Event dates and venue

HackKentucky runs September 11–12, 2026 at Genuine Works, 750 E Jefferson St #200, Louisville, KY 40202. Doors are open Friday from 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM and Saturday from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM EDT. The venue closes overnight.

Eligibility and teams

Students and professionals at all skill levels are welcome. See the Eligibility section on Devpost for age and geographic requirements. Complete the required liability and media form before participating.

  • Participate solo or in a team of up to four.
  • One team per person.
  • Every team must choose a captain who acts as the organizer contact and is accountable for the team's conduct.
  • At least one teammate must present the project in person.

Project rules

  • Build the project on-site during the event.
  • Boilerplate, templates, and starter code are allowed. Pre-built projects are not.
  • AI tools and coding agents are allowed. All code must be written or generated by a team member, with no outside development help.
  • Teams may share code only when both teams agree.
  • No cheating or stealing.
  • Submit a working prototype link and a shareable pitch deck through Devpost before 5:00 PM EDT on September 12.

Judging

Initial project review precedes the larger pitch round. Only semifinalists give the larger pitch. Projects must be available for judges to use independently, and at least one teammate must be available to present in person.

Each of the four scorecard categories is worth five points, for a base score of 20:

  • High Agency / LVL5: Customer interviews, testing and iteration, real users or prospects, and consistent progress.
  • Creativity, Innovation & Skill: Technical or creative craft, originality, smart simplification, and effective use of technology or domain knowledge.
  • Presentation & Clarity: A clear customer, problem, and solution story, a smooth demo, and a convincing explanation.
  • Impact & Usefulness: A meaningful problem, a solution that addresses the core need, and a working MVP with room to grow.

Judges may award one bonus point each for a cross-functional team with meaningful contributions, a public open-source project, a functional MVP shipped within the first 24 hours, visible learning, and a team that had fun building together. The published rubric also allows up to three discretionary judges' favor points.

For ties, the rubric considers accessibility basics and solutions addressing large problems in overlooked markets. See the full judging rubric for the detailed scorecard.

Prizes and bounties

The overall winning project receives the $2,500 grand prize sponsored by Amplify Startups. Additional sponsor awards and bounty briefs will be listed as their details are finalized.

  • A team may pursue at most two sponsor bounties.
  • Teams must sign up for each bounty they enter.
  • Bounty sponsors judge their own challenges and pay their winning team directly.

Code of conduct

Treat hackers, mentors, judges, staff, and the venue with respect. Harassment is not tolerated. Report any problem to an organizer.

No alcohol, smoking, or vaping is allowed on the premises. Bring photo ID to check in and keep your event badge on while on-site. Respect Genuine Works. Do not move, open, or use anything that does not belong to the event.

Questions and conduct reports: hello@hackkentucky.com.