What's new on Hackathon Radar

Never been to a hackathon? There's now a dedicated page for events built for first-timers — the ones with mentorship, workshops, and no experience required, gathered from across the world.

It's the least intimidating way to find your first event: everything on the page is picked because it welcomes newcomers. Bookmark it and check back — it refreshes as new beginner-friendly events appear.

Still in school or at university? There's now a dedicated page that gathers hackathons open to students in one place — campus competitions, beginner-friendly events, and hackathons that welcome first-timers, all worldwide.

It's the quickest way to find events pitched at your level without wading through everything else. Bookmark it and check back — it refreshes as new student events appear.

There's now a free, growing library of hackathon skills you can hand to AI assistants like Claude — ready-made expertise for planning an event, running one on the day, judging fairly, or getting the most out of taking part. Each one drops in with a single command, so your assistant instantly knows how to help.

Browse the collection, see exactly what each skill does before you add it, and pick only the ones you need. It's the fastest way to turn a general assistant into one that actually understands hackathons.

New country pages show you the rhythm of the year at a glance: which months and weekends light up with hackathons, and which go quiet. Instead of guessing when the next wave is coming, you can plan your year around the busy stretches.

Each page also surfaces the cities where the action concentrates and the platforms events tend to run on, so a quick look tells you where and when to be — whether you're a builder picking your next weekend or an organizer choosing a date that won't clash.

New accounts now start with a short, friendly setup instead of a blank database. Tell us whether you're here to build, to judge, or to sponsor, pick the topics you care about, and choose where and how you want to take part — in person, remote, or both. It only takes a few taps.

Right away you'll see a handful of hackathons picked to match, ready to save to your radar, plus a clear next step tailored to you. Everything you choose can be changed later in settings, and if you'd rather dive straight in, you can skip the whole thing.

The database now has a calendar view. Flip from the list and every hackathon lands on its day, so you can spot a free weekend, plan around deadlines, and see how a month is shaping up without scrolling. Each event shows its participant count and prize pool right on the day, and busy days tuck the extras behind a tap so nothing feels crowded.

It works hand in hand with your filters — upcoming, ongoing, or already ended — so the month always reflects exactly what you're looking for. On your phone it becomes a clean day-by-day agenda, and the list view is still there whenever you prefer it.

The app's navigation has been redesigned from the ground up. Instead of a thin strip of icons, you now get a full sidebar with everything labelled and grouped into three sections: Hackathons for browsing events, judging opportunities, sponsors and organizers; Explore for stats and the State of Hackathons report; and Personal for your passport, favorites and settings.

Everything is one click away and you always know where you are. On smaller screens the same navigation slides in from the side, so nothing gets lost on mobile.

There's now a free, public list of hackathons happening right now or starting in the next few days, open to everyone on GitHub. It refreshes every day, so it's never the stale, half-abandoned list you usually stumble across.

It's the quickest way to see what's on this week and share it with your team — and every event links straight back here for the full picture, from the map to the months of events still ahead.