DevFusion: The Developer Hackathon

DevFusion: The Developer Hackathon Rules & Guidelines Read carefully before registering. Participation implies full acceptance of all rules listed below. 1. Eligibility Open to students. No upper age limit. Participants can register as an team of 2 or up to 4 members. Each member must have a separate Unstop account. A participant cannot be part of more than one team. Registering with multiple accounts or teams leads to immediate disqualification. All team members must be registered on Unstop before the registration deadline. Late additions will not be accepted. Participants from any college, university, or coding background are welcome — there is no minimum CGPA or degree requirement. 2. Registration Rules Registration is completely free of cost and must be completed via the official Unstop listing only. Registrations through any other channel will not be accepted. Fill out the screening form honestly and completely. Misleading or incomplete submissions will be filtered out at Round 1 itself. A valid portfolio link, GitHub profile, or past project URL must be provided during registration. Blank entries will be rejected. Do not use fake or borrowed profiles. All submissions will be cross-verified during the code review round. Registrations close on the deadline date. No extensions will be made under any circumstances. 3. Participation & Conduct Rules What you should do: Work only within your registered team. No external help is allowed. Use any open-source libraries, frameworks, or UI kits freely. Deploy your solution on a public URL before submitting. Commit your code regularly — git history will be reviewed by judges. Document your project clearly in the README file. Be respectful and professional toward all participants, judges, and organizers. Reach out to organizers only through the official Unstop messaging system for any clarifications. What you must not do: Take help from anyone outside your registered team during the hackathon window. Submit work that was built before the hackathon officially started. Use paid third-party code or assets without proper disclosure in your README. Copy or plagiarise another team's solution, idea, or codebase. Use AI tools to generate your entire codebase without any original contribution. Share your solution or the problem statement publicly before results are announced. Harass, bully, or disrespect any participant, judge, or organizer in any manner. AI Tools Policy: Using AI tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or similar for assistance is permitted. However, the core logic, architecture, and implementation must be your own original work. Submissions that appear to be entirely AI-generated with no individual thought or structure will be penalised or disqualified at the judges' discretion. 4. Build Rules (Round 4 — Main Hackathon) The problem statement will be revealed only at the official start time of Round 4. Building before the problem is released is strictly not allowed. You may use any web technology, framework, or programming language — React, Vue, Next.js, Angular, Node.js, Django, Firebase, Supabase, or anything else you are comfortable with. Open-source libraries, UI component kits, and design templates are allowed as building blocks. You must mention what you have used in your README. Pre-built projects, clones, or work started before the hackathon window are strictly not allowed. Judges will check commit timestamps and history. The solution must be deployed and accessible via a public URL at the time of submission. Vercel, Netlify, Render, Railway, or any other hosting platform is accepted. Your GitHub repository must be set to public at the time of submission. Private repositories will not be reviewed. No submission deadline extensions will be granted under any circumstances. Late submissions will be automatically rejected by the system. 5. Submission Guidelines Every submission must include all of the following. Incomplete submissions will not be evaluated. Live Deployed URL — A public link where judges can access and fully test your working application. The link must remain functional throughout the evaluation period. GitHub Repository Link — Public repo with full source code and a meaningful commit history. A single "initial commit" dumping all code at once will raise serious flags. Demo Video (3–5 minutes) — A screen recording walking through your solution, covering the features built, the tech choices made, and what you would improve given more time. Upload to YouTube (unlisted) or Google Drive and paste the link in your submission. README File — Must include a project overview, tech stack used, local setup instructions, list of features built, and any known limitations or future scope. Short Write-up (via Unstop submission form) — A 100–200 word description of your approach, the biggest challenge you faced, and what you are most proud of in your submission. ️ Important: Double-check that all your links are working and publicly accessible before hitting submit. Broken links or private repositories will be treated as incomplete and will not be re-evaluated after the deadline. 6. Code of Conduct Treat all participants, judges, and organizers with respect and professionalism throughout the event. Harassment, bullying, hate speech, or discriminatory behaviour of any kind will result in immediate disqualification and a permanent ban from future events. Sharing your solution or discussing the problem statement publicly on social media, Discord, WhatsApp groups, or any public forum before results are announced is strictly prohibited. Any attempt to bribe, influence, or contact judges directly outside official channels will lead to immediate disqualification. All disputes, concerns, or complaints must be reported to the organizers via the official Unstop messaging system only. 7. Judging & Results All submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Their decisions are final and binding. Individual scoring breakdowns will not be shared. Projects are evaluated across six criteria: Code Quality — 25 points Functionality — 25 points UI / UX Design — 20 points Tech Stack Choices — 15 points Documentation & README — 10 points Demo Video & Presentation — 5 points The top 10 teams from Round 4 will be invited for a 15–20 minute code review call with the judges. Availability for this call is mandatory to be eligible for prizes and final ranking. Results are not negotiable. Requests for re-evaluation, score breakdowns, or personal feedback will not be entertained after the announcement. Results will be declared on Unstop and communicated via email within 5 business days of the final round. Grounds for Immediate Disqualification: Plagiarism or submitting pre-built work Using fake or borrowed profiles Registering with multiple accounts or across multiple teams Sharing the problem statement publicly before results Misconduct or disrespectful behaviour toward any stakeholder Failure to appear for the Round 5 code review call without prior notice 8. Intellectual Property You retain full ownership of all code and ideas you create during DevFusion. The organizers claim no ownership over participant work. By submitting, you grant the organizers the right to showcase your project — with full credit to your team — on our website, social media, or other promotional materials. If you use any third-party assets, templates, or open-source code, ensure they are properly licensed and credited in your README file. 9. General Terms The organizers reserve the right to modify these rules at any time. Registered participants will be notified of any significant changes via email and the Unstop platform. Continued participation after any rule update implies full acceptance of the revised guidelines. In case of any ambiguity or dispute, the organizers' interpretation of the rules will be considered final. DevFusion is a completely online event. Participants are responsible for their own internet connectivity and device setup.