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Henok Ademtew
Henok Ademtew

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A week into Local Hack Day: Learn 2021

What is Local Hack Day: Learn?

Local Hack Day: Learn or LHD: Learn is a week-long learning opportunity for students around the globe organized by Major League Hacking (MLH). It's a learning opportunity for all skill levels no matter what level of hacking you are at, whether it’s writing your first lines of code or creating a multi-faceted project. LHD is also a quest that challenges you to learn and explore areas of technology and design, level up your hacker game, and meet like-minded people from around the world. This week-long adventure full of workshops, fun mini-events, challenges, and panels allows you to learn and explore new things.

What are the challenges?

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A challenge at LHD is a way for you to level up as a hacker to tackle new skills, explore various realms of technology, and advocate exciting projects. There are two different types of challenges, weekly and daily challenges.

Daily challenges

These challenges change every single day to make sure you always have something new to tackle. When you have a few moments between the workshops and live sessions you're attending, pick one (or a few!) of these out to complete. Take a look at today’s challenges now!

Week-long challenge:

What’s the rush? Take a chance on a week-long challenge! These range in more intricate or intensive hacks to hacks that we think are fun to do any day of the week. Make sure to take a scan through all of the awesome challenges you can comete!

This year's challenges span from no-code to updating a classic video game, from learning about APIs to building a Cat rescue app that recognizes Cat breeds and many more. My favorite challenges were Learn a new programming language, where I learned about Ocaml for the first time, and Learn about Cybersecurity where I learned how to write a simple key logger in python.

What is the point of these challenges?

The challenges will vary in difficulty and category, but all will take you on an adventure to learn something new. When you solve challenges, you will be able to put your hands on a project. It will help you to learn and level up your skills and your experience points by completing challenges.

Challenges are choose-your-own-adventure-style learning. There is no pressure to complete all of them - just pick out the ones that spark your interest and try them out.

Learn more about the challenges

Guilds

Now, you might be asking, where is the fun part? Of course, learning all day might not be fun and this's where Guild comes in.

Guilds are a great way to find a small community within the larger MLH hacker community at events such as Local Hack Day. In Guild's you will complete challenges together, enjoy hacking breaks and mini-events. Every time you complete a challenge during the week of Learn, you’ll earn points for yourself and your guild.

From having a virtual coffee to learning/sharing about cultures, there are tons of things you could do with your guild members. This year there were around 60 guilds filled with passionate hackers just like you. I was a part of EddiHub's guild, where I met so many people. If you want to be a Guild Leader, you are welcome to form a new one.

Completing a journey is always more fun with friends!

Learn more about guild here

Swags

We all love swags and, of course, don't worry LHD: Learn is full of it.

There is plenty to be excited about at Local Hack Day: Learn and swag just happens to be one of them! We want to make sure your adventuring pack is stocked with some new goodies!

My journey at Local Hack Day Learn was a great experience and, I hope you are now well equipped with the information you need. Make sure to join the MLH's discord and MLH's website to join future LHD. Feel free to reach out for any queries you have.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

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