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Cover image for Join the "Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge" Presented by Major League Hacking (MLH). Win a Raspberry Pi AI Kit!

Join the "Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge" Presented by Major League Hacking (MLH). Win a Raspberry Pi AI Kit!

Jess Lee on February 25, 2026

Winners Announced: Congrats to the "Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge" Winners! ...
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Maame Afua A. P. Fordjour

A writing challenge ! :-D. DEFINITELY trying this challenge <3

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Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Good luck!

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Maame Afua A. P. Fordjour

Thank you !

Thread Thread
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Vlad • Edited

Quick question: if my article is fully in English and the app interface is also in English, but the AI-generated insights are in Ukrainian for its target audience, is it still eligible for prize consideration?
@ben @jess cc

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theycallmeswift profile image
Swift The DEV Team

@curiousvlxd not a problem!

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adriens profile image
adriens

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Swift The DEV Team

You and me both!

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Paulo Henrique

Can I write about several projects in one post? I've been using Gemini CLI a lot these days in older projects

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Jess Lee The DEV Team

Yes, definitely!

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ANIRUDDHA ADAK

Awesome 😍 😍😍

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v. Splicer

Oh wow, how exciting!!! What a cool prize!!!

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Swift The DEV Team

I'm really looking forward to reading everyone's posts. Good luck!

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Jess Lee The DEV Team

I'm thrilled we're able to offer such a cool prize for a writing challenge - this is a first!

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Peter Vivo

On last minute: dev.to/pengeszikra/the-royal-gazet...

this is just a vibe rush under 2h

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Peter Vivo

Another LLM challenge, another idea from the past (1987), that will be interesting.

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Liedson Habacuc

This is a nice framing for a challenge - especially the emphasis on reflection instead of just showcasing outputs.

What I find interesting about using Gemini (or any LLM) in these projects is that the most valuable part usually isn’t what you build, but where it breaks: prompt boundaries, evaluation gaps, tooling friction, and the moments where the model’s strengths force you to rethink your own architecture.

Treating the write-up as a post-mortem rather than a demo recap feels like the right direction. Curious to see submissions that go beyond “here’s my app” and actually unpack the engineering decisions behind it.

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theycallmeswift profile image
Swift The DEV Team

@lhabacuc couldn't agree more. I think you're going to really like one of the new writing features we're piloting internally and are hoping to launch in a few weeks. 👀 Surfacing this exact decision flow is critical to understanding software these days.

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Liedson Habacuc

This definitely made me curious 👀
Does this visualization focus more on transparency of the reasoning process, or on supporting more structured writing?

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Peter Vivo

I saw overestimate the due date, so my program will be goes to another challenge. That was too complex for this rush. In my head live a bit longer timeframe, never mind.

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Pratyay Banerjee • Edited

@ben, @theycallmeswift, @jess I had a small query -- do the tags (like "#") attached to submissions affect judging?

I realized I forgot to include the #devchallenge tag in my submission, so I updated the tags on my post today (Kaizen). Before that, among the other tags, it had a different tag, #productivity. And because of the update, the post now shows that it was edited today (Mar 8). Just wanted to check if that’s okay and won’t affect the judging. Thanks and sorry for the direct tag!

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astrodeeptej profile image
deeptej
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axrisi profile image
Nikoloz Turazashvili (@axrisi)
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Alistair • Edited

I think the template linked here has the wrong tags -- swap out mlhreflections for geminireflections (that's what the template link from dev.to/challenges/mlh-built-with-g... uses)

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Nikoloz Turazashvili (@axrisi)

I just added geminireflections. weird. I used the template when creating this article :)

let's see if it pops up. thanks!

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Veronika Kashtanova

Built 25+ Gemini-powered projects — from a Chrome extension with Gemini Nano to a full multi-agent storytelling system on Cloud Run with ADK (with 10ms routing logic).

The post has something personal, something technical, and a look at what's next. If you read it to the end — thank you, and I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. 🙏

G.E.M.I.N.I.: I Had 3 Hours of Electricity. I Shipped Anyway.

And congrats on joining MLH! 🎉 Bridging online knowledge-sharing with hands-on building — that's exactly what this community needed. Thank you to the organizers for this challenge.

