These hackathons are more than competitions; they’re incubators for innovative ideas and collaborations aimed at using technology to solve global challenges. Participants will explore the future of technology, celebrate creativity, and drive technological progress.
Here’s a comprehensive list of all the major hackathons of 2026 happening across the world.
Major Hackathons of 2026
January 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
January-April 2026 | IWD Global Techathon is a free-of-cost, worldwide hackathon. Designed for teenagers aged 13-18, the event is organized each year to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The entire program runs over several weeks. This year, it is scheduled to start on 26 January 2026 and will mark the end on 23 April 2026.
It will feature
| |
17-18 January 2026
Alexandria, Virginia United States | HackBI is taking place from 17 to 18 January 2026 in Alexandria, Virginia. It is a free, student-run hackathon and is designed for middle as well as high school students.
It is beginner-friendly and welcomes participants with little to no coding experience. Over the course of this hackathon, students will get the opportunity to
| |
21-30 January 2026
Hybrid | Hosted by NSF Regional Innovation Engines in collaboration with NVIDIA and the OpenACC organization, the NSF Engine Open Hackathon is scheduled to take place from 21 to 30 January 2026 in a hybrid format.
It will welcome participants from academia, federal research labs, and the startup ecosystem. The hackathon focuses on
| |
22 January 2026
Online | Hex-a-thon is an online hackathon and is scheduled to take place on 22 January 2026. The participants will use Hex and publicly available datasets to develop insights, dashboards, and applications that explore the real-world questions and also discover new opportunities.
Project ideas include
Participants are also encouraged to explore more data and come up with new projects for the hackathon. | |
23-25 January 2026
Rice University Houston, Texas United States | Rice Datathon is an annual data science competition which is scheduled to take place from 23 to 25 January 2026 at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The event welcomes undergraduates and graduates from any major to join and participate in this 36-hour datathon to
| |
29 January-1 February 2026
Online | IBM Dev Day: AI Demystified is a free, virtual developer event and hackathon. Organized by IBM, the event is set to take place from 29 January to 1 February 2026.
It brings together developers, engineers, and AI builders to
| |
30 January-1 February 2026
York University (Keele Campus) Toronto, Ontario Canada | ElleHacks 2026 is Canada’s largest hackathon for women & gender-diverse students. This year, the hackathon will be taking place from 30 January to 1 February 2026 at York University (Keele Campus) in Toronto, Ontario.
The event is free to participate in and is beginner-friendly. It is designed for everyone, including tech enthusiasts and first-timers with little to no coding experience.
The participants will get the opportunity to
| |
30 January-1 February 2026
Online | Hack-Earth is a student-centric (age 13+) hackathon focusing on sustainable solutions powered by AI. This virtual event is scheduled to take place from 30 January to 1 February 2026.
It brings together students, creators, and beginners to tackle pressing environmental problems and build solutions for environmental protection, climate resilience & sustainable technology.
Participants are free to choose their sustainability challenge they want to resolve and solve the problem using technology of their choice—such as AI, IoT, data analytics, web/mobile apps, etc. | |
31 January-1 February 2026
Polytechnique Montreal Montreal, Québec Canada | PolyHacks is said to be the largest bilingual hackathon in Canada. Scheduled to take place from 31 January to 1 February 2026—this 2-day event brings together 350+ participants each year.
Participants get the opportunity to collaborate, learn, and build creative projects. The hackathon welcomes students from various backgrounds to
| |
31 January 2026
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | The MetLife Hack4Job Hackathon 2026 is scheduled to take place on 31 January 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Participants from all around the world are welcome to join this hackathon to solve technical programs and showcase their expertise.
This hackathon by MetLife, Inc., is designed for technology professionals aiming to pursue a tech career with MetLife as
|
February 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
1 February 2026
Online | Vibe coder hackathon is an online, public coding competition. It focuses on bringing together developers, designers, and tech enthusiasts for building apps or projects prioritizing great user experience.
