What Your Participants See

Understand the participant experience on HackHQ. What happens after they submit, the emails they receive, their project page, and how to support them.

As an organizer, understanding what your participants see helps you support them and communicate effectively. This page walks through the full participant journey so you know exactly what happens at each step.

Participants never need a HackHQ account. Everything works through the links you share and the emails they receive automatically.

Emails participants receive

HackHQ sends two automated emails to participants throughout the event lifecycle:

Email	When it's sent	What it contains
Submission confirmation	Immediately after submitting	A link to their private project page where they can view, edit, and share their submission
Results notification	The first time you publish results	A notification that results are live, with a link to their project page where they can see awards and access certificates

Both emails come from HackHQ and include a direct link to the participant's private manage page. If a participant says they can't find their email, ask them to check their spam or junk folder.

You can access any participant's project page from the Submissions tab. Click a submission, then click Manage submission to open their page. From there, you can copy the link and share it with them directly.

After submitting a project

When a participant submits through your submission form, they land on a confirmation page and receive the submission confirmation email.

The email links to their manage page, a private page where they can:

View their full submission (description, custom fields, team members)
Edit their submission while submissions are still open
See which competitions they entered
Share a read-only version of their project externally

Every submission has two versions:

Manage page (private): The link from the confirmation email. This is for the submitter and their team. It shows everything, including email addresses, edit controls, and (after results) certificates.

Share page (public): A read-only version safe to share with anyone. It hides email addresses, edit controls, and certificates. Participants can copy this link from their manage page using the Share Externally button.

Editing submissions

Participants can edit their submission at any time while submissions are open. They visit their manage page and click Edit Submission. Once you close submissions or the deadline passes, editing is locked and the button disappears.

If a participant needs to make a late edit, you can use Edit as Organizer from the submission's manage page. This bypasses the deadline and lets you (or the participant, if you share the link) make changes at any time.

During voting

If you share an audience voting link with participants, they'll see a voting dashboard where they can browse all submissions and cast their votes.

The voting experience depends on the voting method you chose:

Score Criteria: Participants score each submission on the criteria you defined, using sliders
Top Picks: Participants pick and rank their favorite submissions

Progress saves automatically, so participants can close the browser and come back later. Their votes are private and only visible to you as the organizer.

After results are published

When you publish results, participants receive the results notification email. On their project page, they'll now see:

Award badges if their project won any prizes (gold for 1st, silver for 2nd, bronze for 3rd)
Certificates for every team member, with buttons to add to LinkedIn and view verification pages

See After the Event for a detailed breakdown of certificates, the project gallery, and tips for communicating results to your participants.

Helping participants

Common questions participants ask and how to handle them:

Question	How to help
"I can't find my submission email"	Open the Submissions tab, click their submission, then Manage submission. Copy the manage page URL and send it to them.
"I need to edit but submissions are closed"	Open their manage page and use Edit as Organizer to make changes, or reopen submissions temporarily.
"Where are my certificates?"	Certificates appear after you publish results. If you haven't published yet, let them know. If you have, send them the link to their manage page.
"My team member isn't on the submission"	The team lead can edit the submission (while open) to add members. Or use Edit as Organizer to add them after the deadline.
"I shared my manage link by mistake"	The manage link gives edit access. If this is a concern, they should use the Share Externally button for a read-only link instead.