Step 01Sat Jun 6
Find your person
Community Center · 9 AM – 2 PM
Pick who you're building for. Identify their problem and start building something for them.
Lexington · Massachusetts◦Coords 42.447° N, 71.224° W
Build
for someone.
LexHack ’26 is Lexington’s first hackathon. Pick a real person or imagine one. Understand their problem. Spend a week building something just for them.
US based High school students only (grades 9–12). Free to attend.
After you register, you’ll get a confirmation email with Day 1 details, the Discord invite, and the Devpost submission deadline.
Jun 6 + 13
Two Saturdays
30–40
Students
1 week
Build window
Free
No cost
— The premise
Every project starts with a person.
Every team picks one real person (someone they know, or a realistic persona), and builds a tool for their specific problem. The project has a real user before a single line of code is written.
Path A
Build for someone you know
Pick a real person in your life (a parent, teacher, coach, neighbor) and build for their exact problem. They don’t have to come to the event, but they’re welcome to show up on Demo Day to see what you built.
Path B
Build for a persona
Don’t have a specific person? That’s fine. Define a realistic persona. The more specific the person feels, the better the project.
“
Both paths are equally valid. Judges care about whether you deeply understood a human problem and built a thoughtful solution.
— The arc
How it works.
Two Saturdays. One week. One person’s problem, solved.
Step 02Jun 7 – 12
Build the solution
From Home · Discord
You have a full week. Work from home, coordinate on Discord, share prototypes with your person (or test with people who fit your persona). Helpers are available all week.
Step 03Sat Jun 13
Demo Day
Community Center · 9 AM – 2 PM
Submit on Devpost by Friday, June 12 at 10:00 PM EST. On Day 2, present your project, explain who your person is, and show the working product. Judges score every team and participants vote for People's Choice award.
— The itinerary
Schedule.
Two Saturdays in person, one week building remotely.
9:00 AM
Organizers arrive, setup
9:30 AM
Doors open, check-in
10:00 AM
Opening Ceremony
10:30 AM
Team formation + start building
11:15 AM
Lunch
12:15 PM
Optional Git, APIs, deployment workshop (or keep building)
1:45 PM
Snacks and wrap-up
2:00 PM
Day 1 ends, continue building from home
— The recognition
Prizes.
Three awards. Judges decide First and Second Place; participants decide People’s Choice.
Prize$400
First Place
Best combination of real-world impact and technical execution.
Prize$200
Second Place
Second-highest score on the judging rubric.
Prize$100
People's Choice
Decided by participant vote only.
Prize pool is sponsor-funded. Want to contribute? Email us
— The measure
Judging.
Format
Every team presents for 7 minutes: 5 minute demo + 2 minute Q&A from other participants/judges.
Scoring
Judges determine award rankings for First Place and Second Place. Participant votes only decide the People’s Choice award. Participants cannot vote for their own team.
How judging works
Judges review projects from Devpost submissions, including the demo video, code, and write-up. Scoring happens in the window between Friday 6/12 10 PM (submission deadline) and Saturday 10 AM (presentations begin).
Criteria
Impact / Usefulness40%
Technical Execution30%
Creativity + Design20%
Presentation10%
— Questions
Ask anything.
Still have questions? Email us or join our Discord
— The supporters
Our partners.
LexHack is made possible by the support of our sponsors and partners.
Community Partners
Sponsor inquiries
Help Lexington’s first hackathon happen.
Email lexhackclub@gmail.comAll contributions are tax-deductible through The Hack Foundation, 501(c)(3) · EIN 81-2908499