Hackathons
Hackathons in the US and Canada
October 2026
- HackPSU Fall 2026In person
Oct 24-25, 2026 · University Park, PA, United States
starts in 2 days
Penn State's twice-yearly 24-hour student hackathon, held in the ECoRE Building, with workshops and speakers.
- Organizer
- HackPSU (Penn State students)
- Who
- students
studentschecked 2026-10-20 - Agents for Impact Hackathon: AtlantaIn person
Oct 27, 2026 · Atlanta, United States
starts in 5 days
One-day sprint building social-impact AI agents with Gemini, ADK and BigQuery; the winning team goes on to a public vote for a Google Cloud Next '27 stage slot.
- Organizer
- Google Cloud
November 2026
Nov 3-8, 2026 · Salt Lake City, United States
starts in 12 days
Online build week for AI agents that run real work safely inside Vultr sandboxes, then an invite-only demo day on site in Salt Lake City.
- Organizer
- lablab.ai with Vultr
- Prizes
- $9,000 cash + $5,000 in Vultr credits
- HackPrinceton Fall 2026In person
Nov 13-15, 2026 · Princeton, NJ, United States
starts in 22 days
36-hour in-person student hackathon at Princeton with tracks from healthcare to sustainability, plus workshops, mentors and guest speakers.
- Organizer
- HackPrinceton (Princeton University students)
- Prizes
- $15,000+ in prizes
- Who
- students
- HackUMass XIVIn person
Nov 13-15, 2026 · Amherst, MA, United States
starts in 22 days
36-hour hackathon at UMass Amherst's Integrative Learning Center for teams of up to four, with workshops, mentors and a sponsor fair.
- Organizer
- HackUMass (UMass Amherst students)
- Who
- students
Nov 17, 2026 · Sunnyvale, United States
starts in 26 days
One-day Google Cloud sprint to build agents on open datasets for problems like food equity and public health; the winner advances to the AI Arena.
- Organizer
- Google Cloud
- Hack Western 13In person
Nov 20-22, 2026 · London, ON, Canada
starts in 29 days
Weekend in-person hackathon at Western University for solo hackers or teams of up to four, with workshops and mentorship.
- Organizer
- Hack Western (Western University students)
- Who
- students
- RSNA 2026 Vibe Coding HackathonIn person
Nov 29 - Dec 2, 2026 · Chicago, United States
starts in 38 days
First RSNA hackathon, held during the annual meeting: use AI coding tools to turn radiology ideas into prototypes; no advanced coding needed.
- Organizer
- Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
December 2026
Dec 8, 2026 · New York, United States
starts in 47 days
Last stop of Google Cloud's one-day agent sprints, building with Antigravity, ADK v2, Gemini and BigQuery; one team advances toward Next '27.
- Organizer
- Google Cloud
January 2027
- DeltaHacks 13In person
Jan 9-10, 2027 · Hamilton, ON, Canada
starts in 79 days
24-hour, fully in-person hackathon hosted at McMaster University for teams of up to four, with challenge-category prizes.
- Organizer
- DeltaHacks (McMaster University students)
- Who
- students
studentschecked 2026-10-20 - McHacks 14In person
Jan 16-17, 2027 · Montreal, QC, Canada
starts in 86 days
24-hour hackathon on McGill's downtown campus with mentors, workshops, team formation and on-site sleeping areas.
- Organizer
- McHacks (McGill University students)
- Who
- students
- BoilerMake XIVIn person
Jan 22-24, 2027 · West Lafayette, IN, United States
starts in 92 days
Purdue's flagship student hackathon. Past editions ran 36 hours of hacking and awarded over $10,000 in prizes.
- Organizer
- BoilerMake (Purdue University students)
- Who
- students
studentschecked 2026-10-20 Jan 25 - Feb 11, 2027 · Santa Clara, United States
starts in 95 days
Online build period from Jan 25, with an in-person finale at Santa Clara Convention Center on Feb 10-11.
- Organizer
- DevNetwork
- Prizes
- $12,500 in total value
February 2027
- Hack@Brown 2027In person
Feb 6-7, 2027 · Providence, RI, United States
starts in 107 days
Brown University's annual student hackathon. Hacker applications open soon, and sign-ups for updates are live.
- Organizer
- Hack@Brown (Brown University students)
- Who
- students
- SpartaHack 2027In person
Feb 6-7, 2027 · East Lansing, MI, United States
starts in 107 days
24-hour in-person hackathon in Michigan State's STEM Building, with workshops and mentors. Regular applications open November 30.
