Here’s everything you missed at DurHack X this year: Durham’s annual 24-hour hackathon

DurHack X, Durham’s annual 24-hour hackathon, has just wrapped up, and it was an incredible event to be involved with.

Marking its 10th year for 2025, DurHack is hosted in the Teaching Learning Centre, where a bunch of students come together to hack together sketchy solutions to the problems set by the sponsors.

There are unlimited possibilities for creativity, from problems like the best use of Google Gemini’s AI, to the best use of Elevenlab’s AI, or the best use of AI on ARM – though I promise it’s not all AI at Durhack.

The event boasts lots of interesting themes, like “bridging worlds” or “legacy”, and there really were some amazing creations invented based on them.

Highlights of the event: Free merchandise

The real reason we go to all these hackathons every year is because there’s nothing quite like stocking up on the free Redbull, then plastering your laptop with an unnecessary amount of stickers – to the point where nobody can see the case anymore. What’s life without all the free tote bags, notebooks, DurHack mugs and pens to bring home to your family?

Lunch and dinner at DurHack are free too. The food from the food trucks was delicious. I’d go even for just the free dinners. I’d go even for a lunch. Maybe I’m just hungry.

The Guild challenges and events

The weird and wacky challenges are an integral part of the DurHack experience. Whether you’re finding the DurHuck Dino, acting out your favourite algorithm, or building a model windmill, there’s always plenty of fun challenges to participate in for prizes at the end.

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Alongside these challenges, there are all sorts of workshops and events going on, like swing dancing, women in tech, or the half-dozen workshops from all the various different sponsors.

Meeting new people

DurHack isn’t just Durham: Students come from all around the country to participate every year. Of the over 600 participants, there’s no shortage of new people to meet at DurHack – whether you’re building your team on the fly or having a chat over the midnight pizza.

The 24-hour sprint is probably one of the best team-building exercises out there. You’re working together on everything, coming up with ideas, planning the building, and pulling intense all-nighters together.

And of course, the coding

Obviously, the point of a hackathon is to hack. Hackathons are an incredible opportunity to throw yourself out there and try new languages, new concepts, and projects you’d have otherwise not tried. After all, it’s only 24 hours, so why not have a go at something new? DurHack really is the perfect time to play around and see what incredible (or horrendous) things you can cook up in the time you have.

Not to mention all the prizes you can win for your scrappy creations, like winning shark plushies for “hackiest hack”, or Raspberry Pis for the most extreme jerryrigging of the chat interface.

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