Bengaluru-based startup to host India's biggest Hackathon

HackerEarth has already received 6,500 registrations from 50 countries

Bengaluru-based start-up HackerEarth is all set to host one of India's largest hackathons targeted at women software professionals. It has already received 6,500 registrations from 50 countries.

The virtual hackathon, which is being held during the International Women's Day weekend, will have participation from women developers across the US, Vietnam, Brazil, Japan, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, and several other countries.

The hackathon, where women coders will build solutions around productivity, social welfare, fun/gamification, and multi-channel retail, will start at noon on March 6 and end at noon on March 8, 2015. Seventy per cent of the registrations are from India - from women developers from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur and Indore.

“Over the years, we have realised that only 20 per cent of the workforce in India's technology sector is women. We wanted to reach out to as many women programmers as possible, and that's why we initiated this event,” said Vivek Prakash, co-founder of HackerEarth, which helps companies hire programmers through technical challenges.

“After we launched the event, it almost became like a movement with several women’s organisations joining to support the event.”

The hackathon is sponsored by Snapdeal and Walmart Labs among several other corporates that have come forward to support the event such as Harman, Altimetrik, ThoughtWorks, Akamai, Sandisk, Capillary Technologies, AT&T, Freshdesk, Persistent, and VMware.

“We are still getting interest from several corporates, but we have closed taking sponsorships now,” said Prakash.

The winner of the three-day event will receive a MacBook Air, and the first and second runners up will get an iPhone 6 and an iPad, respectively. The top 15 winning teams or individuals will get gift vouchers worth $100.

#IWH2015

* Over 6,500 women developers from over 50 countries to participate

* No registration fee for the women-only event

* Online event is opened to participation from any geography

* Besides India, women from US, Vietnam, Brazil, Japan, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Srilanka, Ukraine, Poland, Russia to participate

* No restriction on any tech language, stack, libraries

* Sponsored by Snapdeal, Walmart Labs