Hackathons test more than your coding skills. They push your endurance, teamwork, problem-solving, and ability to deliver results under pressure. Whether it’s a 24-hour sprint or a full weekend marathon, showing up unprepared can put you and your project at a serious disadvantage.
If you’ve never attended one before, or your last hackathon felt more chaotic than collaborative, you’re in the right place. Here’s what to bring to a hackathon and how to prepare for it so you’re not troubleshooting when you should be building.
Gear You Shouldn’t Overlook
It’s evident that you need to bring your laptop, but there’s more to your gear than that. Gear gaps become painfully obvious when you’re seven hours in, trying to debug in a crowded room with dead earbuds and a battery warning blinking in the corner of the screen.
Start with the power setup. Bring a laptop charger, a power strip with surge protection, and two USB wall adapters; one adapter is for your phone, and the other is a backup. A USB-C hub with HDMI, USB-A, and Ethernet ports can make your setup far more adaptable, especially if you’re using a MacBook or an Ultrabook with few ports.
Noise-canceling headphones help more than you might think. A shared event space means constant noise—side conversations, announcements, typing, or just the hum of dozens of machines. Being able to focus when the room grows loud is an underrated advantage.
Pack a wireless mouse even if you don’t normally use one. After 12 hours, your trackpad might feel like a torture device. And while you’re at it, toss in a microfiber cloth. Grimy screens are a productivity killer, and shared workspaces aren’t always clean.
How To Pack Smart
Packing matters for convenience and focus purposes. Use a laptop backpack with padded compartments to keep the gear secure and organized. Avoid messenger bags or totes, as they distribute weight poorly and are tough to navigate through tight spaces.
Keep cables, dongles, SD cards, and batteries in a zippered pouch or tech organizer. This prevents tangles, lost adapters, and the dreaded bottom-of-the-bag search when you’re pressed for time. Label your gear if you’re sharing a table with teammates or strangers. USB drives and phone cables are easy to mix up.
What if you’re bringing a desktop? You’ll need to go a step further. Take the time to learn how to pack and protect your PC when moving. Secure loose components like GPUs and coolers, wrap your tower in thick blankets or foam, and carry peripherals in a separate bag. Even a short trip can cause internal damage if things shift during transport.
Prep Your Digital Environment
Your machine should be production-ready the night before the event. Don’t rely on hotel Wi-Fi or venue bandwidth to download updates or IDE plugins.
Run all operating system and software updates at least 48 hours in advance, and conduct a hard reboot afterward to catch any lingering install issues. Make sure the IDE is up to date. Then, guarantee that all libraries or dependencies you plan to use are compatible with the environment.
Create a folder with starter files, boilerplate code, or template repositories you’ve set up ahead of time. This gives you a head start if you’re stuck choosing tech stacks on the fly. If you’re working with a team, test your Git workflow. Confirm everyone has access to the repo and understands the branching strategy.
Download offline documentation or PDF references for any frameworks or APIs you plan to use. Spotty Wi-Fi is a known issue at most hackathons, and documentation sites can load painfully slow under load. Having a local copy on hand saves time and frustration.
Manage Your Time and Energy
Hackathons are not sprints. Even at 24-hour events, your energy can dip fast without a plan.
Start by sketching out a simple time structure. For example: two-hour coding blocks, 15-minute breaks, and a 20-minute nap or reset window every six hours. Set a phone alarm as a reminder to stand, stretch, or hydrate every 90 minutes. It’s easy to quickly lose track of time.
Bring fueling foods, not junk food. Protein bars, dried fruit, unsalted nuts, jerky, or trail mix all travel well and won’t make your hands sticky. Pack a refillable water bottle and hydration tablets to mix in every few hours. They help keep your energy up without relying on soda or energy drinks that cause your body and mind to crash later on.
Know the Hackathon Format
Preparation goes beyond your gear. You also need to understand the rules and structure of the event well before you arrive.
If APIs, data sets, or sponsored SDKs are part of the hackathon, start exploring them at least three days prior. Review the documentation, experiment with basic calls or endpoints, and familiarize yourself with the sandbox environments. This gives you more time during the event to build instead of troubleshooting.
Hackathon judging formats vary. Some require live presentations, while others use video demos or GitHub submissions. Confirm these details ahead of time and plan accordingly. When you’ll need to demo, bring an HDMI cable or screen recorder, and set aside at least three hours before the deadline to test your project in its final state.
If you’re working with a team, plan a pre-event meeting to ensure everyone is on the same page. Set roles, discuss backup plans, and decide how you’ll respond if something goes wrong. Ten minutes of planning can save hours of confusion.
The Details That Save You
Small oversights can have big impacts. Bring a phone charger with a long cord (at least six feet), a change of clothes, and a small pack of tissues, painkillers, and allergy medications. If you wear contacts, carry a contact case, a pair of glasses, contact solution, and eye drops. You’ll want to switch to glasses after long stretches of staring at the screen. Sometimes, the tool that saves your hackathon isn’t code; it’s something you packed several days prior. So, when thinking about what to bring to a hackathon and how to prepare, cover these basics. The people who have a thoughtful preparation process are often the ones who produce the best results.
