About the challenge

Hacktoberfest Hack Day Dhaka is a free, one-day, in-person mini-hackathon on Saturday, October 18, 2026 at EMK Center, Dhaka, run as part of Hacktoberfest with Major League Hacking (MLH)'s Hack Days program.

Hacktoberfest is DigitalOcean's annual month-long celebration of open source. This year's Hacktoberfest Fests focus on learning, experimenting and building with open-source and open-weight AI technology. During the Hack Day you'll team up (or go solo), build a project using open-source AI tools or open-weight models, and demo it for a chance to win prizes.

Who it's for: students in Bangladesh aged 16+, from beginners making their first open-source contribution to experienced builders. This is a solo event, so each participant builds and submits their own project.

Format & schedule

  • Submissions open: Oct 18, 10:00
  • Submissions close: Oct 18, 16:00
  • Judging: Oct 18, 16:00 to 17:00
  • Late submissions: accepted, and reviewed after the hackathon ends while participants are presenting
  • Detailed agenda (check-in, opening, workshops, meals, demos, closing): [TBD: schedule]

Get started

  1. Register for the hackathon here on Devpost.
  2. Learn about Hacktoberfest at hacktoberfest.com.
  3. Read the MLH Code of Conduct.
  4. Show up at EMK Center on Oct 18 ready to build!

About the organizers

Hacktoberfest Hack Day Dhaka is organized by UniDevs and supported by Machine Learning Bangladesh and EMK Center. DigitalOcean is the presenting partner, and the event is powered by MLH and DEV.

Requirements

What to Build

Build a working project during the event (Oct 18, 2026, 10:00 to 16:00) using open-source AI tools or open-weight models.

What to Submit

  • A link to a public GitHub repository containing your project's code
  • A short demo video or screenshots showing your project in action
  • A text description of what your project does, how you built it and which open-source tools/models you used
  • Each participant must be registered on Devpost and added to the submission

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

1 non-cash prize
Best Open-Source AI Project
4 winners

25$ Visa Gift Card

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Shahriar

Shahriar
Organizer, Machine Learning Bangladesh

Judging Criteria

  • Innovation (20%)
    Is the idea new, or does it take a fresh angle on a known problem?
  • Open Source & Model Use (30%)
    Does the project make meaningful use of open-source code or AI models, and is the work shared openly in the spirit of Hacktoberfest?
  • Social Impact (20%)
    Does it address a real need for people in Bangladesh or beyond?
  • Creativity (15%)
    Is the approach clever, original, and well thought out?
  • Design & Usability (15%)
    Is it clean, simple, and easy for a new user to try?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Invite others to compete

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.