Eligibility

• Open to everyone — students, professionals, freelancers, career-switchers. All skill levels welcome.
• Teams of 1–4. Team details (name + members) are submitted at registration; solo hackers can join a team-formation session at kickoff.
• Registration on MLH is mandatory for check-in, swag, and prize eligibility — a Meetup RSVP alone doesn't qualify you for prizes.

Project Requirements

• Must be built during the hack window (11:30 AM–4:00 PM, 18 July 2026) and address one of the three tracks: Learn Better, Ship Faster, or Daily Drivers.
• Must use Python and data in some meaningful way — this is the event's stated open theme, not restricted to specific example builds.
• Optional prize-track requirements: meaningful viaSocket integration (not bolted on) for the viaSocket prize; meaningful Gemini API usage + submitted Gemini API Key Project Number for the Gemini prize.

Submission Requirements

• Submit on Devpost before demos begin (~4:00 PM IST, 18 July). Late submissions are not judged — decide and state explicitly whether there's any grace period, since the current copy doesn't say.
• Required: project title, track, description, 2–3 min demo video, 2+ screenshots, source code link (GitHub/GitLab, accessible to judges), tech stack, team members and roles, AI disclosure.
• One submission per team — the current site doesn't say whether a hacker can be on multiple teams or submit multiple projects; decide and state this.

Judging

• Four criteria, weighted equally: Technology (25%), Design & Usability (25%), Completion (25%), Real-World Usefulness (25%).
• Not judged on: code cleanliness, pitch polish, idea novelty.
• Winners selected by judges on-site; results announced 4:45–5:15 PM.