One thing about building software that has always stood out to us is how easy it is to confuse technical sophistication with usefulness.

A product can have beautiful code, an even prettier interface, and enough AI sprinkled across its homepage to make investors levitate. But does it solve a real problem? Do people use it?

These are the questions the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon was established to answer. If you have built something that can withstand that scrutiny, submit your project before August 10, 2026.

The hackathon rests on one simple idea: useful software should be rewarded for being useful.

Groundbreaking stuff, we know.

Still, the internet is full of products that launch to fanfare and quietly disappear once the applause dries up. Rather than reward technical promises alone, Proof of Usefulness evaluates projects based on real-world utility, traction, audience reach, technical innovation, market relevance, and functional completeness.

Solo developers, startup teams, and established companies can submit new or existing projects. Each submission receives a Proof of Usefulness score and a ready-made report documenting how the project performs across these criteria.

In case you missed it, we have already announced our first set of winners, but the largest share of the original $150K+ prize pool is still up for grabs.

$118K+ Still Left to Win in the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon

That is $12,000 in cash prizes and $106,000 in software credits waiting to be claimed in the final awards round.

Choose Your Category

You can use any technology stack to compete for HackerNoon’s Foundational Tech & Builder Innovation awards. Projects using sponsor technologies can also compete across four dedicated categories:

• Bright Data: Data Infrastructure, AI & Automation

  • For projects using public web data, extraction, automation, data pipelines, generative AI, or agent-driven systems.

• Algolia: Intelligent Search & Retrieval
  • For projects built around AI search, semantic retrieval, search APIs, relevance-based discovery, or retrieval-augmented generation.

• Neo4j: Graph-Powered Intelligence
  • For graph databases, knowledge graphs, GraphRAG, contextual retrieval, data intelligence, and graph-powered agents.

• Storyblok: Modern Content Architecture
  • For headless CMS builds, API-first content systems, omnichannel delivery, and composable content infrastructure.

How to Enter the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon

Submitting your project takes four steps:

1. Submit a working project or public repository.
2. Complete the questionnaire with your project information, user metrics, technology, business model, and evidence of traction.
3. Generate your Proof of Usefulness score and report.
4. Move the report into a HackerNoon draft and publish it before August 10, 2026.

Publishing the report completes your entry. The more detailed and verifiable your evidence, the better we can understand what you have built and what makes it useful.

The demos have had their day.

Now, show us something that works.