Hackathon Generator

Build professional What-The-Hack-style hackathon events for Microsoft Cloud Solution Architects and Solution Engineers to use with customers and partners.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user:

• Says "create a hackathon", "build a hack", "hands-on workshop", or "challenge-based lab"
• Wants progressive challenge sets for customer or partner enablement
• Needs structured hackathon content with coach materials and participant guides

Hackathon Package Structure

A complete hackathon package is a self-contained folder ready to be pushed as a Git repository:

outputs/hackathons/{event-slug}/
  README.md                          # Landing page: topic, audience, prereqs, challenge table
  .devcontainer/
    devcontainer.json                # Codespaces-ready config
    Dockerfile                       # Topic-appropriate toolchain
  challenges/
    challenge-00.md                  # Setup and prerequisites (always present)
    challenge-01.md                  # First challenge (easiest)
    challenge-02.md                  # Progressive difficulty
    ...challenge-{N}.md
  coach/
    facilitation-guide.md            # Timing, pacing, tips per challenge
    scoring-rubric.md                # Evaluation criteria per challenge
  resources/
    reference-architecture.md        # Architecture overview for coaches
    starter/                         # Shared starter files (templates, data, configs)

Challenge File Template

Each challenges/challenge-{NN}.md must follow this structure:

# Challenge {NN}: {Title}

**Estimated Time:** {time} minutes
**Difficulty:** {Easy|Medium|Hard|Expert}

## Introduction

{Scenario-driven context. Set the scene. Explain WHY this matters
in a real-world context. Do NOT give step-by-step instructions here.}

## Prerequisites

- Challenge {NN-1} completed successfully
- {Any additional prerequisites}

## Description

{What the participant needs to accomplish. Describe the GOAL and the
CONSTRAINTS, not the exact steps. Students figure out the HOW.
Be specific about the expected end-state.}

## Success Criteria

- [ ] {Objectively verifiable check 1 - something a coach can confirm}
- [ ] {Objectively verifiable check 2}
- [ ] {Objectively verifiable check 3}

## Hints

<details>
<summary>Hint 1 (broad)</summary>
{General direction without giving away the answer}
</details>

<details>
<summary>Hint 2 (more specific)</summary>
{Narrower guidance pointing to the right service/command/concept}
</details>

<details>
<summary>Hint 3 (almost there)</summary>
{Very specific guidance, nearly the answer}
</details>

## Learning Resources

- [{Resource title}]({official MS Learn or docs URL})
- [{Resource title}]({official MS Learn or docs URL})

## Advanced Challenge (Optional)

{Stretch goal for teams that finish early. Open-ended, requires
deeper understanding or creative problem-solving.}

Difficulty Curve Model

Challenges must follow a progressive difficulty curve:

• Challenge 00: Always setup and prerequisites (15-30 min). Install tools, configure access, verify environment.
• Easy: Guided, single-service, foundational concepts (20-30 min). One clear goal, one service, basic operations.
• Medium: Multi-step, configuration plus validation (30-45 min). Multiple operations, some decision-making, cross-service awareness.
• Hard: Multi-service integration, debugging, design choices (45-60 min). Connect services together, handle edge cases, troubleshoot.
• Expert: Open-ended design, optimization, advanced patterns (60-90 min). No single right answer, requires deep understanding, creative problem-solving.

Duration to Challenge Count Mapping

Duration	Challenges	Spread
2 hours	3-4	setup + 2 easy + 1 medium
4 hours	5-6	setup + 2 easy + 2 medium + 1 hard
8 hours (full day)	8-10	setup + 2 easy + 3 medium + 2 hard + 1 expert
16 hours (2 days)	12-15	setup + 3 easy + 4 medium + 3 hard + 2 expert

Content Levels

Content levels define the complexity ceiling of the challenge set:

Level	Challenge Style	Tools and Techniques
L200	Portal-guided, CLI commands, pre-built templates	Azure Portal, Azure CLI, ARM/Bicep templates provided, no code editing
L300	Code modifications, SDK integration, multi-service wiring	SDK calls, configuration files, workflow definitions, moderate setup
L400	Live coding, service internals, custom extensions	Custom code, performance tuning, advanced patterns, deep configuration

Challenge Integrity - No Solutions

Hackathons are challenges, not tutorials. The entire point is that participants figure things out themselves. Every artifact in the hackathon package must respect this principle.