The themes & tracks are as follows:
| |
2-27 February 2026
Online | Global Threat Modeling Hackathon 2026 is scheduled to take place from 2 to 27 February 2026 in virtual format. Organized by Threat Modeling Connect, the hackathon offers a great opportunity to meet the world’s best threat modelers.
Over course of three weeks, participants will
| |
2-20 February 2026 Online
19-20 February 2026 San Jose Convention Center San Jose, California United States | DeveloperWeek 2026 Hackathon is recognized as the largest challenge-driven in-person & virtual hackathon. The hackathon is co-located with DeveloperWeek 2026 and will take place from 2 to 20 February 2026 in virtual format and at San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California.
DeveloperWeek 2026 Hackathon brings together an international developer community to build apps from scratch—like mobile apps, consumer web apps, or business web apps.
The hackathon will also feature kickoff talks and virtual workshops. Participants can also interact with sponsors for any help or guidance. | |
3-5 February 2026
Hyderabad, India | The Undiagnosed Hackathon 2026 will take place from 3 to 5 February 2026 in Hyderabad, India. This is a collaborative event and is organized by the Wilhelm Foundation to discover new ways & collaborations to solve undiagnosed diseases which we are unable to tackle today.
The hackathon will bring together teams from diverse backgrounds—such as patients, caregivers, clinicians, engineers, designers as well as students—to work on real challenges related to undiagnosed & rare health conditions. | |
7-8 February 2026
Hybrid | Scheduled to take place from 7 to 8 February 2026, Hack-Nation’s Global AI Hackathon is a worldwide technology challenge.
It brings over 2000 builders, developers, and innovators from 60+ countries to collaborate on artificial intelligence (AI)-focused projects addressing real-world problems.
The hackathon offers unparalleled networking, learning, and innovation opportunities to the participants. They will get the chance to
| |
13-19 February 2026
Online | Global Hack Week (Data Week) is an online hackathon-style learning event run by Major League Hacking (MLH) which focuses on data-related challenges.
It is a part of the Global Hack Week Series and is scheduled to take place from 13 to 19 February 2026. At this event, participants will learn to manage large-scale data as well as actionable insights.
It unites hundreds of coders—including experienced professionals & students—from little to no coding experience. | |
Hackathon OdiseIA4Good: II International AI Hackathon for Vulnerable Groups | 23-25 February 2026
Espacio Pablo VI, Madrid Spain | Organized by OdiseIA with support from Google.org and the Paul VI Foundation—the Hackathon OdiseIA4Good: II International AI Hackathon for Vulnerable Groups will be taking place from 23 to 25 February 2026 at Espacio Pablo VI, Madrid, Spain.
The hackathon focuses on building AI-powered solutions with real social impact for vulnerable groups, such as elderly people, children at risk, refugees, people with disabilities, and communities, who are affected by natural disasters. |
27 February 2026
Online | Strathspace Hack Day is a virtual hackathon and is set to take place on 27 February 2026. It is a student-focused hackathon and innovation event where participants come together to learn, collaborate, and build tech projects which are related to problem-solving and emerging technology themes.
At the event, the participants will get the opportunity to
| |
27-28 February 2026
Manila, The Philippines | The Coding for Sustainability 2026 Hackathon will be taking place from 27 to 28 February 2026 in Manila, The Philippines. It will bring together coders, students, professionals, and sustainability enthusiasts to develop technology solutions for addressing environmental as well as sustainability challenges.
Over the course of 2-days, the participants will
| |
28 February-1 March 2026
Online | MEGA Hackathon 2026 is an online hackathon and is scheduled to take place from 28 February to 1 March 2026.
It welcomes students from around the world to foster sustainable development & promote global welfare.
The participants are invited to
|
March 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
1 March 2026
Online | Scheduled to take place on 1 March 2026, HackGreenwich is an online hackathon which is designed for students and developers.
It welcomes participants to collaborate, build tech projects, and solve real-world challenges—using software, hardware, or data tools.
