Have you ever been in a hackathon

I've participated in both "competitive" and charitable hackathons. Hackathons for prizes result in only frustrations because you end up up focusing on smoke an mirrors. You wont "win" if you make an actual product.

I've created a lot of connections and had a lot of fun doing 'give camps' where we busted out a website/project for a non-profit organization over a weekend.

Been to one that is somewhat famous #hacktrain . Lots of people, set to code for straight 48hrs and then present the outcome. Best ones get some swag and possibly implement the 'xyz' to some random big train company.

Found out that 2y later "Big Company" used that same idea from our team (We were 2nd place) and implemented it as theirs.

I can't say which big company as I have some ties to it.

But on positive side, I met lots of people, learned a lot about different ways of coding, thinking and made some friends.

Each hackaton is different, make sure you hit some other people that might've been to same one 'last year' and ask them about their perception of it.

I went to a couple when I was in college. It was a lot of fun to go with a couple friends from school and hack through the night together. It was good experience overall: I got experience creating an MVP, shipping something, and presenting to external parties. Your mileage may vary though. It's a very social event, so if you don't like talking to strangers or working with others, you may not enjoy it. I wouldn't have gone without my friends because I'm not very social around people I don't know. Take all of that into consideration when deciding if it's for you.

I haven't been in a hackathon, but the one time (I started learning to code just a couple months ago) I actually thought about going to one I felt like I didn't have enough skills.. So is good advice to go even if you haven't been coding for long?

Mandatory link to Vooza video on the subject:
vooza.com/videos/hackathon/

The “Stupid shit that no one needs” one is really one of the most fun I’ve done. Very informal and great humour.

If find that coding is fun then it's going to be fun. I don't think you'll learn much though, better come prepared with what you already know.

Go for it! the time constraints and the overall organization of the hack that you are going to do is something you will learn about.Overall all positive impacts from my side! Enjoy!!

I've been in Microsoft hackathon (won silver) and Google hackathon (silver too). It's fun to meet new people and the air of healthy competition is always nice. Join it! You either win or you learn. 😊

Thanks for your answer