4 Ways to Win a Hackathon (None of Them Is Writing Code)

I recently emerged victorious in my company's annual hackathon, winning one of three categories with a MacOS dictation app. The concept was straightforward: put your cursor in a text area, press right option, and start speaking. The winner was clear - your voice was your keyboard, no matter where you were. I won the hackathon, but it was a relief because I had confidently assured everyone that I would win and that there was no need for them to compete.

You might be wondering how I achieved such confidence. While AI can generate a million lines of code in a week, there are ways to win a hackathon without relying on it. Here are four keys to hackathon success that I discovered:

1. Hustle and use AI tools. Winning a hackathon is similar to increasing one's share of an inheritance - it helps to outcompete others. Claude, an AI coding assistant, is incredibly powerful at churning out boilerplate code, making it nearly impossible for humans to compete. I started my project a week early, which gave me an advantage and allowed me to burn out afterwards. Utilizing Claude, I was able to generate the necessary code efficiently.

2. Have a clear vision. Software engineers and product developers today need vision more than ever. I knew my dictation app's purpose from the beginning - it was a voice keyboard. This vision guided my design choices and helped me reject the standard UX of other transcription tools. Focusing on the bigger picture and creating a real, concrete product will put you in the top percentile of hackathon projects.

3. Experiment with technology. I made unconventional tech choices for my app. Instead of using Electron, I opted for Wails, which bundles a single-page React UI with significantly lower memory usage. This unconventional choice saved memory and allowed for on-device transcription, making the app more efficient. Although Claude, my AI coding assistant, wrote most of the code, the unconventional tech choices were instrumental in my success.