Rahul Sonwalkar

Rahul Sonwalkar | Engineer & Product
Software Engineering Intern @ Rechat.com President @ HackersUTD
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Hacking into Hackathons

This is unethical. Although I have never used this to get myself into hackathons, I have “recommended” it to friends who really wanted to attend certain hackathons, but couldn’t get accepted to them.

Use it at your own risk.

How it works

Once hackathons send out an acceptance, it contains a link to an RSVP form.

This link is usually a Typeform link. If it isn’t, then you are out of luck.

These are automated emails and once you fill this form out, your details are entered into a sheet of 100s of hackers who will be attending that hackathon.

The trick:

  1. Find someone who has an acceptance.
  2. Manipulate the link and change it to your email.
  3. Refresh the page
  4. Fill out the RSVP form (generic details like diet restrictions etc)
  5. Ta-da!!

Bonus: Once you are on the RSVPed list, you will be receiving emails leading up to the hackathon. These are just simple reminders to attend the event or info about parking etc. These emails can be used as proofs to attend hackathons.

  1. HackHarvard 2017 @ Harvard University

https://hackharvard.typeform.com/to/y0TamK?name=Jon&email=jon_snow@gmail.com&lname=Snow

  1. HackRice 2017 @ Rice University

https://hackrice.typeform.com/to/Q6Knsh?email=jon_snow@gmail.com

  1. HackNAU 2017 @ Northern American University

https://hacknau.typeform.com/to/Zm5tsk

What can Hackathons organizers do?