Hackathon Prizes: Global Glory, Regional Highlights & Bonus Wins

With thousands of builders from around the world and over $1,000,000 in prizes, this is more than just a hackathon, it’s a global launchpad for the next generation of products, ideas, and founders. Here’s how the prizes break down:

Judging Criteria

First and foremost, remember that submissions are evaluated based on four key criteria:

• 🌍 Potential Impact
  How big of an impact could this project make? Does it solve a meaningful problem or offer viral potential?

• 💡 Quality of the Idea
  Is it creative and original? Or does something similar already exist?

• 🛠️ Technological Implementation
  How strong is the technical build? Does it use Bolt.new in novel or advanced ways?

• 🎨 Design & User Experience
  Is it beautifully designed? Is the product intuitive, polished, and well-balanced between frontend and backend?
  
  

Global Prizes

The top 10 projects across the entire hackathon will be recognized for their outstanding work across all judging criteria.

• 🥇 Grand Prize (1st Place)
  The single most exceptional project — creative, technically solid, impactful, and beautifully executed.

• 🏅 2nd–5th Place
  Projects that delivered on both vision and craft. These were powerful ideas, executed with excellence.

• 🎖️ 6th–10th Place
  Strong builds that made a mark with thoughtful UX, real-world value, and impressive storytelling.
  
  

Regional Highlights

We’re spotlighting one standout project from each region. These aren’t just local winners, they’re global contenders who crushed it on their home turf.

• 🇺🇸 AMER Winner – North, Central, or South America

• 🌏 APAC Winner – Asia-Pacific region

• 🇪🇺 EMEA Winner – Europe, Middle East, or Africa
  
  

Bonus Awards

These special categories recognize unique excellence, from inspiring stories to next-level design:

• Standout Event Hosts – Community-first IRL leaders

• Inspirational Story – Overcoming adversity or building with purpose

• One-Shot Competition – Best build from a single prompt

• Uniquely Useful Tool – “Why didn’t this exist before?” energy

• Creative Use of AI – Clever, bold, or unexpected applications

• Most Beautiful UI – A project that’s a joy to use and look at

• Most Viral Project – The one that broke the internet

• Future Unicorn – Most likely to become a billion-dollar startup

• Sharpest Problem Fit – Best solution-to-problem alignment

• Top Build-in-Public Journey – Shared transparently from start to finish

• We Didn’t Know We Needed This – Surprise hit of the hackathon

• Most Likely to Get Funded – VC ready builds
  
  

Challenger Prizes

Our partners have launched exclusive challenge tracks, each with $25,000 in prize money. Build with these tools and platforms to unlock even more rewards:

• 💸 Make More Money Challenge – Use RevenueCat for monetization

• 🌐 Custom Domain Challenge – Launch your app with Entri + IONOS

• ⛓️ Blockchain Challenge – Build trustless, scalable apps with Algorand

• 📹 Conversational AI Video Challenge – Integrate Tavus-powered AI agents

• 🎙️ Voice AI Challenge – Make your app talk with ElevenLabs

• 🚀 Deploy Challenge – Ship your full-stack app with Netlify

• 🤪 Silly Sh!t Challenge – Build your weirdest ideas with Reddit x Bolt
  
  

👉 See full challenge resources

This isn’t just prize money, it’s life changing.

We know this support will help turn ideas into companies, dreams into jobs, and prototypes into real-world tools that touch lives. We’re honored to witness the beginning of what so many of you are building and we can’t wait to see where it takes you.