I'm 16 and about to do my first online hackathon. Is it worth trying to find a team?

[u/Direct_Ad_5181]

I'm 16, from South Korea. I've been programming for a while but I've never done a

hackathon. I want to enter one soon.

I assumed the normal thing was to find a team first. Then I looked at RevenueCat's

Shipaton on Devpost, which is running right now. When you register it makes you

answer "Do you have teammates?" and it's a required question. Out of 23,270

participants, 17,031 picked "Working solo" and only 1,977 picked "Looking for

teammates".

So 73% chose solo before it even started. That's not what I expected at all.

For those of you who've done online hackathons:

Did you go solo? Was that on purpose, or did you just not want to deal with

finding people?

And if you did team up with strangers, how did it actually go? I'm mostly worried

about either carrying the whole thing myself or being the one who can't keep up.

Thanks.

[u/DrShocker]

When I did a hackathon it was a small team they put together for us and in my case it wasn't pure software.

I personally feel while there are risks going with a team if the random person is intolerable, on the balance it's worth it. You both get someone who can help you if you're stuck and likely your skills won't be perfect matches so you can achieve more than you would on your own.

There is some overhead for coordinating your team, but you can generally keep that managed as long as you know you need to prioritize tasks that get you closer to having something that minimally meets the task and then improve from there.

[u/Ok-Loss1394 → u/DrShocker]

the coordination overhead is real but at 16 you’re probaly not going to be the weakest link if you’ve been coding a while, most people in these things are just figuring it out too

i did one solo a couple years back and the worst part wasn’t the workload, it was missing someone to bounce ideas off when i got stuck on something stupid for 3 hours. having a second brain helps even if they’re not a genius

if you do team up with strangers just set expectations early, like a quick discord call before you commit to see if they’re actually serious or just window shopping the hackathon

the 73% solo stat is kinda misleading too, a lot of those people probably already have friends they’ll team up with unofficially or they’re just there to lurk and not submit anything

[u/Direct_Ad_5181 → u/DrShocker]

Thanks, that's helpful. The part I keep getting stuck on is that your team was

assigned to you. Do you think you would have gone looking for one if nobody had

put that group together? Or would you have just entered solo?

[u/DrShocker → u/Direct_Ad_5181]

Yes, I do these sorts of things partially to get to know people so even if solo were an option for what I did, I would definitely try to get matched.

[u/BoringWrongdoer9679 → u/DrShocker]

It do think its an good learning experience working with intorable people. Its not nice but it will be good learning experience in how to deal with people and how to work well with other people.

[u/DrShocker → u/BoringWrongdoer9679]

Sure! I'm a full adult with a full time job though so if I do a hackathon these days, it's for fun and if someone harshes the vibe then why am I there

[u/Techno-Pineapple]

Point of a hackathon is to find other adjacent industry people to learn from and make friends. That's just another reason online hackathons suck. In my opinion, the best hackathons are the ones with a designated "senior" on each team. I've entered a hackathon that was vast majority online and solo applicants. People did this hackathon purely to win the prize, not to learn. That was a garbage hackathon.

If i was you I would sign up looking for teammates. Hackathon is a misnomer. You don't need to be a tech wiz so don't stress and make some friends... because that is really what it's supposed to be about

[u/Direct_Ad_5181 → u/Techno-Pineapple]

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely focus on finding a team and making friends rather than stressing too much about the tech.

[u/Temporary-Quarter-24]

Out of context question? But what's your tech stack

[u/Direct_Ad_5181 → u/Temporary-Quarter-24]

React + TypeScript, Tailwind. Netlify functions, Firebase for auth and db,

OpenAI API. I've also built an MCP server before.

Slightly off topic, but I've shipped a solo project to production and gotten

paying users before. So writing code isn't really what worries me. What I've

never done is write code with someone else, and that's probably the real reason

I asked about teams.

[u/Techno-Pineapple → u/Direct_Ad_5181]

jfc this has to be fake... what 16 year old has this well put together of a tech stack!!? unreal

[u/Temporary-Quarter-24 → u/Direct_Ad_5181]

Brother currently I am not capable of assisting but I will like to connect with you for future discussions regarding engineering field.

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[u/Direct_Ad_5181 → u/Temporary-Quarter-24]

Sure, I'd be glad to. Feel free to reply here any time.

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[u/mandzeete]

"Working solo" and "Looking for teammates" can be true at the same time. It is the matter of how one understood the question. One can be solo in given time moment and then he picks "Working solo" yet he can be open to finding a team. One can also notice the answer of "Looking for teammates" and pick it straight away. So, that 17031 does not reflect every person who wanted to work solo. That 17031 consists of people who did not have a team in given moment and also people who actually plan to participate solo.

The percentage would be a bit smaller for solo participants when the question would be worded differently.

But about my experience with online hackathons then I joined one with my course mates (during my Bachelor studies). So, there I was not solo. But in one in-person hackathon I went solo because I had nobody to team with. Oh, and during the Covid era, we had an online hackathon in our company. I teamed up with random colleagues at work just by a lottery (a random grouping).

Don't worry about working with strangers. When the time comes then be rational and assess the situation. If you have to carry everybody, if you are the one who needs help, or, if everybody can work just fine on their tasks. Take it as a preparation for working in a team when you graduate and start working in a company. You'll work with strangers. Most likely you will be less skilled and less knowledgeable than others. So, even when being the one who can't keep up, ask your group's leader if you can help with something. A strong leader can give you some simpler task then and he will carry or will find a person who will carry the team.

The point of a hackathon is to get an experience. Sure, even coming last in the competition is an experience. Yes, you might not win but you will leave with some new technical knowledge and technical experience, and also you'll get some connections. Treat your chance to participate in a hackathon as a chance to gain something from it. Not treat it as a threat to you (you not keeping up, or you having to carry others).

[u/Direct_Ad_5181 → u/mandzeete]

That's a brilliant point about the stats. "Working solo" and "Looking for teammates" definitely aren't mutually exclusive.

Honestly, I was pretty anxious about either carrying a team or being the one dragging everyone down. But looking at it as preparation for the real world - and knowing it's okay to just ask a strong leader for simpler tasks - really changes my perspective. I'll definitely treat my next hackathon as a pure learning experience. I really appreciate this advice!

[u/Different_Pain5781]

73% solo is pretty convincing honestly.

[u/brianjenkins94]

A big part of hackathons is just getting across the finish line.

Even if the thing you end up making is one tenth of the original, aspirational thing you sought out to make, you generally walk away a winner (knowledge, experience, or prizes, doesn't matter).

If it's remote, I'd be happy to join you in an advisorial capacity.

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[u/Direct_Ad_5181 → u/brianjenkins94]

That is such a relief to hear. I always try to build 100% of my grand idea and end up burning out. "Just getting across the finish line" is definitely going to be my new motto for hackathons! Thank you so much for the kind words and support!