What is a hackathon?

the short definition

A hackathon is a build event with a deadline. The organiser sets a theme, a time limit and the criteria entries will be judged on; participants form teams and spend that time turning an idea into something working; and when the clock stops every team shows what it made. Judges score the entries and prizes go to the strongest.

Four things separate a hackathon from a workshop, a conference or a pitch night: it is time-boxed, the work happens in teams, the output is built during the event rather than brought to it, and it is judged. Take away the clock and it is a course; take away the judging and it is a meetup.

what the word means

“Hackathon” is hack plus marathon. “Hack” is the older engineering sense of the word — solving a problem quickly and inventively — not breaking into systems. “Marathon” is the shape of the event: one continuous block of time rather than a series of separate sessions. The word describes the format precisely, which is why it survived.

how a hackathon runs

The running order barely changes from one event to the next:

• Kickoff — the organiser sets out the theme, the rules, the judging criteria and the deadline.
• Team formation — people arrive as a team or form one on the spot.
• Building — the bulk of the clock, usually with mentors circulating.
• Submission — work stops at a hard deadline and teams submit whatever state their project is in.
• Demos — each team presents, typically in a few minutes.
• Judging and prizes — judges score against the criteria set at kickoff, then winners are announced.

how long they last

Shorter than the reputation suggests. There is no standard length — the organiser picks one and it is on the listing — but of the 27 hackathons listed here right now, 21 finish inside a single day and 6 run across a weekend or a few days. The longest of those is Sydney Apple AI Hackathon at 3 days (23–25 Oct 2026).

A one-day event is normally built around one narrow brief you can finish between breakfast and dinner. A weekend leaves room for a bigger build and usually comes with food, mentor sessions and somewhere to sleep in the schedule. The longer formats are not more work per hour — they are more scope.

what it costs to enter

Less than people expect, and often nothing. 10 of the 27 hackathons listed on this site publish a free ticket, 2 publish a price between $50 and $60, and 15 have not announced one yet. Where an organiser has published a figure it is on the listing, so you can check before registering.

what you can win

Prizes are set per event and published on the listing, and on this calendar they are frequently not money at all. The lines below are quoted exactly as the organisers wrote them, and they are deliberately four different kinds of answer rather than four cash figures — read the listing rather than assuming a number.

they come back

Worth knowing if the one you wanted has already run. This directory keeps finished events listed — 44 of them right now — and the same organisers keep appearing on the upcoming side: 1 organiser has a finished event in the archive and another already scheduled. A hackathon here is more often a series than a one-off, so a date you missed is usually a date you missed this time.

Some run as a touring series rather than a repeat: SSW has 6 separate listings on the calendar right now, from MAUI Hack Day - Sydney in Sydney (13 Feb 2027) onwards. If a date does not suit, the next one on the same list often will.

who can enter

Hackathons are open to more than programmers. A team that wins is usually a mix: someone who can build it, someone who can make it legible, and someone who can explain it in three minutes at the end. Some events are open to anyone; others are restricted to students, and the listing says which.

5 of the hackathons listed here are tagged beginner-friendly by their own organisers, including AccessHack 2.0 and Level Her Up We Can Build It! Game Jam 2026. If it is your first one, scope small: a finished small idea demos far better than an ambitious half-built one, because judging happens on what actually runs.

in person or online

Worth checking before you plan around one. Of the 27 hackathons listed here, 26 are in-person and 1 is hybrid, which still means a session you attend in the host city. Nothing on the calendar right now is online-only.The listings sit in 8 locations, so the practical question is usually which one you can get to — the locations index splits every listing by city.

the types you'll see listed

Hackathons are named after their subject or their audience. These are the filters this directory keeps for Australia, with what is on each right now — a filter only gets a page here once enough genuinely matching events exist to fill it:

ai hackathons

A listing appears here when the organiser describes the event around AI or machine learning — the theme it is judged on, the tools teams build with, or the problem set it hands out. (19 listed)

student hackathons

A listing appears here when the organiser aims the event at students — a student or university hackathon by name, or an event whose stated audience is students. A hackathon that merely happens to book a campus room is not one. (5 listed)

Two neighbouring formats are worth naming because they are not quite hackathons. A game jam keeps the clock and the judging, but the thing you ship is a game — video or tabletop — usually from a secret theme announced at the start. A capture the flag inverts the exercise: instead of building something new you solve a set of security puzzles for points, which is why the winner is a scoreboard position rather than a demo. 1 listing is tagged CTF by their organisers right now, including Cyber in Motion Battle of the Uni-Verse Student Capture the Flag Challenge Competition in Brisbane. Beyond subject, listings are also split by format and by city.

faq

find one to enter

This site lists every upcoming hackathon it can find in Australia, updated daily. Browse all 27 upcoming events, narrow to ai hackathons or student hackathons, or pick a city from the locations index.

Running one? Submit your hackathon — free to list.