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World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge
Reflect and Share Your World's Largest Hackathon Journey!
The building period for the World's Largest Hackathon has officially wrapped up, and what an incredible month it was! With over 130,000 builders registered, this event truly lived up to its name as a launchpad for the next generation of creators.
Now it's time to reflect, share, and celebrate the journey. Running through July 31, the World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge offers everyone a chance to document their building experience and share it with the community.
Maybe you joined your first hackathon team, discovered the power of AI-assisted development, or found that your project took on a life of its own beyond any competition. Each of our three prompts captures a different aspect of the WLH experience, giving you the freedom to share what mattered most to you.
Read on for the prompts!
Key Dates
- Contest start: July 01, 2025
- Submissions due: July 31, 2025
- Winners announced: August 21, 2025
Badge Rewards
Challenge Prompts
Building with Bolt
Share your project development experience and technical journey. You might cover what you built, how Bolt.new transformed your development process, any sponsor challenges you tackled, favorite code snippets or prompts, or how AI-powered development changed your approach to building.
Judging Criteria:
- Style and presentation
- Clarity
- Originality
Beyond the Code
Tell us about the human side of your hackathon experience. You might cover your team collaboration dynamics, IRL events you attended, connections you made, mentors who helped you, community moments that stood out, networking experiences, or shout-outs to people who made your hackathon memorable.
Judging Criteria:
- Style and presentation
- Clarity
- Originality
After the Hack
Share what's next for you and your project, and reflect on what you learned. Whether you're continuing development, launching a startup, or found that building became more important than competing, tell us about your future plans, personal transformation, skills gained, or how this month of creation changed your trajectory.
Judging Criteria:
- Style and presentation
- Clarity
- Originality
Frequently Asked Questions
Participation
Can I submit to multiple prompts?
Yes, you are welcome to submit to multiple prompts.
Can one submission qualify for multiple prompts?
Yes, if your submission offers a solution to multiple prompts, it can qualify for multiple prompts.
Can I submit to a prompt more than once?
Yes, you can submit multiple submissions per prompt but you’ll need to publish a separate post for each submission.
- In the event that you may win two or more prompts, and your submission is very close with another participant, we will favor the other participant.
- In the event that you do win two or more prompts, you will only receive one winner badge.
Can I work on a team?
Yes, you can work on a team up to the amount of people you worked on the World's Largest Hackathon with.
How old do I have to be to participate?
Participants need to be 18+ in order to participate.
If I live in X, am I eligible to participate?
For eligibility rules, see our official challenge rules.
Submission
Do submissions have to be in English?
Non-english submissions are eligible for a completion badge but not eligible for prizes due to the current limitations of our judges. We will not be judging on mastery of the English language, so please don’t let this deter you from submitting if you are not a native English speaker! We hope to evolve this in the future to be more accommodating.
What happens if my submission is considered plagiarized or invalid?
Anything deemed to be plagiarism will not be eligible for prizes. Incidental plagiarism may simply result in your disqualification from the challenge (regardless of the number of other valid submissions you have published). Egregious plagiarism will result in your suspension from DEV entirely. Any non-generic, non-trivial usage of prior work, including open source code must be credited in your submission.
Can I use AI?
Use of AI is allowed as long as all other rules are followed. We want to give you a chance to show off your skills in realistic scenarios. If you use AI tools to help you achieve your submission, all the power to you.
Judging and Prizing
Can there be ties?
In the event of a tie in scoring between judges, the judges will select the entry that received the highest number of positive reactions on their post to determine the winner.
How will I know if I won?
Winners will be announced in a DEV post on the winner announcement date noted in our key dates section.
When will I receive my badge?
Both participation and winner badges will be awarded, in most cases, the same day as the winner announcement.
World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge Rules
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends 2025-07-31, 2025 at 11:59 PM PDT. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entires must be submitted during the content period. For Official Rules, see World’s Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge Contest Rules and General Contest Official Rules.
