CalgaryHacks 2026 is a 24 hour sprint-style, in-person competitive programming contest designed to promote creativity, collaboration, and innovative thinking. In the spirit of a sprint-style event, groups (1-5 people) will be presented with 3 prompts the day of the event and will be tasked with developing a solution to the prompt of their choice. Participants will have total creative control over how they address the prompt, submissions could be anything from a live website to a proof-of-concept.

Please register before 10:00 am on February 14th!

See CalgaryHacks 2025 Winners for some examples of previous projects. 

This is the premier opportunity for students of all levels, from high school to graduate, to apply their skills in a practical and resume boosting way. Groups will pitch their work live to panels of judges made up of both academic and industry professionals. 

There are two prize tracks for this competition, Tier 1 and Tier 2. Tier 1 has large cash prizes and is open to students of all levels. Tier 2 is only open to first year undergrads and high school students and has smaller cash prizes. 

CalgaryHacks is being held as an in-person event open to all students studying in Canada, you must attend in person to compete. Announcements will be made on our Discord server, make sure to join to stay up to date.

Attributions

• Background Image

• Concept
  Does the idea appropriately address the chosen topic?
• Creativity
  How innovative is the idea? Judges will evaluate if the project is a novel response to the chosen topic.
• Effectiveness
  How effective is the solution in addressing the chosen topic?
• Technical Challenge
  How technically challenging/impressive is the implementation?
• Design
  How much thought and effort are put into user experience and design?
• Presentation
  How effective is the presentation at conveying the idea and solution?