CodeQuest: National Tech Hackathon 2026

About the Hackathon

CodeQuest: National Tech Hackathon 2026 is a national-level, fully online hackathon organized by DotRepo. The competition invites students, developers and technology enthusiasts across India to identify real-world problems, propose innovative solutions and transform their ideas into functional software prototypes.

Eligibility Criteria

• Open to eligible students, developers, and technology enthusiasts across India.
• Open to undergraduate and postgraduate students from any college or university in India.
• Open to students of all branches and specializations (Engineering, Science, Commerce, Design, Management, etc.).
• Each participant can be part of only one team.

Team Formation Guidelines

• Individual participation: Allowed. A participant may register and compete independently.
• Team participation: Allowed, with a recommended team size of 1–3 members, including the team leader.
• Inter-college teams: Allowed. Members may belong to different colleges or universities.
• Team changes: Changes to team membership are permitted only before the announced team-lock deadline and with organizer approval where required.

Hackathon Format

Round 1: Registration & Team Formation

Participants must register individually or as a team, provide the required details and review the competition guidelines. Teams must confirm their members before the published team-lock deadline.

Requirements:

• Complete registration on the official Unstop event page.
• Provide valid participant and team details.
• Select individual or team participation.

Round 2: Idea Submission

Task: Submit a PPT or PDF of at most 10 slides covering:

• Problem statement and target users
• Proposed solution with USP and key features
• Tech stack and architecture
• Novelty and differentiation
• Feasibility, scalability, and impact
• Optional: A 2-minute explainer video link (bonus)

Round 3: Prototype Development

Shortlisted participants must develop a working prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) based on their approved idea.

Required deliverables:

• Functional prototype or MVP.
• GitHub repository containing the source code with Github Tools
• README with project overview, technology stack and setup instructions.
• Live demo link, where applicable, or instructions to run the application.
• Screenshots or a short demo video.

Round 4: Final Results & Recognition

After evaluation, the organizers will verify eligibility and scores before announcing the official results.

Prizes, award categories, certificate conditions and distribution timelines will be governed by the official event announcement.

General Rules and Regulations

• Participation must be through the official Unstop event registration process.
• Individual and team participation are permitted under the eligibility and team-size requirements.
• Projects must be original or clearly disclose relevant pre-existing work. Plagiarism, impersonation and presenting another person's work as one's own are prohibited.
• Participants may use permitted programming languages, frameworks, open-source libraries, APIs and AI development tools, subject to the applicable licenses and event rules.
• Participants must disclose AI-generated code, pre-existing components and third-party assets when required by the submission guidelines.
• GitHub must be used for source-code submission if required by the organizers. Repository access must be sufficient for authorized judges to evaluate the project.
• Participants must not expose API keys, passwords, private tokens or confidential personal data in their repositories.
• All submissions must be completed before the published deadlines. Late-submission exceptions, if any, are at the organizers' discretion under the announced policy.
• Participants must ensure that their demonstrations and submitted documentation accurately represent the functionality of their projects.
• Judges will evaluate projects using the published criteria. Substantiated rule violations may result in disqualification.
• Organizers may clarify or update administrative instructions when necessary, provided that material changes are communicated to participants.
• The organizers' decisions on evaluation and results will be handled according to the published competition rules and applicable policies.

Online Participation and Communication

CodeQuest is entirely virtual. Registration, idea submission, prototype development, project evaluation, announcements and recognition will be conducted online.

Unstop will serve as the official event registration and communication platform, with submission instructions provided by the organizers. GitHub will be used for source-code management and project submission where required.

Important Notes

• Review the eligibility requirements and competition schedule before registering.
• Exact registration deadlines, submission windows, judging dates and result-announcement dates will be communicated through the official event page.
• Participation certificates and awards are subject to the eligibility and completion conditions announced by the organizers.

Join CodeQuest: National Tech Hackathon 2026 and turn your ideas into working technology solutions. Build, innovate, collaborate and showcase your skills on a national platform.