The latest articles on DEV Community by Ashraful Alam (@ashrafulalam). https://dev.to/ashrafulalam https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4225338%2Ffb960844-cc15-45dc-a8f1-635c97bcdb37.png https://dev.to/ashrafulalam en Ashraful Alam Wed, 04 Nov 2026 04:31:21 +0000 https://dev.to/ashrafulalam/how-i-won-hacktoberfest-building-studysnap-in-one-day-2jo https://dev.to/ashrafulalam/how-i-won-hacktoberfest-building-studysnap-in-one-day-2jo <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fjixast9hab2zhzr2jsnp.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fjixast9hab2zhzr2jsnp.png" alt=" " width="800" height="566"></a>I won at Hacktoberfest Hack Day Chittagong — and everything, from the idea to the deployed app, happened in a single day at the event.</p> <h2> The idea </h2> <p>When the rulebook landed — campus/study problems only, open-weight models only — I brainstormed around a simple frustration: studying from handwritten notes is painful. That became <strong>StudySnap</strong>: snap a photo of your notes, get a summary and a quiz.</p> <h2> What I built in ~4 hours </h2> <p>StudySnap turns a photo of handwritten notes or lecture slides into:</p> <ul> <li>A summary in Bangla or English (toggle)</li> <li>An interactive quiz generated <em>strictly from the notes</em> — every question cites the exact note line it came from</li> <li>Follow-up Q&amp;A grounded in the same notes</li> </ul> <p>One vision call to Gemma 4 does the heavy lifting: photo in, structured JSON out. Stack: Next.js, Prisma, Supabase, deployed on Vercel. No auth — device-based history, because there was no time for login flows.</p> <h2> The win </h2> <p>StudySnap won at Hacktoberfest Hack Day Chittagong (IEEE Computer Society IIUC × IIUC DES × MLH). Certificate below 👇</p> <h2> What I learned </h2> <ol> <li> <strong>Read the rulebook first.</strong> Everything flows from the constraints.</li> <li> <strong>Constraints are a feature.</strong> "Campus problems only, open models only" shaped a sharper idea.</li> <li> <strong>Speed beats perfection.</strong> A shipped quiz with source citations beats a perfect plan that never launches.</li> <li> <strong>Free-tier tools will betray you at the worst moment.</strong> Have a fallback ready.</li> </ol> <p>🔗 Try it: <a href="https://studysnapiiuc.vercel.app" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://studysnapiiuc.vercel.app</a></p> hacktoberfest showdev hackathon hf26challenge