Free guide

Hackathon Preparation Checklist — Free Prep Guide for Builders

Free

Most hackathon prep lists tell you to sleep and drink water. This one is a working sheet instead: checkboxes, write-in lines, and three rules to keep open during the build. It stays generic on purpose. Pick your event from an organizer's page or a listing you trust, then let this page handle the week before, the weekend itself, and demo hour.

Where this framing comes from

Our companion product is a 2026 web3 events & hackathons calendar, and its README sets the sourcing rules worth copying onto any prep sheet. Quoted verbatim:

"Curated calendar of 45 web3 hackathons, conferences and popup cities from September 2026 through Q1 2027, plus 2 bonus entries for mid-2027. Multi-chain coverage: Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, Base, Algorand, Decentraland, stablecoins and more."
"Every entry was checked against an official organizer page or a major event aggregator (Devpost, DoraHacks, ETHGlobal, ethereum.org, Coinpedia, organizer sites) on September 5, 2026." … "Hackathon deadlines shift; always confirm on the registration URL before committing."

This page borrows the discipline, not the data. Nothing here tells you which event to join or promises you a spot in one. Verify deadlines on the registration page you actually registered from.

Pre-hackathon checklist — 8 items before kickoff

Week before

ItemFill in
Team roles written down. Who builds, who designs, who demos, who handles the submission form. Names next to roles, decided before day one.write-in
Idea shortlist, 3 lines. Three candidate ideas, one line each. Pick on kickoff day from this list, not from a 2 a.m. brainstorm.line 1 / line 2 / line 3
Environment set up. Runtime, package manager, editor config, testnet or sandbox access if your stack needs one. Installed and verified before kickoff, not during.write-in
Repo ready. Repository created, README skeleton pushed, every teammate can clone and commit. A failed clone on hour one eats morale.repo URL
Submission deadline confirmed. From the event's own page, in its timezone, then converted to yours. Write both down.deadline + tz
Judging criteria read. Find the rubric or track description and build toward what gets scored. If nothing is published, optimize for a working demo.write-in
Submission form opened. Fill in every field you can on day one: team name, description draft, links. Fields drafted early are fields you don't rush at the cutoff.write-in
Logistics planned. Meals, water, a rough sleep window, and who's on call for the demo laptop. Sounds soft until hour twenty.write-in

Print this sheet (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P) and tick boxes with a pen. Digital checklists hide from tired eyes.

During the event — 3 rules worth taping to the wall

  1. Ship a vertical slice. One path through the product, working end to end, beats five half-built modules. Judges score what runs.
  2. Scope down, never up. Behind at the halfway point? Cut features, not sleep. A smaller finished thing beats a bigger broken one, and the decision gets harder every hour you delay it.
  3. Demo over docs. Record the working path on video while it works. Explain architecture only after the demo plays, and only if there's time.

Demo-day checklist — 5 items before you hit submit

Final hours

ItemFill in
Backup video recorded and uploaded. Screen capture of the full working path, hosted somewhere that survives event-day traffic. Live demos fail at the worst moment; the video is your demo.video link
30-second pitch written. What it does, who it's for, what actually works right now. Say it out loud once. If it takes a minute, cut it.pitch lines
Demo path rehearsed once. The exact clicks, in order, on the machine you'll present from. Fresh clone, fresh run.click order
Repo and README presentable. Public (or accessible to judges), one-paragraph summary, setup steps that a stranger could follow.write-in
Submission form complete. Every field, every link, and the platform's own confirmation that it received the thing. Tick this box only after the confirmation shows.write-in

4 opinions from people who've watched submissions land

These are opinions, not rules. Disagree freely.

  1. Sleep on schedule. All-nighters read as commitment at 2 a.m. and as sloppiness at demo time: wrong clicks, dead air, forgotten steps. A rested team presents better than a heroic one.
  2. Decide the demo before the code. Once you know the 30 seconds you'll show, you know exactly what to build. Building first and finding the demo later is how scope explosions start.
  3. Boring tech wins. The event weekend is the worst possible time to learn a framework. Build on the stack your team already knows, however unglamorous it looks in the README.
  4. Submit the ugly version. A rough project in before the cutoff beats a polished one that never lands. Submit early, polish if time remains, resubmit if the platform allows.

Page facts

ItemValue
Checklist items8 pre-event + 3 during-event rules + 5 demo-day
Write-in fieldsTeam roles, idea shortlist (3 lines), deadline, pitch lines, video link
FormatFree HTML page, printable, no signup
Event claims on this pageNone. Pick events from organizer pages or listings you trust
Companion product2026 Web3 Events & Hackathons Calendar, 45 entries
Last updatedSeptember 8, 2026
Get the 2026 Web3 Events & Hackathons Calendar — 45 events →

one-time · CSV + Markdown · checkout on Getly

More on this site: the free printable hackathon tracker, the Web3 Remote Jobs & Hiring Database, and the full catalog.