Good luck everyone!🍀

Shipping projects during blackouts

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Alistair

This was a really nice writing challenge. My first dive into LLMs wasn't as a coding partner or a chat bot, it was as a tool to help my automated matching system better understand the films that are on at cinemas. Gemini made that really simple to try out.

Since then, I've grown to use LLMs more and more (generating code, documenting systems, managing priorities), but I want to keep that foundation: the right tool for the right job, not LLMs for everything. You can read my writeup of how I use Gemini in Clusterflick in Three Things I Learned Using LLMs in a Data Pipeline

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Soham Sharma

when will be the results revealed ?

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axrisi profile image
Nikoloz Turazashvili (@axrisi)

supposedly today later, by US time I guess :)

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axrisi profile image
Nikoloz Turazashvili (@axrisi)

they just put notification that it's delayed to 19th March :)

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Thalia Johnson

Hello, I just wanted to let you know I don't think the link in the template is working. Just letting y'all know so projects can be found!

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Info Comment hidden by post author - thread only accessible via permalink
Стас Фирсов

Introduction
Programming is not just solving problems—it’s a constant battle with the human brain. Developers spend 20–30% of their time not on logic, but on syntax traps: where to put a bracket, how not to mix up variables, how not to forget task order, how not to drown in 300 lines without a hint. Cognitive load piles up—the brain holds at most 5–9 items at once (Miller’s rule), while code demands 15–20. Result: bugs, burnout, lost productivity, especially for beginners.
Modern languages (Python, JavaScript, C++, Rust) offer tools for performance—async, lambdas, match-case—but none for the brain. There’s no built-in way to say: “do this first, then that”, “this matters, this is noise”, “roll back five steps”, “split into branches and merge later”. It all stays in your head—and it breaks.
We propose a fix: seven universal meta-modifiers—symbols added to the core of any language as native operators. Not a library, not a plugin, not syntactic sugar. A new abstraction layer: symbols act as a “remote control” for the parser, letting humans manage order, priority, time, and branching without extra boilerplate.
$ — emphasis, | — word role, ~ — time jump, & — fork, ^ — merge, # — queue, > / < — resource weight. They don’t break grammar: old code runs fine, new code breathes easier.
The concept emerged from a live conversation between human and AI: we didn’t run it on a real parser, but already used the symbols as meta-commands to describe logic. This isn’t a test—it’s a proof-of-concept at the thinking level.
The goal of this paper: show these seven symbols aren’t optional—they’re essential. They cut load by 40–60%, slash errors, speed up learning. Not for one language—for all. In five years, any coder should write “output#1-10 >5” without pain. This isn’t about us—it’s about a civilization tired of fragile syntax.

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Alister Baroi

With Gemini, I was expecting a coding challenge or a hackathon, but its interesting to see an Article Writing challenge using an LLM, does that mean the prize goes to the writer, or the LLM (which wrote it)? food for thought 🤔

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Jowi A

Just posted, it was a lot of fun writing. Great way to reflect!

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Institute of Urban Technology

Thanks for sharing! Excited to participate.

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Mr. Lin Uncut

all i want is just to win a free one year gemini ultra plan ngl...

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Izeno

submitted!

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Prahlad Yeri

This is exciting, thanks. Will definitely participate.

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Micheal Angelo

Well, I’ve submitted my entry. Is there a Discord server for this challenge where I can get updates?

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Jon Gottfried The DEV Team

Can't wait to see everyone's project writeups

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bashelclassico

its challenging , meh

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Shakib S.

Trying....

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Shishir Shukla

Gonna participate in the challenge for sure!

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Saloni Agarwal

a question @jess @ben , can I write about a project that I built in google AI studio for this challenge?

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jess profile image
Jess Lee The DEV Team

@saloni0512 you may!

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Rehman Malik

Only Gemini cli project or can we also mentioned the project that we make using Google ai studio

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Thalia Johnson

I can't see my submission in the latest uploads, so putting the link here just in case! dev.to/bananapocalypse/brickthis-4c8a

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YuppyMans

Oh wow
nice

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Florin Sarca

Just sent my submission
All the best everyone

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