hi r/googlecloud !

I'm Tilde Thurium from Google Cloud Developer Marketing. During my 13 years in engineering and developer relations, I have organized over 100 hackathons.

I"m hosting this AMA to answer all of your questions about hackathons in general, including:

ideation and scoping : how to pick an idea that stands out

rapid prototyping: getting an MVP deployed to Google Cloud as quickly as possible

how AI-assisted development is changing hackathons

presenting or recording a compelling demo

Active Spotlight: The All Things Agentic Hackathon (GEAR)

If you're looking for a challenge to put these strategies into practice right now, we’re currently running the All Things Agentic Hackathon !

Here are the key details if you’d like to ask specific questions about it during the AMA:

Submission Deadline: Open now through August 31, 2026 .

Prizes: Over $170,000 in total prizes across tracks.

The Challenge: Build production-grade, autonomous AI agents leveraging Gemini 3.5 , Google Cloud services, and…