Hackathons

 

HACKATHONS

"Hackathon" you might have heard this word before, as the word is I used to think hackathon means Hacking + Marathon. A marathon that is of hacking.... weird? It's not like that. 

When I was in my first semester and the very first hackathon came in my college, I was totally clueless about it. But very curious at the same time. Hackathons are one of the most interesting things according to me in our college life. So, let's go with the definition--an event in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming. But trust me, it is way more than that. 

Hackathons are basically 24 to 48 hours long gathering of students and sometimes professionals also, where all people come together to solve a problem using technology. People collaborate and make their best solutions to a particular problem statement. Problem statements are the topic or the problems that needed to be resolved during that competition. Students get the list of the problem statements days or months before the hackathon, so that they can start their ideation stage means they can select whatever the problem statement is aligning with their interests and they make a tech-based solution.

But in reality, most of the people make their projects days before the hackathon date to reduce workload on that day. And technically it is good also as you are fully prepared and confident about your project. Starting with the team formation, task distribution, learning skills that are required for our project, etc. sometimes there are small arguments and fights also if teammates are not agreeing on something or they might be hostile in nature, who knows...
Apart from all these, there are a lot many things that we learn through this hackathons. Like Networking, building connections that are very helpful for one's tech journey, meeting new people with same mindset, dealing with people as well as time, sometimes it gives us fear that we know very less than those people but it motivates also to work even more harder towards our goals. It helps us in our personality development as well, our communication skills and many more things. 
The hard work students do in this journey is uncommendable. The hard work of months and 24-48 hours long continuous dedication towards some goal results in a big WIN of students. Yess...I won't say anyone lose any hackathon because no one has anything to lose in it. It is always a win-win situation, either you win or you don't win but you learn, and you can not say someone lost if he/she learnt.

Along with all these lessons and learnings you get some snacks and refreshments all to lift your mood up. But trust me, their is no single thing as enjoyable as the hustle that we do during these days. And that's why I say Hackathons are one of the best experiences that you can have during your college days. So, to all those newbies who are thinking that I don't know so much in programming and coding and bla..bla..--don't think too much and just go for it, it will teach you everything with time. 

          By Deeksha