- Organizer
- SpartaHack (Michigan State University students)
- Who
- students
studentschecked 2026-10-20 - TreeHacks 2027In person
Feb 12-14, 2027 · Stanford, CA, United States
starts in 113 days
Stanford's 36-hour flagship hackathon with eight tracks. Food, lodging and travel are covered for accepted hackers.
- Organizer
- TreeHacks (Stanford University students)
- Prizes
- Over $1M in prizes (as stated by organizers)
- Who
- students
- SF Hacks 2027In person
Feb 19-21, 2027 · San Francisco, CA, United States
starts in 120 days
About 36 hours at SF State to build a project solo or in teams of up to four, with optional tracks and sponsor challenges.
- Organizer
- SF Hacks (San Francisco State University students)
- Who
- students
- Hacklytics 2027In person
Feb 26-28, 2027 · Atlanta, GA, United States
starts in 127 days
Free 36-hour data science and AI hackathon for 1,000+ hackers at Georgia Tech's Klaus building, with tracks including finance and sports analytics.
- Organizer
- Data Science @ GT (Georgia Tech)
- Who
- students
March 2027
- Weber State AI Hackathon 2027In person
Mar 20, 2027 · Ogden, United States
starts in 149 days
One-day hands-on AI build event at Weber State, aimed at students and newcomers with no expertise needed; registration details still to come.
- Organizer
- Weber State University
- Who
- students
By country
In-person and hybrid events by country and city. Online ones are open wherever you are.
- United States 16
- HackPSU Fall 2026 (University Park, PA) · Agents for Impact Hackathon: Atlanta (Atlanta) · Vultr: Agent Rush Hackathon (Salt Lake City) · HackPrinceton Fall 2026 (Princeton, NJ) · HackUMass XIV (Amherst, MA) · Agents for Impact Hackathon: Sunnyvale (Sunnyvale) · RSNA 2026 Vibe Coding Hackathon (Chicago) · Agents for Impact Hackathon: New York (New York) · BoilerMake XIV (West Lafayette, IN) · DeveloperWeek 2027 Hackathon (Santa Clara) · Hack@Brown 2027 (Providence, RI) · SpartaHack 2027 (East Lansing, MI) · TreeHacks 2027 (Stanford, CA) · SF Hacks 2027 (San Francisco, CA) · Hacklytics 2027 (Atlanta, GA) · Weber State AI Hackathon 2027 (Ogden)
- Canada 3
- Hack Western 13 (London, ON) · DeltaHacks 13 (Hamilton, ON) · McHacks 14 (Montreal, QC)
How to win a hackathon
1. Before
Read the judging criteria and the sponsor prize list first; pick the tracks you can win, not the biggest one. Set up your stack, API keys and a deploy target (Vercel, Railway, Fly) the day before.
2. Team
Three or four people: one on the backend and integrations, one on the frontend, one on the demo and the pitch. Agree on the idea in the first hour, then stop debating.
3. Scope
Build one flow that works end to end, not five half-features. Mock anything that is not on the demo path, and use sponsor APIs where they genuinely help (that is how many prizes are judged).
4. Demo
Judges see your project for 3 to 5 minutes. Open with the problem in one sentence, show the live product, end with what is next. Record a 2-minute backup video in case the Wi-Fi or the API fails.
5. Submit
Submit early with a README, screenshots, the repo link and the video, then keep improving. Late submissions are usually not accepted, even by a minute.
6. After
Ship it: put the project online, write a short post, and launch it on DevHunt. Many hackathon projects get their first users that week.
Pack: laptop and charger, a power strip, headphones, a phone hotspot as backup Wi-Fi, ID (in-person events check it), and a free LLM key or two from our free LLM API list.
For dev-tool makers
Sponsor a hackathon to get your tool used
A sponsor prize ("best use of your API") puts your tool in the hands of hundreds of builders for a weekend, and the winning projects become demos and case studies. What works: a prize track that needs your product, free credits for every team, a short getting-started guide, and someone from your team on site or in Discord answering questions. Student hackathons are the cheapest way in; AI and web3 events reach builders who already pay for tools.
More places to promote your dev tool · perks and credits programs · advertise on DevHunt
FAQ
What are the next hackathons in North America?+
HackPSU Fall 2026 (Oct 24-25, 2026, University Park, PA, United States); Agents for Impact Hackathon: Atlanta (Oct 27, 2026, Atlanta, United States); Vultr: Agent Rush Hackathon (Nov 3-8, 2026, Salt Lake City, United States). 19 in total on this page, soonest first.
Where are hackathons in North America happening?+
United States (16), Canada (3). See the by-country list on this page for cities.
When is the next one?+
HackPSU Fall 2026 starts on Oct 24, 2026 (University Park, PA, United States).