Throughout the event, mentors will be available to guide participants and help them in troubleshooting & refining ideas. Participants will be
| |
1 March 2026
Online | Martingale Hacks is an online hackathon designed for students to build software or tech projects focusing on solving real-world problems.
Said to be the first dedicated Quantitative Finance competition, the hackathon is seeking talents which are capable of applying NLP and Stochastic Modeling to financial markets.
The participants are expected to build an algorithm that can digest thousands of financial news headlines for predicting the market volatility and direction. | |
NYU-2026 PIT-UN Tech for Change Urban Informatics for Safe, Just, and Thriving Communities Hackathon | 5-7 March 2026
Kings County, New York United States | The NYU-2026 PIT-UN Tech for Change Urban Informatics for Safe, Just, and Thriving Communities Hackathon will take place from 5 to 7 March 2026 in Kings County, New York.
This 3-day hackathon welcomes participants from all backgrounds and experience levels to build civic tech tools and solutions that help to improve neighborhoods and civic engagement.
It will feature
|
5-6 March 2026
AWS, Zurich Switzerland & Online | Organized by the Bitmark Association, the bitmark Hackathon is set to take place from 5 to 6 March 2026 at AWS, Zurich and virtually.
It brings together participants from worldwide from diverse backgrounds in knowledge content & EdTech to build practical open-source solutions that improve interoperability and accessibility of digital learning content using the open Bitmark standards.
The hackathon encourages collaboration, innovation, and real-world problem solving in the field of educational content technologies. | |
10 March-16 June 2026 | The Genesis Hackathon 2026 is scheduled to take place from 10 March to 16 June 2026. It is a telecommunications industry-focused innovation challenge where teams from mobile network operators (MNOs), technology vendors, or mixed groups work over several weeks to develop original solutions to real-industry problems.
The hackathon will potentially feature two key categories which will be announced before the challenges are released. Participants are welcome to compete in both categories if they wish or they can also choose to compete in one category.. | |
11-13 March 2026
Online | The nf-core hackathon will be taking place from 11 to 13 March 2026 in virtual format.
It welcomes people from around the world—including developers, bioinformaticians, and the members of the nf-community—to work together to improve as well as to build bioinformatics workflows and tools & projects that support scientific research and reproducible data analysis.
The contributors get the chance to collaborate remotely on a range of activities, such as
| |
13-15 March 2026
Finland | Junction Hackathon is a world-class technology hackathon and community-building event—and is run by a student-led nonprofit organization based in Finland.
The hackathon brings developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts worldwide to collaborate intensively on building real tech solutions.
It is known for its large, inclusive gatherings where participants tackle challenges provided by partner companies and organizations. The hackathon includes
| |
13-19 March 2026
Online | Global Hack Week (Cloud Week) is an online hackathon-style learning event run by Major League Hacking (MLH) which focuses on cloud computing skills & challenges.
It is a part of the Global Hack Week Series and is scheduled to take place from 13 to 19 March 2026. At this event, participants will build creative cloud-based hacks.
It unites hundreds of coders—including experienced professionals & students—from little to no coding experience. | |
20-22 March 2026
Europa-Park, Germany | The CloudFest Hackathon is an open-source innovation event held as a part of the larger CloudFest technology festival in Europa-Park, Germany.
It brings together developers, engineers, designers, and other tech professionals to collaborate intensively on open-source projects that benefit the cloud, web, and internet infrastructure communities.
Throughout this period, participants will receive mentorship and community support along with an opportunity to network & mingle with peers & mentors. | |
20-22 March 2026
Hybrid | The 305 Hackathon Spring 2026 Edition is scheduled to take place from 20 to 22 March 2026 in hybrid format. Organized by the Code Crunch Club, the hackathon invites university as well as high-school students to work on “Tech for Good” projects using AI and blockchain to solve problems with real impact.
Over the course of this hackathon, participants will
| |
23-27 March 2026
SAP (Switzerland) AG Switzerland | SAP Hackathon is a free innovation event and is designed for SAP customers and technology teams to collaborate, learn, and build prototype solutions that combine SAP technologies with artificial intelligence (AI).
