Hackathons & Competitions
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Kaggle Competitions
competitionFreeMLH Global Hack Week: Builders Week
HackathonFreeNASA International Space Apps Challenge 2026
HackathonFreeNebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon
CompetitionFreeRevenueCat Shipaton 2026
HackathonFreeGatewayHacks 2026
HackathonFreeHackRPI 2026: In the Clouds
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Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon
A virtual hackathon running October 26–November 4, 2026, with Meta models and a stated $1 million prize pool. Entry is free for selected applicants; applications close October 25 or earlier if the 20,000-participant cap is reached. Selection and eligibility requirements apply.
HackathonFreeQloo Agentic Hackathon
Global online hackathon for building AI agents with Qloo, Gemini and Google Cloud tools. Official rules state no purchase or payment is necessary. Open to legal adults and eligible teams or organizations, with geographic exclusions; submissions close October 30 at 11:45 p.m. Eastern.
HackathonFreeName That LLM (Kaggle Competition)
Kaggle featured code competition in which participants identify which language model produced a given text.
CompetitionFreeNASA International Space Apps Challenge 2026
NASA's annual global hackathon where teams of any background tackle space- and Earth-science challenges over one weekend, through thousands of local in-person and virtual events worldwide.
HackathonFreeWolvCTF 2026
University of Michigan's open, online jeopardy CTF spanning reverse engineering, binary exploitation, web, cryptography, forensics, and OSINT, with challenges explicitly ranging from beginner to hard.
CTFFreeAI Pitch Competition (Connecticut SBDC)
Pitch competition for established Connecticut businesses with a practical way to use AI, data or analytics to solve a current business challenge. Competition November 12, 2026, 6-8pm at SCSU School of Business, New Haven, CT. Applications close October 16, 2026.
CompetitionFreeEyesOpenCTF (7th edition)
Online jeopardy-style capture-the-flag cybersecurity competition, November 20-22, 2026 (from 10:00 UTC). Listed on CTFtime.
CompetitionFreeHackCamp 2026
Canada's largest beginner-friendly hackathon, run by nwPlus. In person in Vancouver, November 7-8, 2026. Themes include machine learning/AI and social good; 15 non-cash prizes.
CompetitionFreeInIt CTF
Online jeopardy-style capture-the-flag cybersecurity competition, November 14, 2026 (15:30-23:30 UTC). Listed on CTFtime.
CompetitionFreeMimic CTF
Online jeopardy-style capture-the-flag cybersecurity competition, November 7-8, 2026 (from 12:00 UTC). Listed on CTFtime.
CompetitionFreeNebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon
Online hackathon from Nebius and NVIDIA on Devpost: build AI on open infrastructure. $50,000 in cash prizes. Submissions close October 30, 2026 at 10:00am Pacific.
CompetitionFreePayPal AI Hackathon
Online hackathon run by PayPal on Devpost: build something new with PayPal and AI. $67,500 in cash prizes. Submissions close November 12, 2026 at 12:00pm Pacific.
CompetitionFreeRiver Pitch Competition
Pitch competition from the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute at the University of Alabama for innovators and early-stage businesses. Ten $1,000 prizes. November 17, 2026; registration portal is open.
CompetitionFreeSpookyCTF 2026
Annual Halloween capture-the-flag competition organized by NJIT's Cyber Security Network. Beginner-friendly with harder challenges mixed in; categories include binary exploitation, cryptography, forensics, OSINT and web. Hybrid: in person at NJIT and online, November 6-7, 2026. AI assistance is allowed but discouraged; automated AI solving agents are banned.
CompetitionFreeMLH Global Hack Week: Builders Week
Free week-long online hackathon from Major League Hacking, November 6–12, 2026, themed around building whatever "builder" means to you, with live challenges and a Discord community. Open to anyone, anywhere.
HackathonFreeWorldQuant BRAIN
Free simulation platform that introduces quantitative finance research; users in approved countries can become paid research consultants.
PlatformFreeHackRPI 2026: In the Clouds
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's student hackathon, held in person in Troy, NY, on November 7–8, 2026. Registration via Devpost. Devpost page blocked automated checks; hackathons like this normally have no entry fee.
HackathonFreeNASA Space Apps Challenge 2026
Free global hackathon where teams use NASA's open data to tackle real-world challenges, with local in-person and fully virtual participation options.
HackathonFreeHack.coms 2026
Free, beginner-friendly, in-person 24-hour hackathon hosted by RIT's Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences, part of the MLH collegiate hackathon league.
HackathonFreeHKCERT CTF 2026 (Qualifying Round)
Free jeopardy-style capture-the-flag qualifying round from Hong Kong's CERT, with an Open division alongside student categories; top teams advance to an in-person Hong Kong final.
CTFFreeForgeHacks Online 2026
Free virtual hackathon open to students worldwide, run through Devpost with a submission deadline in mid-October.
HackathonFreeImpactHack 2026
Free online hackathon focused on building technology that addresses real-world community and global challenges, organized by the GIS Engineering Club.
HackathonFreeKaggle Competitions
Google-owned platform hosting data-science and machine-learning competitions, many with cash prizes. Free to enter; a strong way to build a portfolio.
competitionFreeActivate AI: Economic Opportunity Challenge (data.org)
Global call for AI projects that help people and communities unlock economic opportunity.
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