November 7th-9th, 2025
What is ZotHacks?
ZotHacks is a 12-hour hackathon designed for beginners where students with minimal computer science experience will learn to build their first CS project. Through ZotHacks, we introduce these students to the world of hackathons and web development by providing technical workshops, dedicated mentors for every team, and free food! We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities, majors, or genders to apply!
Sponsors
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don't find what you're looking for, reach out to our team at contact@zothacks.com
A hackathon is a creative marathon that lasts about 12-36 hours (a weekend) where you team up to build and present a programming-related project to judges for prizes. We give you the resources, training, mentorship, and food you need to build a full web application with a team, just bring your passion and a creative mind!
We don’t expect hackers to have any prior experience. We will be providing starter packs, workshops, and mentors to help new hackers get started on projects and learn new technologies. Teams will have access to their mentors for the entire event allowing them to ask questions and learn along the way.
A UCI Student who is a beginner at web development.
ZotHacks will be held October 16-18, 2026, at UCI. Hackers are expected to be available Friday evening, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning/afternoon (latest 2pm). Mentors are expected to be available Friday evening and all day Saturday. We highly recommend mentors to come on Sunday to support their teams. Friday will consist of team formation, mentor assignments, and project ideation. During this session, teams are allowed to discuss with their mentors about their product idea and any technologies that will be involved, but no coding can be done before Saturday. Food will be provided on Saturday and Sunday.
For this year's iteration, please bring a positive attitude, your student ID, the badge you’ll receive after check-in, a device to connect and collaborate with your team, and a willingness to try new technologies! Remember to download any necessary technologies your team will be using and go through the starter pack prior to Saturday (this is mandatory). Additional recommended items are your device’s charger, a refillable water bottle, earphones, any desired peripherals, and some scratch paper for whiteboarding.
You will apply as an individual. We will be personally reviewing each application and accepting it on an individual basis.
Teams will be up to 4 people. Don’t worry if you do not have teammates going into ZotHacks because we will be helping with team formations prior to the event. To maintain balanced skill distribution across teams, we will not be accommodating team preference requests.
For hackers, we’ll do our best to get decisions back to you by fall quarter mid week 2. Mentor decisions will be released by 10/11.
Accepted mentors who complete their shifts at ZotHacks will receive a guaranteed hacker spot at IrvineHacks 2027! Alongside that, you’ll have the opportunity to oversee a project from start to finish and help foster the next generation of passionate CS students. Mentoring also comes with free swag and food!
There will be prizes for all winners at ZotHacks 2026!
You will be building projects from scratch, although we will be offering starter packs to help you get started. You are encouraged to come up with ideas of what you want to build. All pre-built projects will be disqualified.
Please email us at zothacks2026@gmail.com if you have any additional questions. We look forward to hearing from you!