The Setup

Every year, the week before Christmas, our company does something I had heard a lot about — but never experienced until now: Hackathon Week.

I wasn’t here last year. I got hired in January, which meant I completely missed the previous December hackathon. So walking into this week? This was my first one.

No Jira alerts. No platform fires (hopefully). No day-to-day grind. Just a full week where engineers can work on whatever they want.

For a platform team, this is a massive change of pace. Instead of maintaining systems and handling the unglamorous but necessary work, we get to build something fun — something creative — something a little unhinged.

I was immediately all in.

The Idea

The concept started simple and escalated very quickly.

A TikTok-style feed — but inside our platform, and built specifically for education. Short-form learning. Scrollable videos. Bite-sized knowledge.

Then we added AI-generated educational videos. Because of course we did.

Then we decided to bring a video editor directly into the platform.

All within a week.

No pressure.

The Team

One of the coolest parts of this being my first hackathon is getting to work with engineers outside of my normal team.

I’m collaborating with people I don’t usually work with — including some seriously talented, higher-up engineers. It’s been an incredible opportunity to learn, observe, and contribute in a totally different environment.

It’s also been a real-time check on my own growth: how I communicate technical ideas, how quickly I can ramp up, and how confident I feel contributing in a room full of smart people.

And honestly? I feel like I belong.

The Momentum

We’ve made a wild amount of progress in just two days.

Things get explained once — and I pick them up. I’m able to make decisions when asked what I think. I’ve even had moments where I got to explain technical concepts that other engineers hadn’t heard of before.

That kind of moment hits differently — especially during your first hackathon.

We’re moving fast, collaborating within the team, pulling in other teams when needed, and constantly building on each other’s ideas. The feedback loop is tight. The execution is fast.

The Vibes

There’s something special about building without the usual constraints.

No overthinking. No endless refinement. Just shipping ideas, testing assumptions, and seeing how far you can push something in a short amount of time.

Add in a little competition — since the winning team gets a prize and eternal bragging rights — and suddenly everyone’s firing on all cylinders.

The vibes are genuinely great: motivated, collaborative, supportive, and just competitive enough.

The Takeaway

For my first hackathon, this experience has been a massive confidence boost.

It’s a reminder that growth doesn’t always come from grinding harder — sometimes it comes from changing the environment. From building something new. From working with new people. From giving yourself permission to experiment.

Two days in, and I’m already proud of what we’ve built. No matter how it ends, this week has reminded me why I love engineering in the first place.

Now let’s see if we can take the whole thing home.