Homingo Hackathon
Terms of participation
These terms apply when you register for or take part in any edition of the Homingo Hackathon. Please read them together with the rules for your edition, the code of conduct and the privacy notice. By registering, you agree to all four.
Last updated 15 October 2026
Who we are
The Homingo Hackathon is a national-scale, fully online AI Engineering hackathon series. It is organised as part of the Homingo family, alongside Homingo and Homingo Stores, and is powered by SurgeLabs. In these terms, “we”, “us” and “the organisers” mean the team that runs the series, and “you” means anyone who registers or takes part.
Who can take part
The series is open to students and early-career developers based in India. The rules for each edition may add details about who it is designed for. Mentors, judges and members of the organising team can’t compete for prizes in an edition they help run.
If you’re under 18
You can take part if you’re under 18, but you need the verifiable consent of a parent or legal guardian first. Make sure they have read these terms and the privacy notice, and agree to them, before you register. We may contact you or them to verify that consent, and we may pause or cancel a registration until it is verified. If you win, we may pay your share of a prize through your parent or guardian.
Registering
Register using the form on this website. Give accurate, complete and current details, and keep them up to date. You can change your details or track until kick-off by writing to official@homingo.co.in from the email address you registered with. We may cancel a registration that is false, incomplete or made for someone else without their agreement.
One registration per person
Each person can register once per edition and be in one team. We may merge or remove duplicate registrations. Registering more than once to gain an advantage leads to disqualification.
Teams
Take part solo or in a team of 2–4, so every team has between 1 and 4 members. Everyone registers individually, then either creates a team and shares its code, or joins a team with a code someone shares with them. A team can add members until it has 4, until team formation closes on 18 Nov 2026, 11:59 pm IST. Once you are in a team, you cannot switch to another. A solo participant can create or join a team. Each member is responsible for the team’s submission and for following these terms.
A fully online event
Every phase runs online, from registration and kick-off to mentor check-ins, the finals and the online demo day. You need your own device, a reliable internet connection and any accounts you choose to use. Any costs you have in taking part, such as data, hardware or paid tools, are yours.
Phases and deadlines
Each edition runs in phases: registration, team formation, kick-off, the build phase, submission, shortlisting, the finals and results. The dates for each phase are on this website, and all times are Indian Standard Time (IST). Work submitted after a deadline may not be judged. Dates can change. If they do, we’ll give you notice on this website and by email.
Original work
Your project must be your team’s own work, built during the build phase of the edition you entered. The build phase starts at kick-off. You can explore ideas and plan before kick-off, but only work built during the build phase can be submitted. Submitting someone else’s work, or anything you or a teammate started building before kick-off, isn’t allowed. This doesn’t stop you using open-source libraries, public APIs, pre-trained models or AI coding tools if your edition’s rules allow them, as long as you follow those rules. It doesn’t let you use anything you or a teammate built before kick-off, even if you’ve since made it public.
Tools you can use
You can use open-source libraries, public APIs, pre-trained models and AI coding tools. List everything you used in your README, including the models and AI tools, and follow their licences and terms of use. You must understand your code and be able to explain it to the judges.
Data in your project
Use open or synthetic data: public datasets, or data you make yourselves. Never use real people’s personal data. Keep secrets such as passwords and API keys out of your repository, demo video and deck.
Your work stays yours
You and your team keep ownership of everything you create for the hackathon, including your code, designs, demo video and deck. We don’t claim any intellectual property in your project. You’re responsible for making sure you have the right to use everything in your submission. The problem statements stay ours, and you can use them to take part and to show your project afterwards. We may independently build products or features similar to your project, and that doesn’t affect your ownership of your own work.
Showcasing your work
When you submit, you give the organisers a free, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to show your name, team name, project name, demo video, deck and repository link on this website, on our social channels and in other material that presents or promotes the series. This licence continues after the edition ends. You can ask us at any time to stop using your work in new material.
Judging
A judging panel reviews every eligible submission against the published criteria, shortlists finalists and chooses the winners after the finals. Finalists present live in an online stream that anyone can watch. We may ask a team to walk us through its code before we confirm a result. Judges never assess a team they mentored. The judges’ decisions are final.
Prizes
The top 3 teams in each edition share a prize pool: the winner gets the biggest share, then the first runner-up, then the second runner-up. The prizes for each edition are described on this website. Prizes are awarded to teams, and we’ll agree how a prize is paid with each winning team. If a winning team is disqualified, we may award its place to the next eligible team.
Prize payments and taxes
Before we transfer a prize, the people receiving it need to complete identity and payment verification. Prizes are subject to applicable taxes in India, and we will deduct tax at source where the law requires it. If someone can’t complete verification within a reasonable time after we ask, we may withhold their prize.
Certificates and perks
Everyone who submits a project gets a participation certificate, and the top 3 teams also receive a Recommendation Certificate from SurgeLabs. For a team entry, every member of the team receives the participation certificate. Each certificate has a unique ID that anyone can check on our verification page. Other perks are offered as described on this website for each edition and may depend on availability and eligibility.
Mentors
Mentors are volunteers who guide teams with questions, feedback and pointers. They don’t write code, design solutions or submit work for any team, so please don’t ask them to. Mentor advice is guidance only. Your team decides what to build and is responsible for the result.
Conduct and disqualification
Everyone taking part must follow the code of conduct, in every channel and at every stage. We may warn, remove or disqualify any participant or team that breaks these terms, the rules for their edition or the code of conduct, for example through plagiarism, false details, cheating or harassment. A disqualified participant or team loses any place, prize, certificate or perk for that edition, and we may refuse their future registrations.
Limitation of liability
We work hard to run every edition well, but the hackathon and this website are provided as they are. As far as the law allows, we aren’t liable for indirect or unforeseeable losses, for problems caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as outages of the internet or third-party services, or for work you lose because you didn’t back it up. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that can’t be limited under Indian law.
Changes to the event or these terms
We may change, postpone or cancel an edition, or update these terms, if we need to, for example for reasons outside our control. We’ll give notice of important changes on this website and by email. The “last updated” date shows when these terms last changed.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of India. If a disagreement comes up, please contact us first and we’ll try to resolve it fairly.
Contact
Questions about these terms? Write to us at official@homingo.co.in.