About the challenge

OFFGRID Rules Dates 15th september - 15th october 

The official hackathon timeline, submission deadline, and judging schedule will be announced by the Hack47 team.

All projects must be submitted before the official submission deadline to be eligible for judging.

Eligibility
  • OFFGRID is open to builders from anywhere.
  • You can participate individually or as part of a team.
  • There is no requirement to be a computer science student or professional developer.
  • Students, developers, designers, founders, researchers, and creators are all welcome.
  • Teams may use any technology, programming language, framework, API, or platform.
  • Participants may use AI tools and developer tools to build their projects.
Project and Submission Requirements
  • Your project must be created for OFFGRID during the designated hackathon period.
  • You may use existing libraries, APIs, open-source software, datasets, and developer tools.
  • AI coding assistants and generative AI tools are allowed.
  • Projects should contain meaningful work done by the participating team. Do not simply submit an existing project with minimal changes.
  • If you build on an existing open-source project, clearly explain what you added or changed.
  • Your submission must include a working project or functional prototype whenever reasonably possible.
  • A project demo is strongly recommended.
  • Source code should be provided where applicable.
  • Participants must clearly disclose major third-party technologies, APIs, models, or open-source projects used.
Judging

Projects will be evaluated based on:

  • Originality — Is the idea genuinely interesting or unconventional?
  • Impact — Does it solve a meaningful problem?
  • Execution — How well does the project work?
  • Product Thinking — Would someone actually want to use it?
  • Technical Depth — Was technology used thoughtfully?
  • Potential — Could this become something bigger after OFFGRID?

You don’t need the most complicated project to win.

Build something people remember.

The OFFGRID Rule

There is only one rule that really matters:

Don’t build what you’re supposed to build. Build what you want to exist.

Go OFFGRID.

Requirements

What to Build

What to Build & Submit

Build a working project that solves a real problem, explores an interesting idea, or creates something genuinely useful.

There is no fixed theme and no mandatory technology stack.

You can use any language, framework, API, AI model, open-source technology, blockchain, hardware, or other tools you want.

We encourage projects that:

  • Solve a real problem
  • Have a clear target user
  • Introduce an interesting or unconventional idea
  • Use technology meaningfully
  • Go beyond a basic tutorial or CRUD application
  • Have a functional prototype
  • Demonstrate strong product thinking and execution
  • Have the potential to become a real product, startup, or open-source project

You can participate individually or as part of a team.

What to Submit

Your submission should include:

  1. Project Name
  2. Short Description — Explain what you built in 1–2 sentences.
  3. Problem — What problem are you solving and who experiences it?
  4. Solution — Explain how your project solves the problem.
  5. Demo Link — Provide a working demo whenever possible.
  6. Source Code — Link to your GitHub/GitLab repository.
  7. Demo Video — Show the project working and explain what you built.
  8. Tech Stack — List the major technologies, APIs, models, and tools used.
  9. Build Process — Briefly explain what you built during OFFGRID and what you would improve next.
Judging Philosophy

We’re not looking for the project with the most lines of code or the most buzzwords.

We care about:

Originality — Is the idea interesting and different?

Impact — Does it solve a meaningful problem?

Execution — How well does the product actually work?

Product Thinking — Would someone genuinely want to use this?

Technical Depth — Was technology used thoughtfully?

Potential — Could this become something bigger after OFFGRID?

Important

Your submission should be your own work created for OFFGRID.

You are free to use existing libraries, APIs, open-source projects, AI coding tools, and other developer tools. Be transparent about how they were used.

Most importantly:

Don’t build for the hackathon. Build something worth continuing after it.

Go OFFGRID.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

1 non-cash prize
Hack47 Next Cohort — $10,000 OpenAI Credits + Red Bull Supply
1 winner

$10,000 in OpenAI credits, a guaranteed spot in the next Hack47 cohort, one month of Red Bull Supply, plus additional credits, tools, perks, and resources from Hack47's sponsor network.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judging Criteria

  • Originality
    Is the idea genuinely interesting or unconventional?
  • Impact
    Does it solve a meaningful problem?
  • Execution
    How well does the project work?
  • Product Thinking
    Would someone actually want to use it?
  • Technical Depth
    Was technology used thoughtfully?
  • Potential
    Could this become something bigger after OFFGRID?
  • Potential
    Could this become something bigger after OFFGRID?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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