A few months back, I participated in KU Hackfest 2025, which is one of the biggest events under IT Meet. It is an international-level 48-hour hackathon held annually at Kathmandu University in Dhulikhel. The 2025 edition took place from December 24 to 26 and featured a massive prize pool of NPR 1,70,000.
Full Details of KU HackFest 2025
It actually took some time to convince my friends to participate, mainly because we had to skip classes, but I assured them it would be worth it. Eventually, we filled out the registration form on their website. They used GitHub for login, which made me a bit nervous because I was worried teams might be selected based on profiles. While one teammate and I had decent profiles, the other two did not. They also asked for our project idea and execution plan upfront, which felt counterintuitive to me. I always thought hackathons started with a theme reveal where everyone began coding from scratch. It felt like they were encouraging people to prepare projects beforehand, which would technically be a disqualification, but you can’t completely rule out that possibility. Hopefully, no one did that!
Then came the good news, we were shortlisted! We were among the 40 selected teams, which was super exciting. Looking at other team names, I noticed ones like hog2.6 and Mini_Pekka," so clearly, there were some Clash Royale fans as well 😂. Just doing the math made me realize how massive the event was: 40 teams with 4 members each meant 160 participants. Managing accommodation, internet, food, mentors, and volunteers for so many people is no small task, so huge respect and special thanks go to Utkrist Neupane, the Lead Organizer, for making it possible.
On Day 1, the event started at 9:00 AM. Thankfully, the organizers had arranged two buses from Kalanki and Balaju to Kathmandu University; otherwise, changing multiple buses early in the morning to reach by 9 would have been a nightmare. At the entry, we received our ID cards and found our tables labeled with our team names. After a cup of milk tea, we set up our laptops and Wi-Fi to get started. At first, we were completely confused about how to begin since we hadn’t prepared anything beforehand. We did what most developers do and asked GPT for an implementation plan. It quickly gave us a roadmap and divided tasks among the four of us. Our project was related to Vision AI, a field we had limited experience in. Design has always been a pain point for us, so we used Lovable and other AI tools to create the initial barebones UI, allowing us to focus on the logic while AI handled the design.
By lunchtime, we were starving because we hadn’t eaten since the previous night and no breakfast was provided. Lunch coupons were handed out around 1 PM, which felt quite late given our early travel. However, the lunch served at the cafeteria was honestly really good. Even though it was a college canteen, the food tasted almost like home-cooked meals. Each day had at least one non-veg meal, which was nice. Later that day, we were given snacks like samosa, pakoda, jerry, and drinks. It was refreshing, though it felt a bit wasted since we had eaten lunch not long before. Dinner was also good, but waiting in line with around 60 people wasn’t fun. Around midnight, we were given sandwiches, but most participants were already full, so hardly anyone ate them and a lot went to waste.
We kept coding through the night and learning new things. I experimented with agentic AI tools for development, basically "vibe coding." Earlier, I used to code manually and ask GPT only when things broke, but vibe coding was insanely fast and perfect for a hackathon. I also learned about a new editor called Antigravity, which was quite powerful. The internet was a bit of a problem; the Wi-Fi was unreliable despite having 5–6 routers. Ethernet worked well, but we only had one cable per team, so most development happened on just two laptops, basically forcing us into peer coding. The atmosphere was chill, but the cold at night was brutal. Thankfully, there were warm water dispensers and black coffee available. I had brought a thin blanket, which at least helped keep our legs warm. Some participants were coding intensely, while others constantly checked their internet speed, and a few organizers were even playing games on the projector.
Late at night, we were informed about accommodation. We were given sleeping bags and told we could sleep on the stage or at the back of the hall. We chose the stage, which was surprisingly warmer than expected. However, the next night was different. The chain of my sleeping bag slipped off slowly, and since the strap was loose, I was shivering cold without realizing why. I should have taken better care because the next morning I woke up with a sore throat and a light cold. That second night, we ended up sleeping under our tables after working until 2 or 3 AM.
Of course, not everything was perfect. Late at night, the toilets inside the hall ran out of water, meaning no flushing or hand washing. People started using toilets on the lower floor, but those eventually ran dry too. Thankfully, we found other toilets near the cafeteria. Speaking of the cafeteria, we once waited in the old canteen without knowing the location had changed because we forgot to check the Discord announcement. Throughout the event, the organizing team regularly checked in on us, and mentors were available, including Kritam Bhattarai, a recent ICT Award 2025 winner.
Day 2 followed a similar routine of mostly coding. Breakfast was chickpeas (chana), followed by lunch, dinner and then momo as snacks, which wasn’t bad at all. That night, there were fun games like word guessing and bingo, though we skipped the bingo to focus on our project. We also prepared our presentation slides, expecting a stage presentation. By the final evaluation day, we made our last commits by 9 AM. Initially, we thought evaluations would be individual, but the judges arrived late, so the schedule changed to simultaneous evaluations at different tables.
We were in the Open Category. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that no snacks or meals would be provided that day. We waited, only to find out everyone had already gone out to eat. Suddenly, we got a call that our turn was coming up much earlier than scheduled. We rushed to the evaluation hall. We had rehearsed a small act for a stage presentation, but since it was a desk evaluation, that effort went to waste. I’m not a great speaker, but I tried my best. Our project was solid, but I think I messed up the Q&A round and didn't give the best answers, leaving my teammates a bit disappointed.
After the evaluation, we had some tea and waited for the results. Unfortunately, we didn’t win any awards, but it was an amazing learning experience. Once the winners were announced, we had our final meal at a nearby hotel and headed back home, tired, cold, but happy. Overall, KU Hackfest 2025 was an unforgettable experience, and I’d definitely recommend participating in any such hackathons if you ever get the chance.
You can find the latest hackathons in Nepal at Nepvents. May 2026 be the year you join and win hackathon. Good luck 👍.
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