The Maximally Grand Indian Hackathon Season (GIHS) is India’s first hackathon league — a three-month sprint running from September to November 2025 with 8 unique hackathons back-to-back.
Each hackathon has its own awards, certificates, and shoutouts, but together they build into something larger: an ever-expanding prize pool (currently ₹17,00,000+) distributed at the Grand Indian Hackathon Ceremony in November.
Why we run it this way:
-
Hackathons aren’t one-off contests — they’re cultural moments.
-
A league system rewards consistency, not just a single win.
-
The season grows with its community: more builders, more partners, more chaos.
-
We keep it open to everyone — coders, no-coders, beginners, and indie makers alike.
This is not just a hackathon. It’s a season of experiments, chaos, and community.
This hackathon is part of the Grand Indian Hackathon Season (GIHS) — a three-month sprint featuring 8 unique hackathons.
All prizes feed into an ever-expanding season-wide prize pool, currently at ₹17,00,000. Each hackathon has its own winners and shoutouts, but the bigger rewards are revealed at the Grand Indian Hackathon Ceremony in November, where the best projects from across all events are celebrated together.
Because the prize pool grows as we bring in more partners, sponsors, and communities, we encourage participants to join the Discord server for the latest updates on prizes, collabs, and surprise drops throughout the season.
Requirements
Submission guidelines vary by hackathon. Please check the respective Devpost page for the exact requirements of each event.
In general, expect to provide:
-
A working project link (GitHub, Notion, Figma, Webflow, Replit, etc.)
-
A short write-up explaining your idea and how you built it
-
(Optional) A short demo or pitch video
Note: Some hackathons (e.g., Steal-A-Thon, PromptStorm) may ask for specific extras like original links or prompt logs.
Prizes
Code Hypothesis Awards
Code Hypothesis offers 2 cash awards, plus 5 recognition awards offering tech credits.
All winners receive official Maximally certificates, shoutouts across our platforms, and optional Letters of Recommendation (LORs). Cash winners also receive direct payouts.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
Protocol 404 Awards
Protocol 404 features 2 cash awards and 5 recognition awards offering tech credits.
Prizes include certificates, Maximally-wide shoutouts, zine features, Discord badges, and LORs on request.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
Project CodeGen Awards
Project CodeGen celebrates playful builders with 2 cash awards plus 5 recognition awards (non cash awards).
All prizes come with Maximally certificates, social shoutouts, features, and LORs on request.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
Maximally Hacktober Awards
Hacktober runs all month and offers 2 cash awards and 5 recognition awards(non-cash awards)
Prizes include cash, Maximally recognition, social spotlights, zine features, and LORs.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
PromptStorm Awards
PromptStorm is a 24-hour AI hackathon with 2 cash awards and 5 recognition awards(offering tech credits).
Winners gain cash, Maximally certificates, Discord recognition, zine features, and optional LORs.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
Steal-A-Thon Awards
Steal-A-Thon bans original ideas. It has 2 cash awards and 5 recognition awards(offering tech credits).
All winners get Maximally certificates, features, Discord badges, and LORs on request.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
Codepocalypse Awards
Codepocalypse thrives on chaos, with 2 cash awards and 5 recognition awards(offering tech credits).
Prizes include cash, Maximally certificates, social features, and LORs.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
Grand Tech Assembly Awards
Grand Tech Assembly is a GTA-styled jam with 2 cash awards and 5 recognition awards (offering tech credits).
All awards come with Maximally certificates, social shoutouts, zine features, and optional LORs.
Cash value of 2,00,000 is compromised of cash + tech credits.
Community & Discord Awards
Beyond hackathon submissions, we’ll run Discord-exclusive awards across the season — like Most Active Hacker, Funniest Demo, Best Chaos Log, and Community Choice. These recognitions bring extra certificates, Discord badges, shoutouts, and social features.
