- Teams are limited to two to five hackers, and team members must exclusively consist of accepted hackers/participants who are not in any privileged positions such as organizers, volunteers, mentors, judges, or sponsors.
- While teams are encouraged to seek advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and mentors, all project work must take place during the hackathon.
- It's permissible for teams to work on ideas that have been done before, but the hacks must demonstrate innovation, and teams will be judged based on the quality of their innovations.
- The use of libraries, frameworks, or open-source code is allowed, but pre-event work and open-sourcing for the sole purpose of using the code during the event are prohibited. This also goes for using pre-built templates within Figma.
- Adding new features to existing projects is not permitted; judges will only consider hacks that introduce new functionality and features developed during the hackathon.
- Teams must cease hacking once the designated time is up, although debugging and small fixes are allowed. However, substantial changes or the addition of new features after the deadline are not permitted, with timestamps being checked.
- Projects violating the Code of Conduct are strictly prohibited, and teams may face disqualification at the discretion of the organizers. Reasons for disqualification may include breaking competition rules, violating the Code of Conduct, or engaging in unsporting behavior.
- Use of LLMs are allowed during the hackathon for the sake of ideation and debugging. However, submissions of any AI generated code would not be acceptable and would lead to disqualification. We would recommend committing your code frequently so that your project is not flagged for cheating in any way.
- After hacking finishes, teams must submit their projects to Devpost by the submission deadline (SATURDAY, 2/10 at 4:00PM CST) . A project's Devpost submission must have two components to be eligible for judging:
- a link to the project's code repository; and
- a brief write-up on the project page
There may be additional requirements based off of your track which will be covered under Devpost Checklist Section.
Following project submission, teams will showcase their projects to both fellow participants and judges at the Expo. The judging process will occur in-person during the Expo/Demo segment of SparkHacks 2024. Teams will receive their table number in advance of the Expo/Demo section, and it is mandatory for at least one team member to be present for presenting the project to the judges for prize consideration.
Feel free to showcase your work even if your hack is not fully functional or if you couldn't complete it. It's perfectly acceptable if your project isn't finished; this is a common occurrence. The judging criteria go beyond completion, so you still have the opportunity to perform well. If you find yourself without a demo-ready project, you can still give a presentation about what you attempted and the lessons you gained. Sharing your learning journey can be both interesting and inspiring for fellow attendees.