All updates, announcements, Q&A, and mentor support will be shared exclusively in our official WhatsApp community. Joining the community is mandatory for all registered participants.

👉 Join here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/FGS2jlqbEEZEysEkuKLS47

All times are in IST (Indian Standard Time).

• Open to students and early-career professionals across India, including undergraduate students, postgraduate students, and recent graduates.
• Team size: exactly 4 members. Teams with fewer or more than 4 members are not eligible.
• Every team must include at least 1 female participant.
• Each team must register once and select one track — AI/ML, DevOps & Cloud, or Cybersecurity — along with one problem statement from that track.
• Team composition is locked once Round 1 is submitted. No member swapping will be permitted after PPT submission.
• Each participant may be a member of only one team throughout the hackathon.
• All registered teams must join the official WhatsApp community, which will serve as the primary channel for announcements, deadlines, mentor support, and important event communications.
• All substantive project development must take place during the official Round 2 Coding Sprint: 26 Sept, 5:30 PM – 27 Sept, 12:00 PM.
• Projects substantially developed before the official coding window may be disqualified following verification.
• Changes made during the Final Refinement Window must build upon the original Round 2 submission. Teams may not replace the project with an unrelated/new solution.
• Women in Tech Award: Eligible only for teams consisting of 4 female participants.
• Organizers, judges, mentors, and their immediate teams/companies are not eligible to participate.

26 Sept, 6:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Teams must submit a PPT/PDF pitch deck of maximum 8 slides covering:

• Problem understanding
• Proposed solution
• Solution approach
• High-level architecture
• Proposed technology stack
• Expected impact
• Feasibility

No working code is required for Round 1.

The top 80% of teams based on the Round 1 evaluation will qualify for the Coding Sprint.

26 Sept, 5:30 PM – 27 Sept, 12:00 PM

Qualified teams receive an 18.5-hour focused coding window to build their solution.

Teams must submit:

• A public GitHub repository
• Complete source code
• Clear README documentation
• Setup and installation instructions
• Technology stack
• Architecture/implementation details
• Explanation of how the solution addresses the selected problem statement

Git commit history may be reviewed to verify development during the official coding window.

Code substantially developed before the coding window may be flagged for review or disqualification.

27 Sept, 12:00 PM – 28 Sept, 1:00 AM

Teams must submit a maximum 10-minute demo video demonstrating their working solution.

Selected teams may also be required to participate in a live technical walkthrough/Q&A with the evaluation panel during this period.

Evaluation may cover:

• Technical implementation
• Architecture
• Code quality
• Technical decision-making
• Problem-specific constraints
• Edge cases
• Working demonstration
• Understanding of the submitted solution

Teams are expected to remain available during the evaluation window.

28 Sept, 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM

The Top 20 teams advance to the final stage.

Teams may refine their existing Round 2 submission, including:

• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements
• UI/UX improvements
• Additional functionality
• Reliability improvements
• Documentation improvements
• Technical polishing

The refined submission must remain based on the same core project and selected problem statement.

Teams must submit:

• Updated GitHub repository
• Updated README
• Final demo materials
• Updated pitch deck

28 Sept, after 6:00 PM

The Top 20 teams will present their refined solutions to the final judging panel.

The final stage will include:

• Final product demonstration
• Technical explanation
• Updated pitch deck
• Architecture discussion
• Problem-solving justification
• Judge Q&A

Final-round scores will determine the overall placements.

29 Sept, 10:00 AM

The final results will be announced, including:

• 🥇 1st Place
• 🥈 2nd Place
• 🥉 3rd Place
• 👩‍💻 Women in Tech Award

The Top 3 teams will also receive internship offers, subject to the terms and selection process communicated by the organizers.

A team may be disqualified for:

• Missing a mandatory submission deadline
• Failure to submit the required repository, video, or presentation
• Submitting substantially pre-built project work for the Round 2 coding sprint
• Code committed outside the official coding window where such commits constitute substantive pre-development
• Plagiarism or undisclosed use of another team's/project's code
• Failure to address the selected problem statement
• Changing the selected problem statement after registration/submission
• Team composition not meeting the 4-member requirement
• Failure to meet the minimum 1-female-member requirement
• Submitting an unrelated/new project during the Final Refinement Window
• Any other violation of the official hackathon rules

In addition to the cash prizes:

• Top 3 teams receive internship offers
• Top 20 teams receive certificates of achievement
• All registered participants receive certificates of participation

Purpose: Determine the 80% of teams advancing to Round 2.

Total: 100 points

The lowest-scoring 20% of teams will not advance to the Coding Sprint.

Purpose: Select the Top 20 teams for the final stage.

Total: 100 points

Purpose: Determine the final overall placements.

Total: 100 points

The Final Round score will determine the overall 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place positions.

In case of a tie, the Live Demo & Technical Evaluation score will be used as the tie-breaker.

The Women in Tech Award will be awarded to the highest-scoring eligible all-women team based on the Final Round evaluation.

An eligible all-women team may receive both an overall placement and the Women in Tech Award if it meets the respective criteria.