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PRANJUL RATHOUR
PRANJUL RATHOUR

Posted on Originally published at pranjulrathour.scult.in

Five mistakes every first-time hackathon judge makes (I made most of them too)

#hackathonjudging #paneljudge #mistakes

First-time judges make a predictable set of mistakes, mostly from applying instinct instead of the rubric they were handed.

The five

  • Scoring on charisma: a confident presenter with a thin project outscores a nervous one with a strong build, unless you deliberately correct for it.
  • Comparing teams to each other in the moment instead of scoring each against the rubric independently, which drifts as the day goes on.
  • Letting the first team anchor the scale — team one gets a 9, and every later team gets judged relative to them instead of the criteria.
  • Asking softball questions instead of the one question that tests whether the team actually understands their own project.
  • Writing no notes, then trying to reconstruct feedback from memory at the end of a long day of pitches.

The fix for all five

Score immediately after each pitch, against the written rubric, with one sentence of notes — before the next team starts. It sounds small; it's the single habit that prevents most of this.

See how judges should give feedback.

About Pranjul Rathour

Pranjul Rathour holding a microphone while answering a question during a session
Taking questions during a session

Pranjul Rathour in a grey suit at Dr. Virendra Swarup Institute of Computer Studies (VSICS), Kanpur
At VSICS, Kanpur

Pranjul Rathour in front of an Integral Startup Foundation hackathon backdrop
At an Integral Startup Foundation hackathon

Pranjul Rathour in a checked shirt inside a packed college auditorium
In a packed college auditorium

Pranjul Rathour in a suit and tie with a lanyard at a formal campus event
At a formal campus event

Pranjul Rathour is a GenAI engineer from Kanpur, India, and CTO at SCULT INDIA, currently shipping production RAG,
fine-tuning and agentic AI systems, mentoring 200+ students through TechVerse Enclave, and judging and speaking at
student hackathons across India. Updated 2026-09-07.

Reach out if you want to talk GenAI, book a campus session, or invite him to judge:

Pranjul Rathour · GenAI engineer, 3x hackathon winner, campus mentor. Open for GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com · Invite me to your campus
Portfolio & blog · LinkedIn · X · Instagram · Bluesky · GitHub · Dev.to

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