What is a hackathon?

the short definition

A hackathon is a competition with a deadline. Organisers set a theme and a time limit, participants form teams, and every team spends that time turning an idea into something that runs. At the end each team demonstrates what it built, judges score the entries against published criteria, and prizes go to the strongest.

Four things make an event a hackathon rather than a workshop or a conference: it is time-boxed, work happens in teams, the output is something built during the event, and it is judged. An event missing any of the four is usually called something else on its own listing — a workshop, a bootcamp, a meetup — and this directory follows whatever the organiser called it.

what the word means

“Hackathon” is hack plus marathon. “Hack” here is the old engineering sense — a quick, clever solution to a problem — not intrusion into a system. “Marathon” describes the format: one continuous, bounded stretch of time rather than a series of sessions. Hong Kong listings write it in both scripts — hackathon and 黑客松 — and this directory reads either.

how a hackathon runs

The order is close to the same everywhere:

• Kickoff — the organiser sets out the theme, the rules, the judging criteria and the deadline.
• Team formation — people either arrive as a team or form one on the spot.
• Building — the bulk of the time, usually with mentors on hand.
• Submission — work stops at a hard deadline and teams submit whatever state their project is in.
• Demos — each team presents, typically in a few minutes.
• Judging and prizes — judges score against the criteria set at kickoff and announce winners.

the kinds of hackathon run in Hong Kong

The word covers events that differ a lot in who turns up, how long they run and what is at stake. Knowing which kind a listing is tells you most of what you need before registering.

• University hackathons — HKUST, HKU, CUHK, PolyU and CityU student societies run most of the weekend calendar, often at Clear Water Bay, Pok Fu Lam and Sha Tin; beginner tracks cluster here.
• Cyberport and Science Park programmes — the two innovation parks run themed hackathons through the year, frequently free and frequently the best-funded, with corporate partners setting the briefs.
• Bank and fintech challenges — the banks, the HKMA and the payments companies set briefs tied to their own products, with cash prizes in HK$ and a recruiting angle.
• Government open-data events — data.gov.hk and the smart-city office run civic briefs, often hybrid.
• Game jams — the same format producing a game instead of an app, around Global Game Jam in January and the Kwun Tong indie scene.

The name shifts with the subject: a dataset makes it a datathon, a game makes it a game jam, an ideas-only event with no build is an ideathon. The shape is the same — a brief, a clock, teams, a demo — and this directory lists events under whatever the organiser called them.

how long they last

There is no standard length — the organiser sets it. Of the 5 hackathons listed on this site right now, 3 run inside a single day and 2 run across two or more. The longest currently listed is General Learning Hacks, which runs 2 days (19–20 Sep 2026).

The two shapes you will meet most often in Hong Kong are the weekend build of 24 or 48 hours, which starts on a Friday evening or Saturday morning and finishes with demos on the Sunday, and the single working day, which is what most corporate challenges and community events run. Shorter events are built around a narrow brief you can finish in one sitting. Longer ones leave room for a bigger build and normally put food, sleep and mentor sessions in the schedule.

what it costs to enter

Nothing currently listed here charges to enter. 4 of the 5 hackathons listed on this site publish a free ticket, and 1 has not announced one yet. Where an organiser has published a figure it is on the listing, so you can check before registering.What a ticket price does not tell you is capacity: free events at universities and coworking spaces routinely cap places and close registration early.

do you need a team

Almost always, and the organiser sets the size rather than leaving it open — it is one of the first things stated on a listing, because it decides how you show up. The limits vary more than people expect, from a pair to a room, so read the one on the event you are entering rather than assuming. If you arrive alone, most events run a team-forming session at kickoff.

in person or online

Worth checking before you plan around one. Of the 5 hackathons listed here, 4 are in-person, and 1 runs entirely online.The practical question here is never which city — there is one — but whether you have to be there at all, which is what the format filter answers.

where they happen in Hong Kong

In one city, by definition. Right now 3 of the 5 hackathons listed here are in Hong Kong, and the other 1 is split between 香港島; one more runs entirely online. Cyberport in Pok Fu Lam, Science Park in Sha Tin, the Central and Causeway Bay coworking floors, the Kwun Tong and Kowloon East makerspaces and the university campuses at Clear Water Bay, Pok Fu Lam and Sha Tin carry the whole calendar, so this directory does not split listings across city pages: everything browses under Hong Kong, and each event page carries the exact venue. The one split that does carry information is in-person against online, and that is a filter on the homepage rather than a separate page.

In practice the venues repeat. 4 of the 5 hackathons listed here name one — CAI Choy's Building 1/F, General Learning Hacks, PCW by Preface (Causeway Bay) and United Centre — and the other 1 gives Hong Kong without a venue. The addresses behind them sit in a handful of places: the two innovation parks, PMQ and the Central coworking floors, the Kwun Tong industrial buildings, and the campuses. Each event page carries the exact venue and address; nothing in the territory is more than about an hour away by MTR, which is why they all browse under one label. You can see every listing in one place.

the types you'll see listed

Hackathons are usually named for their subject or their audience. These are the filters this directory keeps, with what is on each right now:

ai hackathons

A listing appears here when the brief is artificial intelligence — agents, models, machine learning, computer vision, generative AI — either named in the title or clear from the organiser's own description. (5 listed)

game jams

A listing appears here when teams build a game inside a fixed time limit — video games or tabletop, solo or team, from a theme or a constraint handed out at the start. (0 listed)

Events are also split by format — in person, online or hybrid. You can filter every listing by format from the browse section on the homepage.

who can enter

Hackathons are open to more than programmers: teams that win are usually a mix of engineering, design and someone who can present the idea clearly. Plenty of events are aimed squarely at people who don't write code, and say so in their own description.

what you can win

Prizes are set per event and published on the listing. They are not always cash — mentoring, cloud credits, hardware, an incubator place and introductions are all common — and the amount varies enormously between a community jam and a sponsored event.

faq

find one to enter

This site lists every upcoming hackathon it can find in Hong Kong, updated weekly. Browse all 5 upcoming events, narrow to ai hackathons or game jams, or browse every upcoming listing.

Running one? Submit your hackathon — free to list.