Scheduled to take place from 23 to 27 March 2026, participants will work in small teams and receive guidance from SAP experts as they refine use cases, develop ideas, and turn them into working prototypes. | |
26-28 March 2026
Multiple locations across Europe | EUDIS Defence Hackathon 2026 is a pan-European innovation event and will be held between 26 and 28 March 2026.
It brings together multidisciplinary teams—such as students, early-career professionals, start-ups, researchers, and industry partners—to collaborate & tackle real-world defence and security challenges with technology and creative problem-solving.
The event emphasizes
| |
31 March-16 April 2026
Hybrid | The TPC CINECA Open Hackathon will be taking place from 31 March to 16 April 2026 in hybrid format.
This multi-day, hands-on event is designed for computational scientists, researchers, and developers who want to work extensively on real technical challenges in areas—like high-performance computing (HPC), AI, and advanced software optimization. |
April 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
April 2026
TBA | Bitcamp is a large, annual collegiate hackathon. It brings together students to
| |
4-5 April 2026
UC San Diego San Diego, California United States | DiamondHacks 2026 will be taking place from 4 to 5 April at UC San Diego in San Diego, California.
This 36-hour, in-person college hackathon brings together undergraduates from universities across San Diego to
| |
10-16 April 2026
Online | Global Hack Week (APIs Week) is an online hackathon-style learning event run by Major League Hacking (MLH). It is a part of the Global Hack Week Series and is scheduled to take place from 10 to 16 April 2026.
It unites hundreds of coders—including experienced professionals & students—from little to no coding experience. At the Global Hack Week APIs, participants build skills related to APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).
Over the course of this virtual event, participants will
| |
10-11 April 2026
Multiple Locations | The HSIL Hackathon is organized by Health Systems Innovation Lab (HSIL) is a global collaborative event which brings innovators together to design solutions that can help strengthen the healthcare systems.
Over the course of 2-days, the participants will get to brainstorm and build as well as pitch their ideas—turning concepts into functional prototypes. | |
11-12 April 2026
Dallas, Texas United States | WEHack is set to take place from 11-12 April 2026 in Dallas, Texas. This 24-hour hackathon focuses on creating an inclusive and supportive environment for women, non-binary, and underrepresented individuals in technology.
This hackathon aims to encourage underrepresented individuals to elevate their skills by building their own software or hardware projects.
The event offers a valuable opportunity to
| |
17-19 April 2026
Online | AI Hackfest, hosted by Major League Hacking (MLH), will take place from 17 to 19 April 2026.
The event is open to minors (aged 13-18), high-school & university students, and working professionals. Participants come together to build creative and innovative projects using artificial intelligence (AI).
The hackathon is entirely online and also features tutorials & workshops to help first-time AI builders get started. | |
24-26 April 2026
Pauley Pavilion, UCLA Los Angeles, California United States | LA Hacks is a 36-hour annual event and is scheduled to take place from 24 to 26 April 2026 at UCLA’s iconic Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.
It brings together 1,000+ hackers to collaborate, learn, and build technical projects using cutting-edge technologies. The tracks include
Over the course of the event, it will feature
| |
28 April-7 May 2026
Hybrid | The NCAR/NLR/NOAA Open Hackathon is a hybrid event and will take place from 28 April to 7 May 2026.
This multi-day event is designed for computational scientists and researchers to accelerate & optimize their application.
At the event, participants will get paired with dedicated mentors who are experienced in programming and targeted application areas. |
May 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
1-3 May 2026
Milan, Italy | The Wikimedia Hackathon will be held from 1 to 3 May 2026 in Milan, Italy. This annual event brings together the global technical community to enhance the technological infrastructure & software powering Wikimedia and other Wikimedia projects.
