Hackathon
/ˈhæk.ə.θɒn/ · Noun · Hacker Culture · Origin: 1999
Definitions
An event where programmers, designers, and others collaborate intensively (typically 24-48 hours) to build a project from scratch. Originally a pure engineering tradition, now sometimes co-opted by corporations as a branding exercise with pizza.
In plain English: A marathon event where people team up to build something cool in a day or two, usually fueled by energy drinks and the thrill of creating something from nothing.
Internal hackathons (like Atlassian's ShipIt Days and Google's 20% time) have produced real products: Gmail, Google Maps, and Slack all began as side projects or hack week prototypes. The key: giving hackathon winners actual resources to develop their ideas afterward.
Example: 'The feature that became our most-used product started as a hackathon project. Two engineers built a prototype in 24 hours that took 6 months to productionize.'
Source: internal / product origin stories
Etymology
- 1999
- Both OpenBSD and Sun Microsystems independently use 'hackathon'
- 2006
- Facebook popularizes internal hackathons — the Like button came from one
Origin Story
Marathon coding sessions born from two simultaneous events in 1999
The word **hackathon** (hack + marathon) appears to have been coined independently and nearly simultaneously in June 1999 by two different groups. **OpenBSD** developers held a cryptographic development event in Calgary, Canada, that they called a "hackathon." Around the same time, Sun Microsystems organized a similar event at the JavaOne conference.
The OpenBSD hackathon was a focused, invitation-only coding sprint aimed at writing crypto code in a jurisdiction (Canada) where it wasn't restricted by U.S. export laws. The Sun event was more of a marketing effort to encourage Java development. Despite their different purposes, both established the core hackathon format: intense, time-boxed collaborative coding.
Hackathons exploded in the 2000s and 2010s. Facebook famously held regular all-night hackathons, producing features like the Like button, Timeline, and Chat. College hackathons like PennApps and HackMIT became major events. Companies began using hackathons for recruiting, and the format spread beyond tech to healthcare, finance, and civic innovation.
Coined by: OpenBSD developers and Sun Microsystems (independently)
Context: June 1999, both OpenBSD (Calgary) and Sun (JavaOne)
Fun fact: Facebook's 'Like' button originated at an internal hackathon. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly held hackathons at Facebook every six to eight weeks, and the company's headquarters features a large neon 'HACK' sign.