Eight Choices. One Team. One Long Night. Our first hackathon: learning, problem-solving, and building together

yuvraj — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 01:08:57 +0000

At 4 p.m., we set off for the auditorium full of excitement—and already hungry and impatient
to begin. This was our first hackathon, and all three of us were eager to get started. But
before the building could begin, there was a lot to take in. We spent two hours listening to the
panellists, and came away with more ideas and learning than we had expected.
One piece of advice stayed with me: ask AI “why.” Asking why can help you understand the
reasoning behind an answer. Jump straight to “how” before you understand the problem, and
you may find yourself going around in circles. That idea would soon feel relevant as our team
faced its first big question: which problem should we solve?
We had come with the right mindset for a first hackathon: to learn, gain experience, and
understand more about open source. Winning would be wonderful, but it wasn’t our main
goal. We wanted to challenge ourselves, work together, and leave knowing more than when
we arrived. After the sessions, we grabbed snacks and began planning. Our three-member
team shared the work across UI/UX, backend, coding, and research, bringing different
strengths together and learning from one another along the way.
Then we faced eight problem statements—and choosing one turned into our first real test.
We read through each option, weighing our skills, our interest, the time available, and
whether we could build something worthwhile together. Ideas kept changing as the
discussion unfolded. We didn’t all see the options in the same way, but every opinion was
heard and considered. That made the conversation richer, though it also meant the decision
took longer than we expected. With the clock moving, excitement began to mix with the worry
that we were using up precious building time.
Eventually, after looking closely at our team and what we could realistically take on, we chose
the eighth problem statement. It felt like the best fit: a challenge we could understand, work
through together, and shape into a useful solution. Once we decided, the uncertainty eased.
We could finally picture what we might build. It was a small moment, but it felt like a real
turning point: we had a direction, and we were ready to move.
OUR FIRST HACKATHON 1
The moment we started building, new challenges appeared. Whenever we got stuck, we
talked through the problem and tried another approach. Often, a new thought would spark
another discussion; ideas were shared, questioned, and reshaped until a solution began to
emerge. Every opinion mattered because each one helped us see a different possibility. The
process kept repeating—problem, discussion, attempt, and a new solution—but with every
step, we learned something. And whenever we finally worked through an obstacle, that sense
of satisfaction made us feel we were heading the right way.
We focused on UI/UX, backend, and research, but kept collaborating rather than working in
isolation. By around 11 p.m., the room felt focused and energetic. We had dinner, grabbed
snacks at midnight, and carried on through a mix of nervousness, excitement, and
determination. It was tiring, but the problems we solved and ideas we discovered kept giving
us reasons to push ahead.
By then, we had learned what a hackathon asks of you: take deadlines seriously, divide the
work thoughtfully, listen to your teammates, and keep learning when a plan hits a wall. We
know we’ll carry these lessons into the next hackathon and do things better with the
experience we’ve gained.
At 5:30 a.m., after a long night, we had almost everything ready. Our project was pushed to
GitHub, the pitch deck was prepared, and we were still polishing the final details. Practising
the pitch was all that remained, and we were about to begin. We felt tired, proud, and
hopeful. Whatever the result, we knew we had given it our best—and we couldn’t wait to
present our work and hear the results.

DEV Community: yuvraj

Eight Choices. One Team. One Long Night. Our first hackathon: learning, problem-solving, and building together