At the hackathon, participants will
| |
May/June 2026
University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario Canada | JAMHacks is said to be Waterloo’s biggest high school hackathon. It brings together over 200 high school students to
The hackathon will take place at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. | |
11-28 May 2026
South San Francisco Conference Center South San Francisco, California United States & Online | DevNetwork [AI + ML] Hackathon 2026 is a hybrid technology competition and is scheduled to take place from 11 to 28 May 2026 at the South San Francisco Conference Center and online.
It welcomes over 300 developers, hackers, designers, and tech enthusiasts from across the world to build
| |
12-21 May 2026
Hybrid | IDRIS Open Hackathon is a hybrid multi-day research & coding event. The hackathon will take place from 12 to 21 May 2026.
Co-organized by IDRIS, NVIDIA, and the OpenACC organization—it brings together computational scientists, researchers, and developers to work collaboratively—on improving, accelerating, and optimizing scientific applications on modern computing platforms. | |
20-29 May 2026
Hybrid | TACC Open Hackathon is a hybrid multi-day event which is scheduled to take place from 20 to 29 May 2026.
Co-organized by IDRIS, NVIDIA, and the OpenACC organization—it brings together computational scientists, researchers, and developers to port, accelerate, and optimize scientific applications on modern computing platforms. | |
26 May-4 June 2026
Hybrid | Princeton Open Hackathon—the first ever hybrid event facilitating the organization of computational scientists and researchers to optimize their applications for different data center architectures, including CPUs and GPUs—is finally here.
Applicants will be working with experienced mentors to obtain performance gains using diversity in programming models, libraries, and tools. Participants from Princeton and teams affiliated with Princeton receive priority acceptance. |
June 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
1-2 June 2026
Aberdeen, Scotland United Kingdom | Hackathon-EAGE Agents is a 2-day coding and innovation challenge taking place in Aberdeen, Scotland.
It invites participants with a range of experience levels to design & build agent-based artificial intelligence applications that can autonomously process real-world seismic data and address practical problems in energy & geoscience.
Over the course of 2-days, the participants will
| |
5-7 June 2026
Online | Designed for tech-savvy high-school students, LaunchHacks V is an online hackathon and will be taking place from 5 to 7 June 2026.
Participants can choose any CS/STEM-related project. The event provides you with access to the latest development tools along with dedicated mentorship to guide you through the process. | |
19-20 June 2026
Zurich, Switzerland | SwissHacks is a part of the Swiss Fintech Week 2026 and is set to take place from 19 to 20 June 2026 in Zurich, Switzerland.
The event welcomes people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse skills—such as students, developers, banking & finance experts, designers, marketers, and more—to work on real-world challenges in the FinTech, RegTech, and sustainability sectors.
Throughout this 48-hour event, participants will
| |
20-21 June 2026
Atlanta, Georgia | The AI NextGen Challenge is recognized as America’s largest AI scholarship & hackathon program.
Scheduled to take place from 20 to 21 June 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia, the event is designed for high school students, undergraduates, and graduates across the United States.
This event combines AI learning, scholarship opportunities, and a National AI Hackathon to help students develop practical skills and career readiness in artificial intelligence. |
July 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
14-24 July 2026
Hybrid | This is a multi-day hybrid event that will be held online and in different regions, like North America and Latin America. The event focus is based on HPC+AI.
The core idea behind this hackathon event is to help scientists and researchers improve their applications to work faster on advanced hardware like CPUs and GPUs.
Participants will get guidance from experts and leave with better-performing applications or a clear plan to optimize them further. |
August 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
3-10 August 2026
Multiple Locations across New Zealand | The AI Hackathon NZ is a nationwide hackathon event in New Zealand. It brings together students, developers, and tech enthusiasts from across the country to work on projects that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve real-world challenges—like
And more.
The hackathon takes place in multiple cities—such as Auckland, Wellington, Waikato, Christchurch, and Dunedin. |
September 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
September 2026 | Hack the North is Canada’s largest collegiate hackathon, hosted at the University of Waterloo in September 2026.
Over a 36-hour sprint, more than 1,000 hackers team up to brainstorm, build, and launch web, mobile, or hardware projects.
