#hackathonjudging

A judge's checklist for AI projects: distinguishing a real inference from a hard-coded response, asking about evaluation and failure, checking data ha

Feedback that changes what a team does next: tie it to a criterion, name one strength and one fix, separate pitch from product, and write it down — th

A complete, weighted rubric for student hackathons with scoring descriptors for each level, notes on calibrating judges, and how to publish criteria s

The four things a judge is scoring in a three-minute pitch, why working demos beat ambitious slides, and the rubric Pranjul Rathour brings to a studen

A short debrief among judges, right after results are decided, surfaces process improvements while they're still fresh — and is skipped far more often

A briefing on event day is necessary but not sufficient. What organisers can do beforehand to prepare judges who've never done this before.

Occasionally a judge is also the one putting up a prize from their own pocket or company. How to keep that arrangement transparent and fair to every t

First-time judging comes with a few surprises nobody warns you about — the pace, the fatigue, the awkward moments. A few things worth knowing in advan

Sponsor prizes for 'best use of X API' create a real conflict-of-interest question for judges. How to keep sponsor-track judging fair and clearly sepa

A panel with a technical judge and a business or design judge scores differently by default. How to align without flattening what each judge brings.

A lightning round compresses everything. The criteria that matter in a ten-minute pitch don't transfer directly — here's what actually separates entri

A rubric sets the criteria; a personal checklist is what keeps a judge consistent across the tenth pitch of a long day, not just the first.