DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI Hackathon: The Competition That Propels AI into Production

The DigitalOcean AI Hackathon, organized by DigitalOcean in partnership with Major League Hacking (MLH), is a global event inviting developers, creators, and AI enthusiasts to build concrete applications leveraging the full power of the DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI platform. With $20,000 in rewards and cloud infrastructure designed for developers, this is the perfect opportunity to transform your skills into impactful projects.

Build and ship production-ready AI with @digitalocean . 🌊

Use Gradient™ AI’s full-stack platform to simplify adding inference and deploying AI on GPU-powered infrastructure.

Build intelligent agents, automated workflows, or RAG-based apps.

🏆$20,000 in prizes
📅Deadline:… pic.twitter.com/xsVUxlYX0p

— Devpost (@devpost) January 28, 2026

The Challenge: From Idea to Production Deployment

The DigitalOcean AI Hackathon challenge is clear: create a fully functional AI application by leveraging the complete features of DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI. Unlike traditional hackathons that settle for prototypes, here the goal is to deliver production-ready code.

The themes are intentionally open: intelligent automation, conversational chatbots, recommendation systems, predictive analysis, content generators… your imagination is the only limit. The essential part? Your project must demonstrate in-depth use of the complete DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI stack, from model training to scalable deployment. You’ll need to provide a public repository with source code, documentation and open source license, as well as a demo video of about 3 minutes hosted on YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook.

Practical Info & Schedule

Format: Online hackathon, open internationally
Period: Starting March 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM EDT
Submission Deadline: March 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM EDT

Key Dates & Prizes

• Registration Opens: Now on Devpost
• Submission Deadline: March 18, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT
• Results Announcement: Information not communicated (to be confirmed)

Total Rewards: $20,000 USD

• 1st Place: $8,000 + $600 in DigitalOcean credits
• 2nd Place: $4,000 + $400 in DigitalOcean credits
• 3rd Place: $2,000 + $200 in DigitalOcean credits
• Best AI Agent Persona: $2,000
• The Great Whale Prize: $2,000
• Best Program for the People: $2,000

Who Can Participate in the DigitalOcean Gradient Hackathon?

The DigitalOcean AI Hackathon is open to all developers of legal age in their country of residence. Whether you’re a student, freelancer or independent professional, you’re welcome. However, companies and professional organizations are excluded from participation.

Participation Terms:

• Open to all countries and territories (except standard exceptions defined in the official rules)
• Solo or team participation
• No registration fees

To join the adventure, simply create a DigitalOcean account and register on the Devpost platform.

Evaluation Criteria & Rules

A qualified jury (to be announced soon) will evaluate projects according to four major criteria:

Technological Implementation: Quality of software development and in-depth use of DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI
Design: User experience and interface design
Potential Impact: The project’s ability to positively transform the target community
Quality of the Idea: Creativity and originality of the proposed solution

Regarding rules, your repository must be public and open source with a visible license. Intellectual property, data ethics and code authenticity will be scrutinized: any plagiarism or violation will lead to immediate disqualification. Consult the complete rules for all legal details.

Resources & Official Links

• Registration: https://digitalocean.devpost.com/register
• Official Rules: https://digitalocean.devpost.com/rules
• DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI Documentation: https://mlh.link/digitalocean-gradient
• Hackathon Resources: https://digitalocean.devpost.com/resources
• Community Discussions: https://digitalocean.devpost.com/forum_topics

Why Participate?

Beyond the $20,000 in cash prizes, this hackathon offers a unique opportunity to learn by building. You’ll master cutting-edge GPU infrastructure, explore AI production workflows and create a showcase project for your portfolio. Support from Major League Hacking guarantees an inclusive framework and quality resources.