We know there are lots of different types of hackathons. If you'd like to have your hackathon promoted by GitHub, you can submit a request to have your hackathon featured on our GitHub Events page. If you'd like to do this however, your hackathon will need to align to specific criteria. Read on to find out more.
GitHub Hackathons are focused on technology solutions, typically underpinned by code. Hackathons in general are focused on identifying problems and coming up with creative solutions, presenting a proof of concept or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for that solution.
Rather than creating new ideas, your hackathon could be a coding challenge. This is where a problem is presented and developers use code to solve the coding challenge. The problem could be “build a GitHub Action”, or it could be “solve these issues in a particular program”. Coding challenges are a great way to learn new technologies while working in a team, or individually.
To organize an event that qualifies as an official GitHub Hackathon, these are the things you need to implement:
- The hackathon projects and ideas MUST be available in a public GitHub repository and published with a recognized open source license. When you create your code repository in GitHub, we help you pick a license or see choose a license for more information.
- The hackathon MUST enforce a code of conduct to help ensure the event is inclusive and welcoming to all. Codes of Conduct can vary for the type of hackathon. For an in-person event, something like the GitHub Event Code of Conduct is a great start. For any open source repo, you’ll need a Code of Conduct, which can be found on the Contributor Covenant.
If you have questions about the GitHub Hackathon Criteria, please open an issue and we'll try and respond as soon as possible.
