I got hooked to hackathons recently(most notably on the winning team of the startup bus and on stage after the chirp hackathon). Here's my advice: 50% is Smoke

I got hooked to hackathons recently(most notably on the winning team of the startup bus and on stage after the chirp hackathon). Here's my advice: 50% is Smoke and Mirrors. Usually you wont be able to release an actual product in two days. You will be able to release something that's ingenious, adds value for some people, looks enough like a product and is packaged so that people will try it and give you feedback. On coding: Don't write tests, don't review code and just go for it, be super productive. Don't pair program (unless your goal is to solve some very difficult problems in two days. In that case: good luck). Finally, you'll be surprised how much can actually be achieved in two days :)