# Hackathon Submission Guide

How to structure a winning hackathon submission for Solana hackathons.

## Submission Components

### 1. Project Name & Tagline
- Name: memorable, relates to function
- Tagline: one sentence explaining what it does (not how)
- Example: "PayFlow — Instant cross-border payments for freelancers using Solana"

### 2. Project Description (200-500 words)

Structure:
```
Paragraph 1: The problem (2-3 sentences)
  - Who has this problem?
  - Why does it matter?

Paragraph 2: The solution (2-3 sentences)
  - What does your project do?
  - How does the user interact with it?

Paragraph 3: Why Solana / Why crypto (2-3 sentences)
  - What's impossible without Solana?
  - What Solana primitives do you use?

Paragraph 4: Technical highlights (2-3 sentences)
  - Architecture overview
  - Notable technical decisions

Paragraph 5: What's next (2-3 sentences)
  - Current status
  - Roadmap for the next month
```

### 3. Demo Link
- Must be live and accessible
- Devnet is fine — clearly label it
- Include test credentials or a pre-funded wallet
- If it's a CLI tool, provide a one-liner install command

### 4. Source Code
- GitHub repo must be public
- README must have setup instructions
- Code should be clean enough that a judge can follow the main flow

### 5. Demo Video (optional but strongly recommended)
- See demo-video-script.md for structure
- Under 3 minutes
- Upload to YouTube (unlisted is fine)

### 6. Team
- Names and roles
- Relevant background (keep brief)
- GitHub/Twitter links

## Track Selection

Choose the track that gives you the best chance:
- **DeFi**: If your project moves money or manages positions
- **Infrastructure**: If your project helps other developers
- **Consumer**: If your project has a user-facing interface
- **AI/Agents**: If your project uses AI for decision-making
- **Wild Card**: If you don't fit neatly elsewhere

Pick the track with the least competition for your idea type, not the most prestigious.

## Common Mistakes

1. Submitting without a working demo
2. Writing a description that's all technical jargon
3. Choosing the most competitive track
4. Not including setup instructions
5. Demo video that's too long or shows bugs
6. Claiming features that don't work yet