Notes from 24-hour hackathon sprints

Hackathons reward demos, not perfection. Pick one user story that fits in 90 seconds on stage and build backward from that path.

Split roles early: one person owns the narrative and slides, one owns the happy-path integration, one keeps the dev environment stable. Rotating without roles creates thrash.

Cut scope aggressively after hour six. If a feature isn't on the demo path, it goes to the README as “future work.” Judges rarely ask about your backlog.

Integrate continuously. A ugly end-to-end flow at hour 10 beats beautiful components that don't connect at hour 23.

Sleep, hydrate, and rehearse the demo twice. Runner-up finishes often lose on presentation, not code.