Many of you didn’t know, but our PHP team has a tradition of holding PHP hackathons 👨🏻💻. Each year, NIX coders come together to share experiences and brainstorm solutions for various challenges.
“How did this year’s hackathon go?” We knew you’d ask! Well, the event was held online, 5 stellar crews participated, and… For more, read below 🤗. Ihor Kazubek, the PHP Team Lead, will tell you everything in detail.
We aimed to create a task that couldn’t be solved using AI
That’s why we opted for project estimation, where decisions are often based on practical experience ☝️. While it’s typically the responsibility of business analysts, developers can also participate in assessing technical complexity and development time.
At the start, each team received the customer request and two hours to submit an initial estimation. The task included all components of a real project, allowing devs to consider risks, main features, and design elements.
“Imagine a hackathon where programmers didn’t write a single line of code! It might sound surprising to web developers, but this format really opened up new possibilities for us.
Project estimation is a familiar task for developers. However, combining it with finding optimal business solutions and ensuring they’re clear to the client became a fun, creative challenge. It was fascinating to see how teams approached problem-solving, what they focused on, and their vision for the end product.”
Ihor Kazubek, PHP Team Lead
Deputy Head of Business Development and Solutions Architects reviewed the estimates
Ensuring teams covered both business and technical aspects. This collaboration was just amazing!
Due to close communication with customers, BD specialists deeply understand client expectations. Therefore, they focused on:
- Implementation proposals
- Structure and overall design
Meanwhile, the Solutions Architects took into account:
- Accuracy of time estimates (optimistic, realistic, pessimistic)
- How well the proposed technologies, like back-end and front-end frameworks, match the client’s needs
“I think one of the hardest things about this challenge is finding the right technologies for certain tasks. We need to consider many factors, including those that at first seem irrelevant but later turn into significant issues.”
Fauszt András, PHP Developer
/dev/random team
After a thorough review, the experts rated each team and provided constructive feedback. Once all scores were tallied, we revealed the PHP Hackathon champs 🏆
“The PHP Hackathon was super useful and gave me valuable knowledge that I’ll apply to future projects! But what I liked the most was networking with other developers of different levels. It brought so many fresh perspectives to the table and kept us connected ❤️”
Lesya Karlova, Front-End Developer
From Dusk Till Deadline team
The /dev/random team totally crushed it!
The hackathon was pretty intense due to the tight deadline, but all the teams showed great results! Places were distributed as follows 👇
- /dev/random
- Fortune Tellers
- Big Brother
- From Dusk Till Deadline
- 404 Team’s name not found
The winners earned AirPods Pro 2 for their creativity and epic effort. Yes-yes, at NIX, we always reward sharp minds with something dope 🔥
“Hackathons are a fun way to break away from daily meetings and solving ticket-to-ticket issues. For us, it was also a good excuse to dip our toes into the subtle art of project estimation. We’re looking forward to facing the next challenge 🚀,” the champs say.
At NIX, professional growth is our top priority. We’re constantly on the lookout for opportunities to test and level up our skills. So, the PHP Hackathon wasn’t the last event like this 😉
