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We track the hackathons worth your weekend — AI first, everything builder-grade next. Real dates, verified links, and an honest note on why each one matters.
Hackathons ahead — Aug to Oct 2026
Every listing below is a real event verified against its official source, sorted by start date. Countdowns are live.
Pixel Forge AI Hackathon
A one-week online AI hackathon pitched explicitly at beginners: build something with AI regardless of skill level, with low-code and no-code entries w…
Batam Singapore Hackathon
A weekend in-person hackathon run by the Batam Innovation Center, which organises workshops, demo days and hackathons to grow the innovation culture o…
Helmholtz GPU Hackathon
Part of the Open Hackathons program: a multi-day hybrid event where teams bring their own scientific or AI code and work alongside GPU mentors to prof…
AI Infra Summit Hackathon
The official hackathon of AI Infra Summit, co-organized by Kisaco Research and lablab.ai. Build applications on the technologies shaping AI's foundati…
8th Marenostrum Hackathon (MNHack26)
The eighth edition of the Marenostrum hackathon in the Open Hackathons series: an extended multi-week hybrid format focused on accelerating HPC and AI…
GSA Model Context Protocol & AI Agent Hackathon
A government-wide hackathon organised by the AI Tooling Meetup Group of GSA's AI Community of Practice: participants prototype MCP servers and AI agen…
Hacktoberfest
DigitalOcean's annual celebration of open source, supported by Major League Hacking: contribute four quality pull/merge requests to participating proj…
European AI Hackathon
A dedicated AI-focus event in the Open Hackathons program, running as an extended hybrid format across most of October for teams in the EMEA region.…
Dubai AI Week — AI Agents Hackathon
Design, build and launch a real-world AI agent as part of Dubai AI Week, hosted at Deriv's Business Bay offices with a prize pool listed at over $60,0…
AI & Big Data Expo Europe Hackathon
The official hackathon of AI & Big Data Expo Europe at RAI Amsterdam, organized by TechEx Events together with lablab.ai, running hybrid with an onlin…
How hackable are you?
Two minutes, a score out of 100, and a fix list ordered by impact. Voice clones and phishing — or relay attacks on your car. Runs entirely in your browser.
🛡️ Check yourself → 🚗 Check your car →🎬 Learn fast, build faster
Curated tutorials that actually earn your time — starting with Karpathy's legendary LLM intro, playable right on the page.
Open the watch list →Field notes
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Every AI hackathon you can still join in 2026 — the fall window
Ten verified events from August to October, from beginner-friendly online weeks to a $60K agent build in Dubai.
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How to actually win an AI hackathon
What judges reward, what teams get wrong, and the unglamorous playbook that beats better engineers.