be in touch soon about your prizes!
wow, Thank you so much 😍
Thanks Jem!!!
Congrats to everyone!
Thank you 🤝
thank you i will be waiting
Thanks Jem 😊
Wow 🤯, thank you 😊
Huge congrats to our overall and featured prize category winners! 🎉
@adk_bbx @abhinavkrishna3211 @alexgeorgiev17 @uptimearchitect @highcenburg @iamrobertmoore @muaazsm
We'll be in touch soon about your prizes!
Congratulations to all the winners! Way to go!
Congratulations legends 🎊🎉❤️💥
@coffeeandcommits @rahullkumr @iamwasih @dosunmu_hassan_46f2ac141d @bipul_chamoli_09b5f0cc719 @raphelevator @arqamwd @muhammadmurtuzahussain @prateek11rai @priyanshu_jha_eee132b17e5
Congratulations guys ❤️🎉🎊💥
@adk_bbx @abhinavkrishna3211 @alexgeorgiev17 @uptimearchitect @highcenburg @iamrobertmoore @muaazsm
Woooooohoooooooooooo
Congratulations!
Congrats to all the winners! 🎉
@heyitsjem how did you judge so fast? Wasn't an easy task at all! 🥰
Congratulations folks!
congratulations to everyone who won and to me
more wins ahead
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