Quickstart: Set Up Your First Hackathon

Create your account

Go to hackhq.io and click Get Started. You can sign up with your email or Google account.

Create an event

After signing up, click Create event. You'll see a step-by-step wizard to set up your event.

Fill in the basics:

• Event name: The name participants will see (e.g., "Spring Hackathon 2026")
• Workspace name: Your team's home on HackHQ where all your events live. Name it after your organization (e.g., "Acme Corp" or "CS Club"). This only appears for your first event.
• Start and end dates: When your event runs
• Location (optional): Physical venue or "Virtual"

Set up competitions and prizes

After filling in your event details, click Next: Competitions & Prizes. This is where you define what participants are competing for and the awards they can win.

HackHQ has three competition types. Choosing the right one depends on how you want your event structured:

• Overall: Every submission is automatically entered. Use this for your main prize, like "Grand Prize" or "Best Overall". Most events have at least one Overall competition.
• Track: Use tracks when you want participants to choose a single category for their project. Tracks are mutually exclusive: each team picks one and competes only within that group. For example, if your hackathon has "Best Mobile App", "Best Hardware Hack", and "Best Web App" as tracks, each team commits to one.
• Challenge: Use challenges when you want to offer prizes that any team can go for, regardless of their track. Challenges are non-exclusive: a single project can enter as many as it qualifies for. These work well for sponsor prizes or skill-based awards like "Best Use of AI" or "Best Design".

Each competition comes with awards (1st Place, 2nd Place, etc.) that you can customize. You can optionally add prize money and item prizes for each award. Click Add Competition to create additional competitions, and Add Award within each one to add more placement levels.

When you're ready, click Create Event. Your event is created instantly and you'll land on the Event Page tab where you can preview what participants will see and continue setting up your event.

Set up submissions

Click the Submissions tab to configure your submission form.

Every event comes with three default URL fields: Demo Link, GitHub Link, and Live Website. These cover the most common links participants share. You can remove any you don't need, or add your own custom questions using Add Question.

When participants paste a URL into a submission field, HackHQ automatically detects and embeds content from YouTube, Loom, and GitHub. For example, a YouTube demo video will render as an embedded player directly on the submission page.

You can also configure:

• Custom questions: Text fields, dropdowns, choice fields, or additional URL fields
• Deadline: Set when submissions close. Participants see the deadline date on the form.

Core fields like project name, description, team members, and any tracks or challenges you've created are always included automatically.

Configure judging criteria

Click the Voting tab to define how submissions are scored. HackHQ supports two voting methods:

Score Criteria

The default method. Judges score each submission on criteria you define (e.g., Innovation, Technical Execution). Every event starts with a single Overall Score criterion. You can keep it simple or click Add Criterion to break scoring into multiple dimensions. Each criterion has a name, description (guidelines for judges), and a weight that controls how much it counts toward the final score. Weights are percentages and must total 100%.

A common setup for hackathons:

By default, criteria apply to all submissions. But if you have tracks or challenges with different goals, you can add criteria that only apply to a specific competition.

Top Picks

A simpler alternative where judges pick and rank their favorite submissions instead of scoring criteria. You configure how many picks each judge gets (default is 3). This works well for smaller events or when you don't need detailed score calibration across judges.

Add judges and audience voting

Scroll down on the Voting tab to find two voting sections: Audience Voting and Judge Voting.

Audience voting

Audience voting lets anyone with the link vote on submissions. Share the Audience Voting Link with participants and spectators. No account needed. This is great for "People's Choice" awards or community engagement.

Judge voting

Click Add Judge and enter each judge's name and email. HackHQ gives every judge a unique voting link. You can:

• Copy links to share them manually
• Invite all to send email invitations with one click
• Invite individually from each judge's card

Judges don't need a HackHQ account. They click their link, see the submissions assigned to them, and start scoring.

You can also control how submissions are distributed to judges using assignment modes:

• All judges: Everyone reviews every submission
• Per judge: Assign specific submissions to each judge
• Rooms: Organize judges and submissions into parallel judging rooms

Share your event

Your event is ready. Click Event Links in the top-right corner to find the links you need:

• Event Page: Your event's central hub where participants find all the information about the hackathon: schedule, prizes, where to submit, and more. Share this privately with your participants. Remember, it's an unlisted link, so only people you share it with can access it.
• Submission Form: A direct link to the submission form. Share this with participants when it's time to submit.

After the event, you can also share the event page more broadly to showcase the project gallery.