Our first hackathon where we actually had to think like a startup
Source: Dev.to
I am a third‑year CSE student, and last week someone handed me a problem statement and said, “Build a startup in six weeks.”
Not a college project. Not an assignment. An actual product that solves a real problem for real people.
That was two weeks ago, and honestly those two weeks taught me more than the last two semesters combined.
Week One – Understanding the Problem
The first few days were just reading and rereading the problem. We kept thinking we understood it, then realizing we did not. There is a big difference between reading a problem statement and actually understanding the people you are building for.
We went back to basics:
- Who uses this?
- What do they earn?
- What does a bad day look like for them?
- What would actually help them versus what just sounds good in a pitch?
That took almost a full week, and I think that was the most important week.
Week Two – Building the Solution
Building something is the easy part, honestly. Figuring out what to build and why is the hard part. Most teams skip that and go straight to coding—we almost did too.
Once we knew what we were building and why, everything else fell into place faster: tech stack, architecture, screens, all of it moved quickly once the thinking was done.
I am the only one coding on our team of four. The rest are handling research, documentation, and testing. That means every decision I make has to be something I can actually build alone in the time we have. No over‑engineering. No fancy things that look good on paper but take three weeks to build.
Scope creep is real, and it will kill your submission faster than anything else.
Current Status
We have five days left for Phase 1. We must submit our GitHub repo, a README, and a two‑minute video. The video is the thing I am most nervous about—writing is easier than talking to a camera, apparently.
Advice for Fellow Hackers
If you are also doing DEVTrails or any hackathon right now, my only advice is this: spend more time on the problem than the solution. The solution changes. The problem does not.
Will write again after Phase 1 results.
Akash
Team VAARANASI
Guidewire DEVTrails 2026