What Participant-Facing Materials Must NOT Contain

• Solution code: No complete implementations, no working examples that solve the challenge. Participants write the code.
• Step-by-step instructions: No ordered steps that walk participants through the solution. Describe the goal and constraints, not the path.
• Solution-revealing comments in code: Starter code and code snippets in challenge files must NOT contain comments that disclose the approach, implementation steps, or answer. Comments like // Step 1: Create the service bus client, // TODO: Add authentication here, or // Use the BlobServiceClient to connect give away the solution - unless this pertains to the specific challenge that you are building (but that will be more the exception rather than the norm).
• Commented-out solution code: Never include commented-out code that participants just need to uncomment.
• Prescriptive variable/function names: Avoid names that telegraph the solution (e.g., createServiceBusQueue() when the challenge is to figure out which messaging service to use).

Starter Code Rules

Starter code in resources/starter/ is scaffolding only. It gives participants a starting point so they don't waste time on boilerplate, not a guided path to the answer.

• Minimal comments: Only include comments that explain what the starter code itself does (e.g., // Express server setup), never comments that hint at what participants should add or how to solve the challenge.
• No instructional comments: Comments like // Add your code here, // Implement the function below, // Connect to the database using... are forbidden. Leave the function body empty or with a simple pass / throw new Error("Not implemented") / equivalent.
• No over-commenting: Starter code should have the same comment density as production code. If a line of code is self-explanatory, it needs no comment. A 20-line file should not have 15 lines of comments.
• Structure only: Provide project structure, dependency files (package.json, requirements.txt, etc.), configuration boilerplate, and empty function signatures. Nothing more.
• No architecture hints in code: Do not structure the starter code in a way that reveals the solution architecture (e.g., don't pre-create a services/queue-handler.ts file if discovering the need for a queue is part of the challenge).

Where Solutions ARE Allowed

• coach/facilitation-guide.md - coaches need to know the solution to help teams
• coach/scoring-rubric.md - verification commands and expected outputs are fine here
• resources/reference-architecture.md - architectural overview for coach reference

These files are for coaches only. They are never shared with participants during the hackathon.

Writing Rules

• Scenario-driven challenges: Describe the GOAL, not the steps. Challenges are NOT tutorials. Students must figure out the approach. That is the learning.
• Objectively verifiable success criteria: Every criterion must be something a coach can check in under 2 minutes. "Deploy a container app" is verifiable. "Understand the concept" is not.
• Progressive hints: Start broad, get specific. Three hints per challenge minimum. Use collapsible sections.
• No placeholder text: No TODO, TBD, FIXME, INSERT, PLACEHOLDER, or lorem ipsum anywhere.
• No emoji: Use Unicode text symbols if decoration is needed.
• No em-dashes: Use hyphens.
• Microsoft Azure mandate: All services, tools, and patterns must use Azure/Microsoft technology.
• Real URLs only: Every link must point to an actual MS Learn, GitHub, or official Microsoft documentation page.
• Challenge numbering: Always use zero-padded two-digit numbers: challenge-00, challenge-01, ..., challenge-15. Never skip numbers.

Dev Container Requirements

Every hackathon must include a .devcontainer/ directory:

• devcontainer.json must specify: base image, VS Code extensions, post-create commands, forwarded ports
• Dockerfile must install all tools needed for the hackathon (Azure CLI, language SDKs, framework CLIs)
• The dev container must work with GitHub Codespaces out of the box
• Include a postCreateCommand that installs dependencies and verifies the environment

Coach Materials

Facilitation Guide (coach/facilitation-guide.md)

• Event overview and agenda with timing
• Per-challenge section: recommended time, coaching tips, what to watch for, common stuck points, pivot strategies
• Suggested break schedule
• How to handle teams that are ahead or behind

Scoring Rubric (coach/scoring-rubric.md)

• Per-challenge evaluation: Done / Partially Done / Not Done
• Specific verification commands or checks for each criterion
• Bonus points for advanced challenges
• Overall scoring scale

QA Checks

The hackathon_qa_checks.py script validates hackathon packages for:

• Sequential challenge numbering from 00
• Required sections in each challenge (Introduction, Description, Success Criteria, Learning Resources)
• Coach materials exist and have required sections
• Dev container configuration is valid JSON
• Top-level README.md has required sections
• No placeholder text, emoji, or em-dashes
• Internal cross-references between challenges are valid
• No solution leakage in challenge files or starter code: Detects solution-revealing comments, step-by-step instructions, commented-out solution code, and excessive comment density in code blocks