Most hackathons end the moment the demo works on your laptop, but in the real world, that’s just the beginning.

We invite you to our Production Engineering Hackathon, a virtual event designed to test if your code can actually survive production. Using our pre-built project template, you’ll skip the boilerplate and dive straight into the deep end of Production Engineering (aka Site Reliability Engineering), competing to keep your service alive through simulated outages, massive load tests, and chaos engineering challenges.

For every winning category, your team gets a massive choice: Fast-track your tech career with Preferential Admission to our Production Engineering Fellowship*, OR take home premium hardware perfectly matched to your new skills.

Here is what’s on the line:

🏆 Best All-Round Team: Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds by Anker (because bulletproof code means you don't get paged at 3 AM!)

🛡️ Top in Reliability: iFixIt Pro Tech Toolkits (for the engineers who can diagnose and fix anything).

🚀 Top in Scalability: Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kits (take your virtual containers and build a physical cluster on your desk).

🚨 Top in Incident Response: ASUS ZenScreen MB169CK-P Portable USB Monitor (because you can never have too much observability).

🌱 Best Beginner Team: Premium Keychron Mechanical Keyboards (for >50% first-time hacker teams—we're investing directly in your ultimate workspace).

 

Requirements

  • We require all teams to submit a 2 minute or less demo video where we expect you to show us what you built and how it meets the Quest goals. 
  • Your code must be available in some sort of public repository. 
  • Your code and video must remain public post event if you want to continue being eligible for prizes. If your repo and video are not public we will select new winners. 
  • Your demo video must state the name of the hackathon at the beginning of the video. 
    • Ex. "Hey I'm Sam and this is my demo for Production Engineering Hackathon."
  • You must have completed all the registration steps on Devpost. 
    • Note that Hosted by MLH events require registration and check-in on MLH's event page.
    • Your email on all check in and registration platforms (Devpost, & MLH's event page) must match.
  • Your video must be created the weekend of the hackathon. 
  • We don't allow you to submit your project to other hackathons.
  • You may not submit projects that include prior work.
  • Each team can have a maximum of 5 members. We strongly encourage working in teams, and only team projects will be eligible for prizes. 
  • You are allowed to submit only one project to this hackathon.
  • While folks over the age of 13 are welcome to participate in this hackathon, you need to be at least 18 years old to be eligible for the fellowship opportunity. 

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

2 non-cash prizes
Top 4 Teams
4 winners

Top 4 teams get accepted into a 10-week MLH Fellowship incubator, a free pass and travel grant to the Midnight Summit in London, win cool headphones and also receive Midnight Swag Bag!

Best Beginner Hack
1 winner

Awarded to a team that builds on Midnight and has at least 50% first time hackers. Winning team takes home cool headphones and Midnight Swag Bag!

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Midnight Foundation

Midnight Foundation

Judging Criteria

  • Technology
    How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components?
  • Originality
    Is the concept fresh, bold, or whimsical? Does it explore a unique take on privacy, identity, or security?
  • Execution
    Does the DApp feel polished in its core functionality or UI?
  • Completion
    Is the hack demonstrably complete in its focused scope?
  • Documentation
    Is it easy to understand the project’s goal and how to run it? Is the README concise, helpful, and designed with developer usability in mind?
  • Business Value
    Does this project have a business value? Can this be launched as a product?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Tell your friends

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.