My First Hackathon!

 A week or so ago, I was informed that my me and a 4 other students were selected to represent my school at the Hertfordshire Schools Hackathon. Having wanted to go to a hackathon for a very long time, I was beyond excited for this opportunity - however the nature of the hackathon remained a mystery for us. And so my team arrived eager to see what the day ahead would bring us.

The day was filled with intense and engaging challenges to work through branching over 3 main sessions (1. python & using the Terminal 2. HTML/CSS/JavaScript 3.SQL (including SQL injections). I never thought my knowledge of the terminal would come in handy! We gained points through progressing through the challenges, whilst also having a side quest of a more theory and writing based set of booklets for extra points. These were questions that portrayed scenarios in which you would need to explain and come up with creative solutions to whilst proving it with CS Theory. Our team was outstanding at creative solutions to problems - often solving the challenges in a manner not expected by the hackathon team  😆. In fact this creative thinking earned our team certificates of "creative thinking". The SQL injection tasks were also really fun. And were told several times that the skills we are using is considered ethical hacking as we  have permission, and that we should never try such things outside of this.

The whole day was so incredibly fun and was a great opportunity to use my skills in unusual ways - testing my knowledge of the fundamentals of how a computer system works behind the scenes. I really hope I will take part in other hackathons in the future - perhaps even a more project based one. Thankyou so much to everyone who made this possible - and a special thanks to Kai Young who was the main organiser of this event.