About the challenge
HackMars is an online hackathon where students help redesign how people learn. You’ll create projects that increase productivity, address a real-world problem, or a program of your own choosing, then demo them to educators, founders, and engineers.
Tracks (pick one on submission):
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Productivity – Create a program that can help students around the world remove distractions, work faster, or "gamify" studying.
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Real World Problem – Research a real-world issue, and create a program that could contribute to solving it.
- Career + College – Create a program that can help students with college admissions, research of colleges, or find info regarding careers.
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Program of your own choosing – If the prior tracks are not of your interest, feel free to make your own program, but it should help others and serve a purpose.
Judging criteria:
- Creativity / Innovation
- Execution
- Functionality
- Impact / Potential
- Presentation / Pitch
Get started
-
Register on Devpost
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[NECESSARY] Join our Discord (https://discord.gg/cmAjrXdPCe)
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Form a team of 1–5.
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Build! People in our discord can help you with an questions throughout the event.
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Submit a 3–5 min demo video + repo before the deadline.
Requirements
What to Build
Create a new project that solves a real problem. You can ship a web/app prototype, extension, bot, hardware concept, or low-code/no-code workflow. You must:
- Credit all third-party assets and licenses.
- Adhere to one of the tracks offered.
- Work efficiently to submit in time.
What to Submit
On Devpost, include:
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Title + Description: the problem, user, and solution (what it does + why it matters).
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Demo video (3–5 min): show the user journey and working features.
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Repo link: GitHub/hosted code or shareable prototype.
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Track selection and team members.
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(Optional) Slides/roadmap, live demo link, and screenshots/GIFs.
Prizes
Position on the HackMars team
- 2x Interview Cake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- More info will be sent to you if won.
People's Choice
- 3x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 156$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
Grand Martian Prize
- Overall winner
- 10x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 256$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
2nd Overall
- 2nd place overall
- 6x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 306$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
3rd Overall
- 3rd place overall
- 3x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 156$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
Best Design
- Best Design award
- 3x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 156$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
Productivity Track Winner
- Best productivity track program
- 4x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 206$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
Real World Problem Track Winner
- Best "real world problem" track program
- 4x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 206$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
Career + College Track Winner
- Best "career + college" track submission
- 4x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 206$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
Best solo project
- Best solo project
- 4x InterviewCake 7 day full access licenses (50$ worth each)
- 1x InterviewBuddy AI Interview Voucher + Coupons (6$ worth)
- Certificate of accomplishment
- Announced on all socials and future website
- Participation awards.
Reminder: 206$ is not in cash, but rather the worth of the awards given
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Paul Sopin
HackMars
Ashwini Joshi
Former Scientist at ISRO, with 20+ years of expertise in AI, ML, and Cybersecurity. Master's degree in Computer Science from UIUC.
Surya Rao R
Judge at Globee Awards 2025 and HackIllinois 2025, 19+ years of experience in tech. Master's degree in Data Science from UT Austin.
Parth Jain
Led projects at Netflix, Amazon, extensive experience in software development, GenAI, and machine learning.
Karthik Jayaprakash
Senior Member of Technical Staff at AMD, experienced in AI/ML, Performance Tuning, and IoT.
Dmitrii Timoshenko
M.A. in Statistics from UC Berkeley, works as an Applied Scientist at AWS, and has judged multiple hackathons prior.
Mahendran Chinnaiah
Healthcare Applications Architect holding certificates in Microsoft, Google Cloud & Cloudera, with past experience judging hackathons.
Alan Xiao
Consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Abhijit Roy
Experienced Associate Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services, over 14 years of experience in software engineering.
Pratik Gupta
Senior Engineering Leader at Stripe with over a decade of experience in tech.
Abhinay Seella
Senior Software Engineer/Lead at Roku, with 19 years of experience and has served as judge in other hackathons.
Vennela Subramanyam
Product Manager at Google.
Sujit Singh
Software Engineer at Google with over 7 years of experience in AI, Machine Learning, Web, and Android development.
Sanjoy Mukherjee
Principal Architect (Associate Director) at Cognizant with over 20 years of leadership experience in the Life Sciences and CRM technology landscape.
Misba Khair
Oracle HCM Solutions Architect with over 10 years of experience and a BCS and IEEE Senior Member.
Pranitha Ramaswamy
Aspiring Cybersecurity Engineer, former intern at ALEgION
Neville Mehta
Staff software engineer at Samsung Ads.
Judging Criteria
-
Creativity / Innovation
How unique the idea is, how much thought went into it. -
Execution
How well the program works (points could be lost if there are visible errors, or breaks often) -
Functionality
How functional is the program, does it achieve its goal? -
Impact / Potential
How impactful could the project potentially be, if launched fully. -
Presentation / Pitch
How well the project was put on display, and described.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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