FAQs

General
Going Remote
Registration
Theme
Resources

I haven’t had much experience coding. Can I still attend?

Of course! CodeJam is open to hackers of all levels of experience. We encourage you to register and bring an open mind. There will be workshops available that cater to different levels - get ready to learn and have fun!

How many people are allowed to be in a team together?

Each team must have between 1 to 4 members. You will be able to register with your teammates; if you don’t have any (yet), we will help you find some! 👍

Who is eligible to participate?

We welcome all current CEGEP, college, vocational, and university students!

Do I need to be a current student at McGill?

No, you don’t need to attend McGill University.

How many people attend CodeJam?

300 students attended CodeJam last year and 250 students attended CodeJam in 2018. We are welcoming more this year.

How old is CodeJam?

CodeJam is McGill’s oldest student-run hackathon; we are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year! 🎉

What do CodeJam projects look like?

Check out our hacker submissions from last year on https://codejam2019.devpost.com/

McGill has announced that the Fall 2020 semester will be offered primarily through remote delivery. Here’s what we’re doing to accommodate the current situation:

Will the hackathon be hosted remotely?

Yes, CodeJam 2020 will proceed remotely. More details will follow shortly! 🔥

Can I attend CodeJam if I’m not in Montreal?

We encourage you to register even if you’re not physically in Montreal. You will have full access to the remote hackathon; the only obstacle will be the difference in timezone. Get ready with a cup of coffee! ☕

Are company representatives going to be present at CodeJam 2020?

We thank all of your sponsors for accommodating the current situation. Although we cannot host an in-person tech fair, rest assured that: mentors will be available online to help you with your project, recruiters will host information sessions and fireside chats, and workshops will be provided remotely. We're also looking into ways to provide the awesome CodeJam tech fair experience - online!

Who can register?

We welcome all current CEGEP, college, vocational, and university students.

When will CodeJam be held this year?

Code.Jam() will take place online, from November 13 - 15, 2020!

Where do I register?

Click the "Hacker Registration Open!" banner at the top of the page :)

When is the deadline to register?

The deadline is November 10, 2020 at 11:59 PM EDT

Can I register with a team

Yes, you can specify the names of your teammates during registration- but don't worry, if you don't have a team yet, we will help you find one!

We are happy to announce that Digital by Default is the theme for this year’s Code.Jam(). With the current global situation, the technology sector has been forced into a pivotal moment in time.

The technologies that emerge in the coming months will redefine the way we work, the way we socialize, and more than likely many other factors of our lives that we have yet to consider. As such, this year’s CodeJam aims to put students in the spotlight of this worldwide technological revolution and to provide them with the platform necessary to explore their innovative ideas.

You might be wondering what Digital by Default means for our hackathon. It means that our hackathon will be fully remote, and that we will be welcoming more students than ever before by waiving our entrance fee and our geographic restrictions. We will be leveraging Slack to create a unique and memorable hackathon experience. Our technology career fair will be digital, and we will facilitate networking sessions within a digital environment.

2020 provides a unique set of challenges, and we believe that the student community is equipped with the skills, creativity, and enthusiasm necessary to solve these challenges. We hope that you will consider joining us for an exciting 10th edition of CodeJam!

Not sure where to begin? The CodeJam team has compiled a list of helpful resources to get you started for CodeJam 2020. Feel free to look through and get yourself adjusted to the content before the hackathon!

👶 Basics

If this is your first time at a hackathon or coding past ECSE 202 or COMP 202, it’s probably best that you learn some concepts that’ll help ramp you up before the hackathon!

Learn Git Branching - Interactive tutorial to learn Git, the most popular version control system for collaborative programming.
What’s an API? - Learn how to use external services in your projects.
A Beginner’s Guide to HTTP and REST - A more in-depth guide on how to use REST APIs.
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python - An in-depth series of tutorials to learn how to code in Python. If you don’t know what language to use, Python is a good start!
Roadmap to Fullstack Web Development - Web projects are some of the easiest to make during a hackathon. Learn more about different technologies that are commonly used!
Google Machine Learning Crash Course - If you want to ramp up quick on machine learning.
Titanic: Machine Learning from Disaster - A beginner-friendly prediction competition.

🛠 Recommended software

These are some recommended tools for general hackathon success:

Visual Studio Code - Your favourite programmer’s favourite text editor.
GitHub Desktop - Easy-to-use Git GUI interface so you don’t need to use the command line.
Jupyter Notebooks - Powerful Python tool hosted as a web app useful for writing and organizing Machine Learning code. Very visually appealing and great for running code snippets.
Postman - REST API testing tool.

🏎 Boilerplates

Boilerplate code is your best friend for a hackathon! As these are time-limited events, you don’t want to spend half your time setting up your project.

Here are a few examples:

If these don’t suit your usecase, feel free to look up other boilerplates online!

📚 Useful libraries and frameworks

Here are a few libraries that might prove to be useful during the competition! If the official library isn’t written in your favourite language, try finding wrappers/bindings for it online!

🔌 Useful plug-and-play APIs

Here are a few APIs that might prove to be useful during the competition! These are a software engineer’s best friend. These will do the heavy lifting for you, so you can focus on working on your product.

🔢 Data set resources

Without data, how are you going to recognize patterns? Here are some resources you can use to quickly find data sets!

If you want to avoid training your own models, you can also find pretrained models online!

☁️ Cloud computing

Cloud computing is especially useful when you need to do heavy computations (read: Machine Learning). There are a few providers. If this is your first time using them, they usually provide a bunch of free credits for students.

🏡 Hosting your application

It’s not a requirement to host your final submission anywhere (you can demo your project locally), but you can easily host your project on the cloud so you can show it off to anyone with a link.

👩‍🏫 Workshop content

Workshops will be announced in September.