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PRANJUL RATHOUR
PRANJUL RATHOUR

Posted on Originally published at pranjulrathour.scult.in

How to become a hackathon judge: what actually gets you invited to the panel

#hackathonjudging #paneljudge #gettingstarted

Nobody becomes a hackathon judge by applying to a listing — organisers ask someone whose judgement they already trust, usually because of something public: a rubric they published, a talk they gave, projects they've clearly evaluated before.

What actually builds that trust

  • A published, reusable rubric — see a hackathon judging rubric organisers can copy — that shows you think about scoring before anyone asks you to.
  • Mentoring at hackathons first; mentors who give sharp, structured feedback are the pool organisers pull judges from.
  • Being visibly active in the student-hackathon community — organising, speaking, writing — so your name is the one that comes up.

Making yourself easy to invite

Put a standing offer somewhere organisers can find it, with the logistics already answered: on-site or remote, what you need in a briefing, how many teams you can fairly assess. I keep mine on the invite page for exactly this reason.

See what hackathon judges look for for the method itself once you're on a panel.

About Pranjul Rathour

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 presenting BrandHive on a projector screen
Presenting BrandHive

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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