The Story of Building Stulo: One Student, Hundreds of Bugs

Stulo — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 18:08:35 +0000

A few months ago, if someone had asked me to build a mobile app, I would've had absolutely no idea where to start. Today, an app I built is on the Google Play Store. It's called Stulo, and it's currently in closed testing.

The funny part? I'm not a software engineer. I'm just a college student who got tired of missing opportunities. Internships were on LinkedIn, hackathons were buried somewhere on Instagram, college events lived inside WhatsApp groups, and competitions were scattered across random websites. If the algorithm didn't like you that day, you simply never found them. That felt... ridiculous.

So I asked myself, "Why isn't there one place where students can find everything?" That simple question eventually became Stulo. Today, students can discover internships, hackathons, competitions, campus events, connect with other students, and share updates through a campus feed—all in one app.

The biggest lie I believed was that building the app would be the hard part. It wasn't. Understanding why it wasn't working was.

I built the first version using Emergent because, honestly, I didn't know enough to start from scratch. It got me surprisingly far. As the project became more serious, I moved development to Google AI Studio (Antigravity). That's when I learned something every AI-generated YouTube thumbnail forgets to mention: AI doesn't build products. It generates code. There's a huge difference.

AI happily writes hundreds of lines of code, but it doesn't explain why your images randomly stop rendering after ten minutes, why scrolling suddenly feels like you're using a phone from 2013, or why fixing one bug somehow creates three completely unrelated bugs.

Most days followed the exact same routine: generate code, run the app, watch something break, Google the error, ask AI, read Stack Overflow, realize the problem was my own code, and repeat. Some bugs took ten minutes to fix, while others stole an entire weekend. Looking back, one of the biggest things I learned wasn't Flutter or Firebase—it was patience.

Debugging taught me far more than any tutorial ever could. There wasn't a YouTube video for every problem I faced. Sometimes AI pointed me in the right direction. Sometimes Stack Overflow had the answer. And sometimes I'd spend an hour staring at my screen before realizing I'd missed something incredibly small. Those moments were frustrating, but every bug I solved made me a slightly better developer.

Months later, Stulo finally reached a point where people could actually use it. It's now available on the Google Play Store in closed testing. Students are downloading it, reporting bugs, suggesting new features, and using something that, just a few months ago, only existed as a random idea in my notes app. That feeling is impossible to describe.

Along the way, Stulo has won multiple hackathons and was recognized among the Top 5 startups at an IIT Roorkee startup event. Those moments were exciting, but honestly, the most rewarding notification I've ever received wasn't an award. It was the first bug report from someone I had never met. Because it meant someone cared enough to use something I had built.

Stulo is still unfinished. Images still occasionally misbehave, some interactions aren't as smooth as I'd like, and performance still has room for improvement. But for the first time, those problems don't scare me. They're simply part of the journey.

Building Stulo taught me something I didn't know a few months ago: you don't need to know how to build an app before you start. You just need to be willing to learn, break things, fix them, ask questions, and keep showing up.

The code gets better.

And so do you.

Hackathons for Beginners: How to Join Your First One With Zero Experience

Stulo — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 11:07:39 +0000

Think hackathons are only for expert coders? Here's how complete beginners can join, contribute, and actually enjoy their first one.

