year 2023 has been a prominent one for me, where I had the honor of winning India's largest hackathon UST D3code along with my wonderful teammates Mihir, Manan and Alan. Just to brief you with the analytics, D3code 2023 saw over 12,000+ registrations while only 5 teams make it to the grand finale. You must be thinking this is insanely difficult and luck-based?!. I wouldn't deny it but here are some "must-do" things that can drastically improve 📈📈 your chances of getting to the finale.
💲 Grand Prizes💲
| Rank | Prize (INR) | Job Offer |
| 1 | 700,000, (present in d3 conference) | Yes |
| 2 | 500,000 | Yes |
| 3 | 300,000 | Yes |
| 4 | 200,000 | Yes |
| 5 | 200,000 | Yes |
Round - 1 (a) 💡
So this round is about submitting the idea proposal that is strictly in terms of the theme of the hackathon. (2023 was Generative AI). Here are some things to remember.
Make sure that the idea you submit is directly or sub-directly related to the theme.
Emphasize answering "how" this solution is related to the theme and in "what" way will it be revolutionary.
Don't worry about how you will be able to implement it. What matters is you stack up as many features as possible and at least 1 or 2 such major features that don't exist in the existing products. (or under testing).
You need not mention the minute details of the working. Rather mention what wonders your idea could do. Primarily focus on "How efficiently it solves an existing problem".
Strictly adhere to their template. It shows how well you follow their instructions while also covering all aspects that they expect.
As a remark of security, you can mention a few extra details (if you are sure) about what possible technologies you can use and mention their individual use case.
Round-1(b) 💻
This round is a programming challenge round , consisting of 3 coding questions in the range (easy , easy-med , med). The first 2 problems are generally based on standard topics likes stl , implementation , adhoc . However the last problem is the deciding problem and the one you should be ready to tackle. It will be based on non standard topics like Intermediate DP , Graphs , Connected Components , Trees , String- searching . Without revealing any details of the problem, the one I faced was based on the Z algorithm (Rolling hash).
Strategy
1st Member: Has comprehensive knowledge of full stack development with experience in handling 24-hour speed programming situations. Make sure he has sufficient knowledge to design the backend from scratch.
2nd Member: Here I would like to give an unsettling opinion of mine. Have a great UI/UX designer. I think it makes the difference because ("Jo Dikhta hai Bikta hai").I mean a good UI does make a great difference. It gives an outstanding first impression to the judges, fabricating some of the issues in the product.
3rd & 4th Members: Make sure they have relevant CP skills. By that, I mean experience in taking part in contests and knowledge of intermediate topics. I suggest this because if you underperform here, then there is no way ahead. While you can be creative with your idea and somehow manage it, you can't "manage" the coding challenge. You NEED to ACE it .
Regardless of this, make sure that at least 2 members have sufficient knowledge of the theme's technology.
Round - 2 🎯
It's the presentation round. Once you make it to the top 10, the panel conducts a presentation round based on the idea you have submitted. The teams are expected to present a detailed plan based on their idea. Although we weren't given any guidelines for the ppt, we tried to cover our product in technical and business aspects. Here are some topics that you can add to your presentation.
Introduction
Introduce your team perfectly, including each member's year,departement, stack designation etc. I know it sounds meagre but it matters a lot :)
Table of contents
Take them through your agenda for the presentation. This way you set the stage for your product.
Need
I would say this is the most important part. " What issue does your product solve?" , "Why do we need it ?". If these questions aren't answered properly then the impact it creates is exponentially low.
Product and its features
Introduce your product, what is it, what can it do and list down all possible big and small features in the descending order of their impact and relevance.
Conceptual architecture
It gives an overview of how different components are logically communicating with each other. This need not be accurate, but presenting it shows the clarity of your idea. A bonus point would be to come up with an efficient architecture and add 1-2 more slides explaining how it is beneficial to have the latter.
Business Model, Requirements and USP
Present the details of the business model that you have envisioned for the product, for eg: the subscription model. Show how you will make this product sustainable in the market in the long run. Describe your customers and users and schemes that will attract them. List down your technical and financial requirements and dependencies like funding, dataset etc. This shows the far-sightedness of your planning and leaves a good impression on the judges.
Tech Stack
Describe your tech stack in brief describing the purpose of each framework.
QnA
Make sure you have cross-checked all the contents of your products. The questions asked can be very specific to some parts of your system. They dont expect a professional answer, but if you can come up with a possible solution or explanation for the gap, you will be considered enough. The questions will be mainly regarding technical aspects so make sure each member knows the part that they've planned.
Round - 3 🏆
The top 5 teams make it to the Grand final organized at their headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram. It's time for the final 24-hour showdown. The most important thing is to use the first 20-30 minutes to plan out things wisely, distribute the work properly and define a scope within which you have to develop the prototype. The most important aspect of this round is to make a comprehensive presentation. Start preparing the ppt after the initial 15 hours. In the mentoring session, you will be taught how to make a suitable presentation with dos and don'ts. In the actual prototype make sure that you are using 3rd party api's only as external integrations and not as functionality. The judges expect that most of the features are developed in-house. Other than this it will be all about how fast you can build the product with accuracy, the bunch of features it provides and how well you market it to the panel.