Frequently asked questions

Hakanow is a hackathon platform built for builders everywhere. Organizers run the full event lifecycle — registration, teams, submissions, judging, and prizes — and participants discover events, form teams, and submit projects in one place.

Creating an account and joining hackathons on Hakanow is free. Individual organizers set their own entry requirements, so check the event page for anything specific to that hackathon.

Head to Discover and filter by location, status, length, and region. Events marked Open are accepting submissions right now, and Upcoming events are published but not yet open.

Yes. Solo entries are allowed unless an organizer sets a minimum team size for their hackathon. You can also create a team and invite others, or join an existing team that still has room.

You can edit your submission freely while the hackathon is in the Submissions Open stage. Once the organizer closes submissions, entries are locked and judging begins.

Submissions close automatically when the organizer moves the hackathon to the next stage, and late entries are not accepted. If something went wrong, contact the organizer directly — they control their event's timeline.

Each hackathon defines its own criteria, and every criterion carries a weight. Judges score submissions against those criteria, and scores are combined into a weighted total so no single criterion dominates unless the organizer intends it to.

Individual judge scores are visible only to the organizing team. Participants see results once the organizer announces them, at which point the results page for the hackathon becomes public.

No. Judges can recuse themselves from any submission they have a conflict of interest with, and a recused submission is excluded from that judge's queue.

No — Hakanow is a coordination layer, not a payment processor. Organizers pay winners directly through their own channels. The platform tracks each prize through its stages so both sides can see exactly where things stand.

Winners submit their payment preference from their dashboard. Once the organizer marks the prize as settled, you confirm receipt — or raise a dispute if something doesn't match.

Payment details are encrypted before they are stored, and they are only ever readable by the organizing team responsible for paying you. They never appear in public listings or on your profile.

Organizers work in a separate portal. Create an organizer account to set up your organization, then build your event — stages, categories, judging criteria, sponsors, and prizes. Get started →

Yes. Judges are invited by email and sign in through a passwordless magic link, so they never need to create a password to start scoring.