Build Your First App

Welcome to Build Your First AI App 2026, a beginner-friendly, online AI hackathon hosted by Yasir Insights.

The mission is simple: learn by building. Whether you're a student exploring artificial intelligence for the first time or a beginner developer with an exciting idea, this hackathon is your opportunity to turn that idea into a working AI application.

No advanced AI background or previous hackathon experience is required. Bring your curiosity, creativity, and willingness to learn!

🚀 What Can You Build?

Choose a real-world problem that interests you and build an AI-powered application in one of the following areas:

1. AI Chatbots

Create a chatbot that answers questions, assists users, or helps solve everyday problems.

2. Document Q&A

Build an application that answers questions about uploaded documents, notes, PDFs, or study materials.

3. AI Study Assistants

Develop a tool that helps students understand difficult concepts, summarize notes, generate quizzes, or prepare for exams.

4. AI Productivity Tools

Create an AI assistant that organizes information, automates repetitive tasks, manages to-do lists, or improves productivity.

5. AI for Social Good

Use artificial intelligence to address a real-world challenge in your community, education, accessibility, or everyday life.

Have another idea? You're welcome to explore other AI application ideas, provided your project meets the hackathon requirements.

👥 Who Can Participate?

This hackathon is designed for eligible students and beginner developers who want to gain practical experience building AI applications.

  • Beginners are welcome.
  • No previous hackathon experience is required.
  • You can participate individually or collaborate with a team, subject to the event's eligibility requirements.
  • You can use beginner-friendly tools, open-source technologies, and free-tier AI services.

Please review the event's eligibility requirements before registering.

💸 Is It Free to Participate?

Yes! Participation is free.

You do not need to purchase software, pay for API credits, or subscribe to expensive AI platforms to get started.

You can build your project using:

  • Free AI tools and available free-tier APIs.

  • Open-source AI models.

  • Python and Streamlit or Gradio.

  • Hugging Face Spaces and other free hosting options.

  • Other free development tools of your choice.

Always check the current usage limits and terms of any third-party service you use.

📅 Important Dates

  • Hackathon Begins: October 27, 2026
  • Project Submission Deadline: November 27, 2026
  • Judging Period: November 28, 2026 - December 6, 2026

Make sure to complete your project and submit all required materials before the deadline.

🛠️ What Should You Build and Submit?

Build a functional AI-powered application that addresses a clear problem.

Your submission should include:

  • Project Title: A clear and memorable name for your application.
  • Project Description: Explain the problem, your solution, and who benefits from it.
  • Working Application: A demo, deployed application, or another accessible way to demonstrate your project.
  • Source Code: Share your code repository when required by the submission guidelines.
  • Demo Video or Screenshots: Show how your application works, if requested by the event submission requirements.

Focus on building something useful, explaining your approach, and demonstrating what you learned

🏆 What Will You Gain?

By participating, you'll have the opportunity to:

  • Gain hands-on experience building an AI application.
  • Develop a project for your portfolio or GitHub profile.
  • Practice documenting and presenting a technical project.
  • Explore AI development tools and technologies.
  • Learn through experimentation and problem-solving.
  • Receive recognition for outstanding projects, subject to the event's judging and recognition arrangements.

🎯 Our Goal

At Yasir Insights, we believe the best way to learn AI is to build with it.

This hackathon aims to make AI development more approachable by encouraging beginners to experiment, solve practical problems, and turn their ideas into real applications.

You don't need to build the most complicated system. Start with a problem that matters, build a solution, and keep learning along the way.

🚀 Ready to Get Started?

Join Build Your First AI App 2026, choose your idea, and start building!

Hosted by Yasir Insights

Learn. Build. Experiment. Share.

Requirements

What You Need to Build

Build a functional, AI-powered application that solves a real problem or provides a useful experience. Your project should be suitable for beginners and demonstrate how AI can be used in a practical way.

Required Deliverables

Every submission must include:

  1. Project title and description: Explain what your application does, which problem it solves, and who it helps.
  2. Working prototype: Provide a functional application, prototype, or demonstrable proof of concept.
  3. AI implementation: Explain which AI model, API, library, or tool you used and how it contributes to your solution.
  4. Source code: Provide a GitHub repository or another accessible source-code link, where applicable.
  5. Demo: Include a short demonstration video or screenshots showing the main features.
  6. README: Explain the project setup, features, technologies used, and how someone can try it.
  7. Your contribution: Describe what you built, what you learned, and any AI-assisted development tools you used.

Suggested Project Ideas

  • A chatbot for answering student questions.
  • A document assistant that answers questions about PDFs.
  • An AI-powered study planner.
  • A lecture-notes summarizer.
  • An AI email or writing assistant.
  • A productivity tool that automates repetitive tasks.

Important Notes

  • Projects must be submitted before the official deadline.
  • Free and open-source tools are encouraged.
  • Clearly credit third-party code, datasets, models, and resources.
  • Do not include passwords, API keys, private documents, or other sensitive information in public repositories.
  • Your project should demonstrate your own contribution and understanding.

Keep it simple, solve a real problem, and focus on building something useful!

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

1 non-cash prize
Certificates and Recognition
1,000 winners

All eligible participants who complete the hackathon requirements will receive a digital Certificate of Participation from Yasir Insights.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Mirza Yasir Abdullah Baig

Mirza Yasir Abdullah Baig
AI Engineer @yasirinsights

Judging Criteria

  • Creativity & Originality
    How creative is the idea? Does the project offer an interesting approach to solving a problem? Participants are encouraged to develop their own ideas and add original features.
  • Implementation & Functionality
    Does the application work as intended? Evaluate the prototype, its core features, the quality of the implementation, and how effectively AI is integrated. Beginner-level implementations are welcome.
  • Usefulness & Real-World Impact
    Does the project address a real problem or meet a genuine need? Consider its usefulness, potential impact, target users, and whether the solution provides practical value.
  • Presentation & Documentation
    How clearly does the submission explain the problem, solution, AI tools used, and project features? Evaluate the demo video or screenshots, README, setup instructions, and clarity of the project description.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

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