My Journey Through Hackathons (~₹4L)

Manan Singhal — Sat, 30 May 2026 08:35:57 +0000

I started participating in hackathons during my first year of college. At that time, I had very little idea about how hackathons actually worked. I just knew that people were building interesting things, networking with smart developers, and sometimes even winning prize money. That sounded exciting enough for me to start.

Since then, I’ve participated in around 14 hackathons, as far as I can remember.

In the beginning, I lost almost every single one.

And honestly, losing repeatedly was frustrating.

I would spend days building projects, staying awake till late night, submitting demos with high expectations — and then see other teams win while my project got ignored. At one point, I started questioning whether I was even good enough for hackathons.

I remember asking seniors and experienced builders for advice. Most of them said similar things, but one line stayed with me:

“Keep building. Don’t overthink.”

At first, it sounded too simple. But over time, I realized that consistency matters much more than motivation in hackathons.
What I Was Doing Wrong Initially

When I look back, I made a lot of beginner mistakes:

I focused too much on flashy ideas instead of solving real problems.
I underestimated the importance of research.
I spent too much time overthinking tech stacks instead of actually building.
Sometimes I copied trends without understanding the underlying problem deeply. -I thought hackathons were only about coding fast.

But hackathons are much more than that.

Good hackathons reward:

problem-solving,
originality,
execution,
storytelling,
and product thinking.

Once I understood that, my approach completely changed.
The Turning Point

After losing multiple hackathons, I decided to become much more intentional.

I started actively searching for every live hackathon I could find, especially in Web3. I explored Discord communities, Twitter posts, Devfolio, DoraHacks, ETHGlobal, Encode Club, and many smaller ecosystem-specific hackathons.

That’s when I came across a hackathon by Encode Club and Mezo.

Instead of immediately jumping into coding, I spent a lot of time researching ideas. I genuinely believe the idea is one of the most important parts of a hackathon project.

I started reading research papers, studying existing protocols, understanding problems in the ecosystem, and looking at gaps where something new could be built.

Eventually, I found a research direction that interested me deeply.

That project later became BTCShield.

Building BTCShield

BTCShield was probably the first project where I truly understood the importance of refining every detail.

I worked solo on the project.

I spent hours:
refining the architecture,
improving the product flow,
thinking about edge cases,
preparing the presentation,
and making sure the idea itself was meaningful.

One thing I realized during this process is that hackathons are not just coding competitions. They are compressed startup simulations.

You need to:
identify a problem,
validate it quickly,
build a prototype,
explain the value clearly,
and convince judges why it matters.

The pressure is intense, especially when deadlines are close.

There were moments where things broke unexpectedly, features didn’t work, and I had to quickly pivot or simplify ideas.

But eventually, BTCShield ended up winning the Mezo Hackathon with a prize of $3000.

That was a huge confidence boost for me because it proved that all the earlier failures were not wasted effort.
Project Link
GitHub
Demo Video
Winner Announcement

ETHGlobal HackMoney

After that, I continued building instead of stopping after one win.
Become a Medium member

This time, I joined a great team and participated in ETHGlobal HackMoney.

Working with a team was completely different from building solo.

I learned:
collaboration,
task delegation,
rapid communication,
shipping under pressure,
and balancing multiple ideas at once.

ETHGlobal hackathons are extremely competitive because some of the best builders globally participate there.

Despite that, we managed to win two bounties with a total prize of around $2.5k.

More importantly, I learned how strong teams operate during intense build sprints.

Project details

Uniswap Hook Incubator

One of the most exciting parts of the journey was getting selected for the Uniswap Hook Incubator.

That experience exposed me to a much deeper side of protocol design and DeFi infrastructure.

I spent time understanding:
liquidity mechanics,
hooks architecture,
automated strategies,
vault systems,
and protocol-level design decisions.

It was not just about building quickly anymore — it was about building correctly.

Later, we built again for Hookathon and won another $1.5k.

What Hackathons Actually Taught Me

Most people think hackathons are mainly about winning money.

But honestly, the biggest value comes from:
learning rapidly,
meeting talented people,
exploring new technologies,
and building real products under constraints.

Every single project taught me something new.

Some projects improved my frontend skills.
Some improved smart contract understanding.
Some improved product thinking.
Some improved communication and pitching.

Hackathons force you to learn extremely fast because you are constantly working against deadlines.
Why Web3 Hackathons Are Special

I think Web3 hackathons are particularly unique because the ecosystem is still evolving rapidly.

Even students can:
directly interact with founders,
get mentorship from protocol teams,
receive grants,
build experimental products,
and sometimes even turn hackathon projects into startups.

There are very few industries where college students can learn, network, earn, and build at this speed.
Advice to Beginners

If you’re starting hackathons, my biggest advice would be:
Don’t participate only for prize money.
Don’t get discouraged by losses.
Don’t wait to become “fully ready.”
Build consistently.
Learn publicly.
Focus on solving meaningful problems.
Spend more time thinking deeply about the idea.
Keep refining your projects.

Most importantly:

_Your first few hackathons are supposed to feel difficult._

That’s part of the process.

The people who eventually succeed are usually the ones who simply keep showing up and building.

DEV Community: Manan Singhal

My Journey Through Hackathons (~₹4L)