From Zero to Code Hero: The Hackathon That Changed Everything
“Nothing about that weekend was predictable—four second-semester BCA students, zero hackathon experience, and one audacious problem statement…”
Walking In Blind 🚪
Picture this: Four wide-eyed second-semester students, armed with nothing but HTML/CSS knowledge and a half-baked understanding of Python, walking into their first-ever hackathon. That was us.
We didn’t know:
- What a hackathon really was
- How to approach problem statements
- What "machine learning" even meant (spoiler: we picked an ML project anyway 😅)
The problem statements ranged from healthcare to finance. We chose "Stock Market Predictor" because, well, how hard could it be?
The Chaos Unfolds: Code, Confusion, and Free Fire 🎮
The Reality Check ⏳
- Our Skillset:
- Me & Jigar: HTML/CSS/JS (frontend basics)
- Dhruv: "Learning Python" (translation: print("Hello World") mastery)
- The Tools:
- ChatGPT (back when it was clunky and unreliable)
- Google searches like "how to predict stock market in 8 hours"
The "Learning Python Mid-Hackathon" Saga 🐍
By evening, we realized:
- Python wasn’t optional—it was essential.
- Terms like "data scraping" and "regression models" became our new vocabulary.
- Version Control? Git? Nah. We used a WhatsApp group named “XYZ” to share code snippets. 💬
Mentors & Seniors: Our Unexpected Lifelines 🆘
During dinner breaks, we cornered seniors and mentors like detectives solving a case. Their advice was gold:
- Mentors: When we needed the post our mentors helped us a lot we just got a lot of inputs and reality checks about the college and what to do next.
The Free Fire Break 🔥
After 8 hours of frantic coding, we had a "working" model. Celebratory Free Fire matches ensued. Because why not? Priorities, right?
The Presentation: Sweaty Palms and Life Lessons
The Jury’s Shock
Judge:"What semester are you in?"
Us:"Second… BCA."
Judge:"You’re tackling machine learning… in your second semester?"
Their disbelief was validation enough. We didn’t win, but their reaction? Priceless.
The Questions We Couldn’t Answer ❌
- "How does your model account for market volatility?"
- "What’s the algorithm’s accuracy rate?"
We fumbled. We improvised. We survived.
The Aftermath: Why Failing Fast Was My Biggest Win 🏆
The Wake-Up Call 📢
That hackathon taught me:
- The Power of Starting Early: You don’t need to be "ready"—just willing to learn.
- The Beauty of Chaos: Struggling through code > comfort zones.
- The Real World Doesn’t Care About Semesters: Skills > academic timelines.
The Transformation 🔄
- Then: HTML/CSS hobbyist
- Now: Full-stack developer + hackathon winner
- *Secret Sauce: That first failure lit a fire. I coded daily. Explored APIs. Mastered Git. Built projects that *actually solved problems.
5 Lessons I Wish I Knew Before My First Hackathon 🧠
- Embrace the "I Don’t Know" – Ask mentors, Google, or the person next to you.
- Version Control is Non-Negotiable – Git > WhatsApp groups.
- Sleep > Code – Burnout kills creativity.
- Judge Reactions > Trophies – Their shock meant we’d dared to try.
- Mentorship > Ego: Swallowing pride and asking for help saved us.
- Hackathons Are Fuel – They expose gaps in your knowledge… so you can fill them.
Epilogue: Why You Should Join a Hackathon Tomorrow 🚀
That first hackathon didn’t just teach me to code—it taught me to persist. Today, my core team still competes together. We’ve won. We’ve lost. We’ve built apps that scaled. But it all started with a stock predictor that probably wouldn’t have worked.
Moral: Your "clueless" phase is where magic happens. Start before you’re ready.
Don't hesitate—just go for it. Make the decisions you'll be proud of, not the ones you'll regret.
Jatin
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