You've probably seen the posters. "48-Hour Hackathon — Build, Innovate, Win." And right after the excitement, the second thought hits: I can barely write a working loop, how am I supposed to build something in two days?
Here's the part nobody tells you upfront — hackathons are nowhere near as code-heavy or expert-only as they sound. Some of the most memorable hackathon teams are built almost entirely by people who walked in nervous, with zero prior experience, and walked out with a working project, new friends, and a story worth telling.
What a Hackathon Actually Is (Without the Intimidating Language)
Strip away the jargon, and a hackathon is simply a time-bound event — usually 24 to 48 hours — where small teams build a project around a theme or problem statement, then present it to judges at the end. That's it. No secret extra rules, no requirement that you already know everything before walking in.
The "hack" part doesn't mean elite coding wizardry. It means rapid, scrappy building — figuring things out as you go, often learning tools on the spot, with the goal of having something working by the deadline, not a polished final product.
You Don't Need to Be a Coder to Contribute
This is the single biggest misconception keeping beginners away, and it's simply not true. Hackathon teams need more than coders:
• Designers — sketching the interface, picking colors, making the product look usable, even with just basic tools or pen and paper
• Researchers — understanding the problem deeply and shaping what the team actually builds
• Presenters — the final pitch matters enormously, and a confident, clear presenter can make or break how a judge perceives the whole project
• Project coordinators — keeping the team on schedule, organized, and focused under time pressure
If you don't write a single line of code in your first hackathon, you can still walk away having genuinely contributed — and genuinely learned.
How to Pick Your First Hackathon
Not every hackathon is built the same, and choosing the right one matters more than people realize:
Look for "beginner-friendly" labels. Many hackathons explicitly say this in their listing, and these usually come with starter workshops, mentors roaming around to help, and a more relaxed, learning-focused atmosphere.
Pick a theme that genuinely interests you. You'll push through the inevitable confusing moments far more easily if you actually care about the problem you're solving.
Check if they help with team formation. Many events have a "find a teammate" channel or session specifically for people walking in solo — which is more common than you'd expect.
Start with shorter, lower-stakes formats. A weekend hackathon is a gentler entry point than a week-long intensive one.
Common Myths That Keep Beginners Away
"I need to already know how to code well." False — most teams have a mix of skill levels, and many beginner-friendly events specifically design challenges around learning on the spot.
"I'll just slow my team down." Most experienced hackers actually appreciate teammates who bring a different skill — design, research, presentation — rather than five people all trying to write the same code.
"I need a team before I can sign up." Most hackathons explicitly support solo sign-ups and help with team formation at the start of the event. Some of the strongest teams form between people who met for the first time that morning.
"If we don't finish, it was a waste of time." Judges expect incomplete projects. What matters is whether your team understood the problem and can explain their approach clearly — not whether every feature works perfectly.
What Your First Hackathon Will Actually Feel Like
Expect a mix of excitement, confusion, and mild chaos — and that's completely normal. Most first-timers describe the same arc: nervous at the start, overwhelmed in the middle when nothing seems to be working, and surprisingly proud by the end when something — even something small and rough — actually comes together.
Teams rarely finish with a perfect, polished product. Judges know this. What matters far more is whether your team understood the problem, built something that addresses it, and can explain it clearly — not whether your code is flawless.
A Simple Way to Prepare (Without Overdoing It)
You genuinely don't need weeks of preparation, but a little groundwork helps:

Get comfortable with one or two basic tools beforehand — even just enough to follow along (GitHub for saving work, Figma for basic design, or whatever your team ends up using).
Practice explaining an idea simply. Hackathon pitches reward clarity over complexity — being able to explain what you built and why it matters in under two minutes is a skill worth practicing.
Set realistic goals. Most teams accomplish a fraction of what they initially plan. Aim for one small thing that genuinely works rather than an ambitious idea that falls apart under time pressure.
Don't fixate on winning. The learning, the people you meet, and the experience of building something under pressure are worth far more long-term than a prize, especially the first time around. Why It's Worth Doing Even If You're Terrified Hackathons compress an enormous amount of learning into a short window — teamwork under pressure, rapid problem-solving, public presentation skills, and exposure to tools you'd otherwise take months to casually pick up. They're also one of the fastest ways to meet genuinely driven, curious people from across your campus or even other colleges, since hackathon teams often form between people who didn't know each other an hour earlier. A lot of students who go on to win multiple hackathons describe their first one as rough, confidence-shaking, and far from a win — but worth doing anyway, because that's where the real learning curve started. Finding Your First One Hackathons are happening far more often than most students realize — across colleges, online platforms, and tech communities — but discovery is usually the hardest part, especially if you're not already plugged into the right WhatsApp groups or Instagram pages. Browsing dedicated event platforms, following your college's tech societies, and checking apps like Stulo that surface competitions and hackathons happening near you all widen your radius significantly, so you're not relying on a poster you happened to walk past.

Looking for hackathons and competitions happening near your campus? Stulo brings them into one place so you never miss a sign-up window. [Explore Stulo here].

DEV Community: Stulo

The Story of Building Stulo: One Student, Hundreds of Bugs

Hackathons for Beginners: How to Join Your First One With Zero Experience