Ever-Expanding Season Prize Pool
The Grand Indian Hackathon Season works differently. Each hackathon adds to an ever-expanding prize pool and growing with new partners and sponsors. Larger pooled prizes will be revealed and distributed during the Grand Indian Hackathon Ceremony in November. For live updates and surprise drops, join the Discord server.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Looking for Judges!
want to be a judge? email judges@maximally.in
Sergey Polyashov
Principle Software Engineering Manager @Microsoft
Vishal Padh
Senior Software Architect
Vikranth Kumar Shivaa
Founding Engineer @ Fig
Nikita klimov
Sr. Software QA Engineer contractor at ADP, Inc.
Shreesh Agarwal
Sr Business Analyst, McKinsey and Company
Rakesh Pullayikodi
Staff Software Engineer @Palo Alto Networks
Raja Sekhar Rai Dheekonda
Distinguished Engineer @Dreadnode
Tanmay Kejriwal
Founder @ MakeX
Sahil Deshpande
Software Engineer @ Meta
Ashwini Joshi
Senior Machine Learning engineer @Warner Bros. Discovery
Senthilkumaran Rajagopalan
Tech Lead Manager, Video Recommendations, Meta
Prateek Batla
Product Manager at Meta
Venkataram Poosapati
Senior Data Engineer, Atlassian
Ruslan Ibrahimov
Senior Software Engineer at VoiceLove
Bohdan Churik
Software Engineer at VoiceLove
Jay rungta
Engineering Manager @ Google
Ashish Singh
Sr. IT Architect @ Global Payments
Sai Charan Reddy Nevuri
Software Engineer @ AWS
Pablo Rios
Software Engineer @ Metal
Abhishek Shrivastava
Senior Staff Software Engineer @ Google
Yogiraj Awati
Engineering Manager@Instacart
Krishna Arjun Saravanan
Senior Software Engineer @ Bloomberg
Abhinay Kumar Reddy Seella
Sr Software Engineer @ Roku
Jay Bharat Mehta
Senior Software Engineer @ Snowflake
Yahor Barkouski
Engineering Lead @ The Network
Alexandr Dergunov
Software Engineer @Meta
Anastasia Glavatchi
Head of Marketing
Aleksandr Ruban
Marketing Expert in the Game Industry
Assiya Jaisheva
Design Lead
Aleksandr Karavanin
Production Engineer at Meta
Oleg Skliarenko
Co-founder, Chief Product Officer at DRCT
Dmitry Bobolev
Founder of Froxy Labs
Sumit Saha
Software Engineer at Microsoft
Puneet Ramaul
Senior Sales Director at HCLTech
Akash Jindal
Product Owner at Llyods Banking Group
Karthikeyan Sundaram
Backend Software Engineer at WithU
Anil Kumar
Software Engineer at Paua
Arvind K Gautam
ASEAN Lead at Avaya
Judging Criteria
-
Can chaos become clarity? (Code Hypothesis)
Did you actually test a bold hypothesis? Success or failure doesn’t matter — clarity of experiment and the courage to ship do. -
Can a system stay broken and still work? (Protocol 404)
We reward projects that thrive in glitches, crashes, and messy hacks. Survival in chaos matters more than polish. -
Can play be productive? (Project CodeGen)
Joy counts. Did your build feel playful, silly, or fun while still clever? Playful logic often hides real creativity. -
Can speed spark genius? (PromptStorm)
We look for lightning-fast hacks. Clever AI use, quick iterations, or outputs that stunned us in record time. -
Can theft feel original? (Steal-A-Thon)
Remix culture matters. Did you borrow and reshape boldly enough to make the stolen feel brand new? Lazy clones lose. -
Can the end of the internet feel alive? (Codepocalypse)
Apocalypse builds are raw, cursed, or absurd. Did your project capture urgency and chaos in a way that felt unforgettable? -
Can a game become a city? (Grand Tech Assembly)
Immersion rules. Did your project feel like a world of its own — sandbox vibes, chaos, humor, or missions worth playing?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
Tell your friends
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.