Participants will get the opportunity to network with like-minded hackers and learn from world-class mentors. | |
12-13 September 2026
TBA | Organized by the students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), HackMIT is one of the largest and best-known collegiate hackathons in the world.
Scheduled to take place from 12 to 13 September 2026, it welcomes thousands of university students to build creative tech projects.
At the hackathon, the participants
| |
17-20 September 2026
Singapore | The Undiagnosed Hackathon 2026 will take place from 17 to 20 September 2026 in Singapore.
This is a collaborative event and is organized by the Wilhelm Foundation to discover new ways & collaborations to solve undiagnosed diseases which we are unable to tackle today.
It is focused on strengthening the precision diagnostics and translational impact across Asia.
The hackathon will bring together teams from diverse backgrounds—such as patients, caregivers, clinicians, engineers, designers as well as students—to work on real challenges related to undiagnosed & rare health conditions. | |
25-27 September 2026
The Republic of Moldova | DeepTech GigaHack, Moldova’s largest hackathon, is scheduled to take place from 25 to 27 September 2026. Running as a 48-hour hackathon, it brings together developers, researchers, tech professionals, and innovators to tackle problems across the advanced technology areas—such as AI & ML, FinTech, energy tech, health tech, cybersecurity, and big data—using cutting-edge tools & methods.
At this hackathon, the participants will get the opportunity to
|
October 2026
Event Name | Date/Location | Overview |
11-12 October 2026
University of Michigan Dearborn Campus Dearborn, Michigan United States | Hack Dearborn is an annual 24-hour hackathon in Southeast Michigan and is scheduled to take place from 11 to 12 October 2026 at the University of Michigan Dearborn Campus.
Hosted by the Google Developer Group, it aims to offer students a dedicated & creative space to tackle problems and build real-world solutions using technology.
The hackathon tracks includes
|
FAQ
A hackathon is a software development event where coding experts, designers, and other professionals gather and work on similar projects. The main focus of a hackathon is to build new software to solve unique challenges of the tech industry.
Coding marathons, also known as Hackathons, are open to all. Anyone who has a strong expertise in their particular field such as a programmer, engineer, project manager, entrepreneur, or other subject matter experts (SME), etc can take part in the hackathon event.
There are many benefits of participating in a hackathon such as
- You get an opportunity to show your skill and ability.
- You get to learn new technology.
- You get a chance to network with industry professionals.
- You learn to solve real-world problems.
- You can build a portfolio of your hands-on project which will show your creativity level.
- Innovation competitions empower you to deal with challenges.
- Codefest teaches you to work as a team.
To be a participant in a hackathon, you need to have certain skills such as:
- Designing Skills
- Problem-Solving Skills
- Frontend Development
- Backend Development
- Project Management
- Adaptability
- Creativity
To get a database for hackathons, you must consider using MongoDB for Android and Realm for iOS. MongoDB is a document-oriented database where you can store all your digital data and access it behind a web server via HTTP requests, while Realm is an open-source and mobile-friendly database that is embedded in your phone to store data handy.
One of the largest hackathons in Europe is “HackZurich”. For a whole weekend, participants work together, share their skills, and try to create something amazing. It’s a chance to meet new friends, learn a lot of new things, and have fun seeing what kind of projects you can come up with in just 48 hours.
HackMIT is one of the most famous hackathons because it brings together people from all over to create new solutions,with the latest tech. It’s known for being a fun and important event for those who love technology.
The largest hackathon in the US is HackUTD. The University of Texas at Dallas, Department of Computer Science and the UT Dallas Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) hosted the largest hackathon in Texas. HackUTD recorded the highest number of hackers in its seven-year history. Over 1,000 in-person students from across the United States participated and nearly 200 projects were submitted for judging at HackUTD.
“Hack the North” is Canada’s biggest hackathon event which was held in 2023. More than 1000+ students from all around the world attended this event at the University of Waterloo for an exciting 36-hour hackathon experience. They had kept $CAD61,928 in prizes. Participants had a great opportunity to showcase their skills and win exciting prizes.
