BlackBox 2026: Debuggathon
Hosted on UnstopFetched 18 days ago
Saturday, January 31, 2026
to Friday, February 13, 2026
•
2 weeks long
Web DevelopmentProgrammingUndergraduateEngineering StudentsCommunity
Student only
This hackathons is only open to students. Double check the event page for more information as this may mean only those from a particular university/country are eligible.
Event Type
in person
198
Participants
₹15,000
Prize Pool
17
Est. Projects
Organizers
Nexus ‘26 is a multi-day event organized by Digital VJTI, comprising technical competitions, creative challenges, workshops, and interactive activities. The event provides students with a platform to apply their technical knowledge, explore digital creativity, and engage in collaborative learning.
Step into the electrifying world of Digital VJTI as we present the ultimate showdown: BlackBox The Debuggathon!
BlackBox Debuggathon is a unique problem-solving challenge that simulates real-world debugging scenarios faced by software engineers. Participants are given access to a live, production-like web application with hidden bug but without direct visibility into its source code. The task is to analyze system behavior, identify root causes, and resolve issues using logical reasoning, documentation, and systematic debugging approaches. Rather than testing speed or memorized solutions, BlackBox rewards analytical thinking, architectural understanding, and teamwork, making it an ideal platform for students to experience how debugging works in large-scale, unfamiliar systems under real constraints.
Format:
BlackBox Debuggathon challenges participants to debug a real, production-like web application without direct access to its source code, mirroring how engineers work with large and unfamiliar systems.
The competition emphasizes root-cause analysis, system thinking, and architectural understanding over speed or rote coding, encouraging participants to reason about behavior before touching code.
You must strategically navigate a complex, interconnected codebase by forming hypotheses, narrowing down faulty components, and making informed decisions under constraints.
Guidelines:
Team Size: Max 2 members
The team with the most points at the end of the competition will be declared as the winner.
Scoring and winner selection will be based on the number and difficulty of bugs successfully identified and resolved by a team, along with the time taken in doing so.
Inter-college teams are NOT ALLOWED
Duration of the competition will be 2 hours at max
Inter-specialization or inter-branch teams are allowed
Rules:
Use of any AI tools, AI IDEs, chatbots is strictly prohibited. All the required documentations will be provided to the teams.
Sharing of solutions between teams is strictly prohibited. Each team must independently solve the challenges without external assistance.
Contestants have to be present offline for the challenge.
Denial-of-Service (DoS/DDoS) attacks against the competition infrastructure or servers are strictly prohibited.
Source codes, write-ups, or solutions must remain private for the duration of the contest.
Any violation of the above rules will lead to immediate disqualification.
The decision of the event managers shall be final and binding.
Duration:
The competition would be held offline within VJTI college.
Event Date: 13th February 2026 (Friday)
Timings will be from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM