beginner hackathons

22 open

beginner-friendly hackathons for first builds

find beginner-friendly hackathons and starter tracks where first-time builders can ship a focused demo.

target keyword

hackathon ideas for beginners

beginner-friendly does not mean easy. it means the host gives enough structure that a small team can finish one clear demo.

this page filters for beginner, starter, first-time, student and learning signals in the live hackathon data.

faq

what makes a hackathon beginner-friendly?

clear rules, examples, mentor access, a small track and a project idea that can be demoed without deep infrastructure work.

what should beginners avoid?

avoid vague agent platforms, multi-sided marketplaces and anything that needs unavailable data to look credible.

can beginners enter ai hackathons?

yes. use a reliable model API, ship a simple workflow and spend time on the demo rather than custom research.

sort

22 / 22 open

01 / online / < 08d left>

Global AI Hackathon Series With Qwen Cloud

Alibaba Cloud

$45K prizeMACHINE LEARNING/AI · DESIGN
02 / in-person / < 09d left>

Devsoc Starlight 2026

DevSoc

$1K prizeBEGINNER FRIENDLY · MOBILE
03 / online / < 09d left>

Global Hack Week: Season Launch

Major League Hacking

prize TBAMLH · STUDENT
04 / in-person / < 10d left>

Agentic AI Build Week 2026

GenAI Fund

$1M prizeMACHINE LEARNING/AI · featured-home
05 / online / < 11d left>

Senohacks.

Starving Name Gang

prize TBABEGINNER FRIENDLY · OPEN ENDED
06 / online / < 11d left>

Mega Agent-a-thon

Vzone

prize TBALOW/NO CODE · MACHINE LEARNING/AI
07 / online / < 11d left>

Steminate Hacks 2026

STEMINATE CLUB

prize TBAMACHINE LEARNING/AI · SOCIAL GOOD
08 / online / < 11d left>

Lovhack X Brandoye Growathon

Lovhack

prize TBAMACHINE LEARNING/AI · OPEN ENDED
09 / online / < 11d left>

Insforge Hack

AI Group

prize TBABEGINNER FRIENDLY · ENTERPRISE
10 / online / < 11d left>

MY Dream Superhero Challenge

Kinovi

prize TBALOW/NO CODE · MACHINE LEARNING/AI
11 / online / < 11d left>

V1trous Hackathon

V1 Initiative

prize TBABEGINNER FRIENDLY · EDUCATION
12 / in-person / < 11d left>

Play With Purpose Hackathon Presented BY COX ENT

Cox Enterprises

prize TBABEGINNER FRIENDLY · SOCIAL GOOD
13 / online / < 11d left>

Gitlab Transcend Hackathon

GitLab

$20K prizeMACHINE LEARNING/AI · DEVOPS
14 / online / < 12d left>

Slack Agent Builder Challenge

Salesforce

$42K prizeBEGINNER FRIENDLY · ENTERPRISE
15 / online / < 13d left>

Usaii® Global AI Hackathon 2026

USAII

$15K prizeBEGINNER FRIENDLY · MACHINE LEARNING/AI
16 / in-person / < 23d left>

SMU .hack Enrichment Application Programme 2026

Singapore Management University

$2K prizeBEGINNER FRIENDLY · OPEN ENDED
17 / online / < 37d left>

Global Hack Week: Agents

Major League Hacking

prize TBAMLH · STUDENT
18 / online / < 44d left>

ARM Create: AI Optimization Challenge

arm

$8K prizeMACHINE LEARNING/AI
19 / online / < 47d left>

Build With Gemini Xprize

XPRIZE

$2M prizeMACHINE LEARNING/AI · EDUCATION
20 / in-person / < 52d left>

Genz CAN Hack 2026

Kids for Kids Toronto Coding Club

$1K prizeEDUCATION · MACHINE LEARNING/AI
21 / online / < 66d left>

Volthacks

Dialogate

$2K prizeIOT · MACHINE LEARNING/AI
22 / online / < 283d left>

Wehack 2027

Major League Hacking

prize TBAMLH · STUDENT