From Participant to Mentor 🚀

Hackathons have always been an exciting part of my journey as a student and developer. I have participated in hackathons to build projects, solve problems, learn new technologies, and experience what it is like to develop something under time pressure.

But HackaFest 2026 was different.

This time, I wasn't participating as a competitor.

I was there as a mentor.

My First Experience as a Hackathon Mentor

At HackaFest 2026, organized by BIC Incognitus / BIC DevCorps, I got the opportunity to mentor participating teams.

Going from participant to mentor felt like a small but meaningful milestone in my journey.

As a participant, your main responsibility is your own project. You think about your idea, write the code, fix bugs, prepare your presentation, and try to make everything work before the deadline.

As a mentor, the perspective completely changes.

Instead of asking:

"How can I solve this problem?"

you start asking:

"How can I help this team solve their problem?"

That change was one of the most valuable parts of the experience.

Guiding Instead of Building

One thing I quickly realized was that being a mentor doesn't mean having an answer to every question.

Sometimes, teams don't need someone to give them the solution. They need someone who can help them look at the problem from another perspective.

During the event, I helped teams with things such as:

• Refining their project ideas
• Discussing technical approaches
• Identifying possible security issues
• Debugging and troubleshooting
• Thinking about practical implementation
• Discussing development strategies
• Improving their project scope
• Preparing their final presentation

Some conversations were highly technical, while others were simply about helping a team decide what they should focus on next.

What I Learned

The biggest lesson I took from this experience is that mentoring is also a learning process.

Every team had a different idea, different technical knowledge, and a different approach to solving problems.

Some teams had strong ideas but struggled with implementation.

Some had technically interesting projects but needed to improve their scope.

Others simply needed someone to discuss their idea with.

It reminded me that building a successful project is not only about writing code.

A good project requires:

Problem → Idea → Planning → Development → Testing → Security → Presentation

And during a hackathon, all of these things have to happen within a limited amount of time.

From Participant to Mentor

This experience also made me reflect on my own journey.

Over the past few years, I have been learning programming, networking, Linux, cybersecurity, web development, and working on different projects and hackathons.

Being a mentor gave me the opportunity to take some of that knowledge and share it with other students and developers.

There is something genuinely satisfying about seeing someone come to you with a problem, discussing it together, and then watching them figure out a solution themselves.

I really enjoyed that part of the experience.

More Than Just a Certificate

I received a Certificate of Achievement for my contribution as a Mentor at HackaFest 2026.

Of course, the certificate is something I am happy to have.

But for me, the experience itself is more important than the certificate.

It represents a small transition in my journey:

Participant → Builder → Learner → Mentor

I am still learning, and I definitely don't consider myself an expert.

But being able to help others using the knowledge I have gained so far is something I am proud of.

Thank You

A huge thank you to the BIC Incognitus and BIC DevCorps team for giving me the opportunity to be part of HackaFest 2026 as a mentor.

And thank you to all the participating teams who shared their ideas, questions, challenges, and enthusiasm throughout the event.

This was my first hackathon mentorship experience, and I hope it won't be my last.

There is still a lot more to learn, build, and share.

From participating in hackathons to helping others build at them — this is just the beginning. 🚀