May 5,6,7 | Chennai

Fight mediocrity. Help us save the hacker in you.

Join us for Chennai’s biggest hackathon

REGISTER NOW

About Save The Hacker

Save the Hacker, an initiative by Freshdesk, was launched in 2014, to promote and encourage developers from around the country to learn, build and deploy the coolest apps with the latest trends in technology. With this initiative, we set out on a mission to save smart programmers from dead-end jobs by inviting them to Save the Hacker — a two-day hackathon that went on to change their lives.

Read more

This year, we’re back, but with a necessary distinguisher. We envision our participating teams to be championed by women leaders.

Build and Win

Save the Hacker is an initiative designed to translate ideas into products. Form teams, brainstorm and send over your ideas to us. Based on the innovation, technical challenge, and feasibility of the idea, our in-house technical panel will shortlist teams to be invited to the hackathon. The teams participating stand a chance to win some cool prizes, and build something to solve some of the real world problems faced by us today!

Your team will be eligible for the Hasura track if you use the Hasura data & auth APIs and deploy your app instantly using the Hasura platform. The completeness of the app will be judged by how production-ready it is. Apps can be web or mobile, and will have to be built on Hasura to qualify for the prize.

For the SPI Cinemas track: At SPI Cinemas, we believe in bringing people together to enjoy the ultimate entertainment experience. We urge our customers to demand more from entertainment and we will work together to deliver a 360° entertainment experience like no other. Within our stunning environments, we continually strive to bring our customers the latest innovations in sound and vision, adrenalin-rush gaming, delicious dining or pure relaxation in our spa. We translate these beliefs into Our Vision - To wow our customers with unrivalled entertainment. It's in our DNA

Now, we invite you to reinvent your movie going experience from the time you think of cinema till you exit. If your team has a breakthrough idea that can radically transform any experiences in your journey as a customer or engineer unique experiences for innovative needs, then you are in!

We ask for you to imagine, design and prototype ideas using disruptive technologies that will break the convention, reach for completely new ways of serving you, our customer and realize the future of SPI Cinemas.

1st Prize

₹ 2,00,000 cash prize for the team

  • Misfit Shine 2

    for all 4 participants

2nd Prize

₹ 1,00,000 cash prize for the team

  • Misfit Shine 2

    for all 4 participants

Fan Favourite Team

Special prize sponsored by Mach City for the team that's adjudged the best among whose apps have been voted as fan favourites.

The Aspirants

Special prize sponsored by SPI Cinemas for the team that builds the best solution to the problem statement mentioned above.

Best Student Team

Special prize sponsored by Startup Village for the best app built by a team which consists of all student team members.

Most Complete App

Programmer swag box and Hasura credits worth $1200 for a year sponsored by Hasura.io for the most 'complete' app, as judged by the panel.

Rules and FAQs

All teams must include at least one female team member

  1. A team can consist of up to four people. You can choose to go solo, but you will be pitted against teams of four, so that's up to you.

  2. You can choose to build a Web app or a Mobile app - but please let us know which. This is to ensure that we judge your app against other apps of the same category to be fair to everyone.

  3. We expect all teams to start building their app on the day of the hackathon. We hope that you respect the idea behind the event and do not use anything that you've already started working on - or reuse anything that's been built by you before.

  4. Towards the end of the hackathon, you will be asked to present your app to a panel. Post the panel review, the top teams will get to present their ideas and demo their apps on stage.

  5. The jury will evaluate the teams that present on stage based on the originality of the idea, the completeness of the product, and the tech implementation that went into the app.

Got more questions? Check FAQs

  • Is this hackathon open to everyone?

    Yes, it's open to everyone. The only catch is that you must have a woman in your team.

  • How do you shortlist teams for the hackathon?

    Please be as descriptive as possible about your idea when you register. We will shortlist based on the feasibility of your proposed solution.

  • What if I need a break during the hackathon?

    We’ve got nap rooms if you are feeling really sleepy, and we’ll also be arranging beds for the night. On the other hand, if you just need to refresh yourself, we’ve got foosball, table tennis, mini-golf, an indoor game room for cricket, football and basketball, an in-house gymnasium and even rock climbing to help you get back up to speed.

  • Can I build anything I want?

    Yes. Save the Hacker is a completely open hackathon and we are okay with letting you build anything you want, as long as you stick to either a web app or a mobile app. We look forward to seeing teams tackling a wide range of problems and coming up with interesting solutions.

  • Can I build both a web and a mobile app?

    We don't want to restrict you building ONLY a web app or a mobile app. But, in the best interests of both participants and the organizers, we will let you decide before you begin - Web, Mobile or both. This will help us in pitting mobile apps against other mobile apps and web apps against other web apps. We would recommend you build just one as opposed to multiple, since it will be easier for you to finish. That said, if you do want to go for the overall experience, feel free to build multiple apps, and we'll give you more points accordingly.

  • Can I use any existing libraries?

    Yes, you can. You are free to install any libraries, frameworks or gems you need for your project and we are totally cool with you using the internet for guidance. This is a hackathon after all, and if you can do a better job by using the right tools, then we are all for it. We also advise you to get everything set up before you arrive so that you won’t lose time on getting ready. However, all said and done, we don’t want you to have started your project before the event. During the review, if we find out that you have used something you built already, your team will be disqualified.

  • Should we bring our own laptops and devices?

    Yes, please. We’ll be providing you with everything else you need for the hackathon - WiFi, food, shelter and even mentorship.

  • Who owns the code for the apps built during the hackathon?

    You do. And you get to do anything you want with it - make it open source, keep it private. If you end up creating a company out of your project from Save the Hacker, we'd be the happiest to know and support you.

  • What will be the judging criteria for the final round?

    We’ll be evaluating teams based on the originality of their idea, the completeness of their project, and the technical challenge that went into building the app. Winners will be announced after the final demos.

  • What about the food?

    We will provide food, beverages and snacks round the clock. You are also welcome to take a break and go to SP Infocity's food court at your convenience.

  • What if I have other questions?

    Send us an email at rescue@savethehacker.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Register

Registrations for Save The Hacker are closed for this year. See you next year!

Agenda

Friday

3:00 PM

Reporting time

3:15 PM

Welcome address

3.30 PM

Keynote speech

4:10 PM

Panel discussion - The bro culture in the tech ecosystem

5:00 PM

Panel discussion - Rising from the challenges

6:00 PM

Networking and high tea

8:00 PM

Hackthon instructions and general announcements

9:00 PM

Hackathon commences

​

Saturday

Hackathon continues

Sunday

9:00 AM

Hackathon ends: code freeze

9:30 AM

Panel review begins

1:00 PM

Panel review ends

2:00 PM

Demos begin

5:30 PM

Prize ceremony

6:00 PM

Networking and high tea

​

Venue

A shout out to our awesome partners

A hackathon event by

Spread the word