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!
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 where you team up to brainstorm and build cool projects using technology. The only limit to what you can build is your creativity - we’ll provide the rest. We give you the resources, training, mentorship, and food you need to build a full web application with a team.
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.
If you do not know much or anything about web development but are interested in learning how to build web apps, you are the ideal candidate for ZotHacks. This year, we would like only first and second years of UCI to be attendees; for those who are transfers or third years and up, consider applying to be a mentor!
ZotHacks will be held in DBH 6011 from November 7-9th, 2025 at UCI. Expect to be available all day Saturday for hacking and Sunday morning for judging. We will also host optional workshops the week before the hackathon!
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! 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. If you are accepted, you will also have the chance to request team members, but they are not guaranteed.
We’ll do our best to get decisions back to you about a week after the application deadline.
There will be prizes for all winners at ZotHacks 2025.
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 hack@uci.edu if you have any additional questions. We look forward to hearing from you!