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PRANJUL RATHOUR
PRANJUL RATHOUR

Posted on Originally published at pranjulrathour.scult.in

How many teams can one judge fairly see in a day? The number organisers underestimate

#hackathonjudging #organisers #scheduling

Organisers often schedule one judge for thirty teams in a day because the math of judges-available divided by teams-total made that number convenient. Judging quality does not survive thirty pitches in a day.

A realistic cap

Somewhere around twelve to fifteen substantive pitches (five minutes plus Q&A) is where a judge's attention and written feedback quality start degrading noticeably. Past that, scores compress toward the middle and feedback gets generic.

  • Build in real breaks between blocks of five or six pitches, not just a lunch break in the middle of the day.
  • If team count exceeds what your judge panel can fairly see, add judges or run a first-round screening with a lighter rubric before the full panel sees finalists.
  • Ask judges directly, before the event, how many they're comfortable doing — don't just divide teams by headcount.

See inviting a hackathon judge: what organisers should send for getting this number right from the first email.

About Pranjul Rathour

Pranjul Rathour in a black t-shirt holding a microphone in front of a chequered wall
On the mic

Pranjul Rathour pitching with a microphone in front of a projector slide at CSJMU, Kanpur
Pitching at CSJMU, Kanpur

Pranjul Rathour speaking from the podium at VSICS, Kanpur
At the VSICS podium, Kanpur

Pranjul Rathour holding a trophy and a certificate of merit after a win
Trophy and certificate after a win

Pranjul Rathour presenting evaluation criteria — feasibility, innovation, practicality, problem solving — on a projector screen
Walking a room through evaluation criteria

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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