You might be curious about AI hackathons.

But you might also be thinking:

“So… what do people actually do at a hackathon?”

I think a lot of people wonder about this.

I certainly did.

When I joined my first AI hackathon, I barely even knew the word “hackathon.”

I had only just started using AI.

And I’m not an engineer.

All I pictured was something like, “A bunch of people writing code together for hours?”

But when I actually went, it was a little different from what I had imagined.

Of course, every event runs a bit differently. But after joining a few, I slowly started to understand:

“Oh, so this is roughly what happens here.”

In this article, I’m not going to give a complicated explanation. I just want to walk through the flow of an AI hackathon as I saw it, starting out as a complete beginner.

What is a hackathon, anyway?

Very roughly:

It’s an event where teams or individuals build something within a limited time, then present it.

That’s the closest description I can give.

At an AI hackathon, people often build things like:

  • apps that use AI
  • AI agents
  • web services
  • videos and films
  • tools that make work easier

But it’s not the same every time.

Sometimes you have to use a sponsor’s AI tool. Sometimes there’s a theme, like “build something around this topic.” And sometimes it’s completely open.

For example, at the AI Film Hackathon I joined, we were required to create our work using the sponsor’s tool, Magnific.

Some hackathons finish in a few hours. Others take a full day, several days, or even run online for weeks.

Of the ones I’ve joined, one lasted three days, and another was over in about four hours.

So there isn’t just one fixed format for a hackathon.

First, there’s an explanation of the theme and rules

On the day, it didn’t start with:

“Okay, start building!”

First, the organizers explained the event. Sometimes the sponsor companies were introduced, or the tools you could use were explained.

This is where you check things like:

  • what you’re supposed to build
  • when the deadline is
  • what you need to submit
  • whether there’s a presentation at the end
  • what the judging criteria are

As a beginner, you might already hear a lot of unfamiliar words at this stage (haha).

But I didn’t have to understand everything before taking part.

If something is unclear, you can ask the people around you, or figure it out together once you have a team.

If you come alone, there may be team building

This was one of the things I was most nervous about before joining.

I kept thinking:

“What happens if I sign up alone?”

But at some events, you can form a team on the spot.

At my first AI hackathon, there was a way for participants to recruit teammates.

On a shared slide deck, we wrote:

  • what we wanted to build
  • what we could do
  • what kind of people we were looking for

I wrote my own entry there, and at the venue I also took the mic and said:

“I’m looking for teammates!”

Looking back, that might have made me more nervous than the hackathon itself (haha).

Of course, some events ask you to apply as a team from the start, and some people build alone all the way to the end.

So before you apply, it’s good to check:

“Can I join alone?” and “Is there team building on the day?”

On this site, I’ll include that information in the event listings whenever I can confirm it.

Once you have a team, you start with “What should we make?”

Now it’s finally time to build.

…Or so you’d think.

In reality, people don’t always open their laptops and start coding right away.

Quite often, you spend a long time talking about:

“What should we make?”

At the AI Film Hackathon I joined, we spent a lot of time brainstorming together.

“What about this?”

“Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“But we don’t have much time…”

The direction kept changing as we talked.

I actually really like this part.

Even without technical skills, there are quite a few ways to contribute, like:

  • coming up with ideas
  • thinking from the user’s point of view
  • organizing the plan
  • writing text
  • working on the presentation

So for me,

“I can’t code” didn’t mean “I can’t do anything.”

Then you actually build it

Once the direction is decided, building begins.

This part really depends on the team.

Sometimes engineers write the code. Sometimes people use AI coding tools like Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor.

Some teams combine image generation AI, video generation AI, design tools, databases, and more.

At AIAU Craft Day, my first hackathon, we built our project using the sponsors’ tools, Devin and Supabase.

And because it’s a hackathon, there’s basically never enough time.

At a hackathon that lasted about four hours, the actual time we had for building was only about 85 minutes.

So it often becomes less about

“making something perfect” and more about “getting something working before time runs out.”

More than once, I found myself thinking:

“Wait, it’s already time to present?”

It really goes fast (haha).

Many events end with presentations

When building time is over, many events finish with each team presenting what they made.

These are the demos or pitches.

In a short time, you explain things like:

  • what you built
  • what problem it solves
  • how you used AI
  • how it actually works

At the events I joined, the presentations were about 2–3 minutes, with about 2–3 minutes for Q&A.

Some events have judges and rankings, and some have prize money or sponsor awards.

And yes, some people build really impressive things.

As a first-timer, I sometimes saw projects and thought:

“Wait, they made this in the same amount of time?”

That happens pretty often (haha).

But getting to see that up close is one of the fun parts of a hackathon.

So what do beginners go for?

At first, I thought:

“If I can’t finish something amazing, is there even any point in going?”

I don’t think that way at all now.

Of course, some people go to win.

Some want to try new AI tools for their work.

Some engineers want to build connections with each other.

And it’s completely fine to go, like me, because

“It just looked interesting.”

For me, the biggest thing wasn’t even the project itself. It was

getting to talk with people I would never normally meet.

Engineers, students, office workers, people from overseas, people who use AI in their jobs.

All kinds of people come.

So for me, a hackathon has become

a place to learn about AI, but also a place to meet people.

Even if you don’t understand the tech, you learn a lot just by watching

This is something I only realized after going.

Even if you don’t understand everything, just watching from the side teaches you a lot:

“Oh, so this is how people are using AI.”

“I didn’t know this tool existed.”

“So that’s how they build things.”

And if you hear a word you don’t know, you can just ask ChatGPT about it later (haha).

I first heard about quite a few words and tools at hackathons.

Even if you don’t fully understand something in the moment, it often clicks later.

For your first time, it’s normal not to be able to do everything

When you join for the first time,

everyone around you might look really impressive.

And some of them really are.

But not everyone at a hackathon is an AI expert.

There are beginners, and there are non-engineers.

Most of all, I started from:

“What is a hackathon?”

I went anyway.

And now, before I knew it, I’ve joined several.

So I don’t think you need to overthink it from the start, like:

“I have to make a real contribution.”

“I should learn the tech first, then go.”

If you’re thinking “maybe I’ll try it,” that’s enough

An AI hackathon is roughly a place where you

listen to the briefing → talk with people → come up with ideas → build something → present it.

But for me, it was more than that.

It was a place to step into a world I didn’t know before.

Before my first one, I had no idea what to expect.

But after joining once, my picture of it changed a lot.

If you’re looking at an event page right now and thinking,

“Maybe it’s still too early for me,”

trying one beginner-friendly event once is a good option.

On this site, I’ll keep organizing the information I wanted to know before my first hackathon, such as:

  • whether beginners are welcome
  • whether you can join alone
  • whether it’s in Japanese or English
  • whether there’s team building

I want to add more information that turns “I don’t really understand it, so I can’t go” into “Okay, I think I could go to this one.”