Dates

The GENIUS Coding Hackathon will take place during the GENIUS Olympiad Final in-person competition. The hackathon will run for 24 hours, beginning at the official start time announced by GENIUS Olympiad. All projects must be submitted through Devpost by the posted submission deadline. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Eligibility

Participation is open only to GENIUS Coding finalists who have been selected through the First Step Competition. Students may compete individually or in teams of up to two students. Each student must be officially registered and approved by GENIUS Olympiad to participate in the final in-person competition.

Students must bring their own laptop and charger. Students are responsible for having access to the coding tools, accounts, and development environments they plan to use.

Project and Submission Requirements

All project work must be completed during the official hackathon window. Pre-built projects are not permitted. Teams may use open-source libraries, APIs, public documentation, publicly available datasets, internet resources, and AI-assisted tools.

Teams must work independently. Collaboration between teams is not allowed. Students cannot receive help, guidance, feedback, debugging support, or project advice from teachers, mentors, chaperones, supervisors, other teams, or outside individuals during the hackathon.

Each team must submit its final project through Devpost by the official deadline. The submission must include a GitHub repository link, project description, demo video or live demo information, technologies used, and an AI usage declaration statement if AI-assisted tools were used. Submitted deliverables are final after the deadline.

Failure to disclose AI usage may be considered academic dishonesty. If GENIUS determines that AI tools were used but not declared, the team may be automatically disqualified.

Judging Rubric 

Criterion Score Description
Presentation Skills 5 Students will be evaluated on how clearly and confidently they communicate their ideas, demonstrate their product, and respond to judges’ questions. Organization, timing, and use of visuals will also be considered.
Presentation Clarity 5 Quality and clarity of the presentation, including the live product demo or demo video, explanation of the problem, development process, and features of the final product.
Problem-Solving Approach 10 How effectively the team understood and addressed the environmental issue using a creative, logical, and structured coding solution.
Code Efficiency and Innovation 10 Clean, readable code; use of efficient algorithms; innovative use of technology or AI tools to solve the problem in a unique or effective way.
Functionality and Correctness 10 Whether the project works as intended and meets the stated objectives. Judges will test the solution to evaluate its reliability and completeness.
Overall 10 General evaluation of the project’s creativity, technical execution, relevance to the environmental problem, and team performance. How well does the final product demonstrate innovation, usability, and potential for real-world impact?