🔶 About the Challenge

Build From Scratch: Season I is a creator-first hackathon that celebrates pure engineering. No libraries, no shortcuts—just your logic, your code, your imagination. Participants choose any system they’ve always wanted to understand deeplyand build it from the ground up: a neural network, a mini-database, a compiler, a game engine, or anything that pushes their fundamentals.
This is your chance to break things apart, rebuild them your way, and truly learn how technology works under the hood.

🔶 Get started

Pick an idea → break it down → start coding from scratch.
You can build anything: an AI model, a protocol, a VM, a graphics engine—your creativity decides the direction.
Keep it simple, keep it original, and most importantly: build to learn.

 

Requirements

🔶 What to Build

For Build From Scratch — Season I, you can build any system entirely from scratch, using only core programming fundamentals.
Your project can be:

  • A Neural Network (no ML libraries)

  • A Mini Database or Storage Engine

  • A Compiler / Interpreter / VM

  • A Game Engine or 2D/3D Renderer

  • A Custom Protocol / Networking Stack

  • An Operating System Component

  • A Blockchain or Consensus Mechanism

  • A Search Engine, Cache, or Indexer

  • Any system-level, algorithmic, or low-level engineering project

If you can break it down and build it from zero, it qualifies.
No framework-heavy shortcuts. Pure engineering, pure logic.

 

🔶 What to Submit

To complete your entry, submit the following:

1. GitHub Repository Link

Your public repo must include:

  • Source code

  • README with:

    • What you built

    • How it works internally

    • Architecture/diagrams (optional but recommended)

    • Steps to run

2. Demo Video (max 5 minutes)

Your video should include:

  • Overview of the project

  • Demonstration of it running

  • Breakdown of internal logic and design choices
    Upload to YouTube/Drive and submit the link.

3. Submission Deadline

📅 December 25 (11:59 PM IST)

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

1 non-cash prize
1st Place — Build From Scratch Champion
5 winners

Honor Winning Post on the RootSprout Community
Exclusive RootSprout E-Stickers
Official Winner Certificate

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

RootSprout Team

RootSprout Team
RootSprout

Judging Criteria

  • 1. Technical Depth (30%)
    How much of the system was built from scratch? Complexity, algorithms used, low-level understanding.
  • 2. Originality & Ambition (25%)
    How unique and challenging is the system you chose to build?
  • 3. Clarity of Explanation (25%)
    Quality of documentation + 5-minute video. Is the internal working explained clearly?
  • 4. Functionality & Execution (20%)
    Does it run properly? Is the system stable, demonstrable, and usable?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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