Speed Demon 2026

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Performance engineeringSystems programmingCompetitive programming

About this hackathon

A 72-hour online performance-engineering hackathon by UK-based Hackathon Raptors, held over Halloween weekend: five tracks (log ingest, inverted index, hostile-CSV join, shortest paths, lossless compression), each with a spec, a dataset and a deliberately slow reference. Submit a Dockerfile; the organizers build and run every entry five times on one dedicated machine in Helsinki. 65% of the score comes from a published efficiency coefficient, 35% from senior engineers reading your code and PERF.md. Free, teams of 1–4, AI coding tools allowed. Team formation closes Oct 26; hacking runs Oct 30 18:00 – Nov 2 18:00 UTC; winners Nov 13.

Status
Deadline: 2026-10-26
Starts: 2026-10-30
Who: Open to all
Level: Intermediate
Prize: $2k · $2,000 cash: overall champion $800, runner-up $400, third $200, highest efficiency coefficient on any track $200, lean award $100, plus a $300 write-up side quest ($100 × 3)
Size: —
Format: Online · International
Location: London (online; placed at organizer’s city)

Original listing (Chinese)

The full original listing below is in Chinese, as published in the Hack123 newsletter.

一句话简介：英国 Hackathon Raptors 办的 72 小时性能工程黑客松，⁠‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‌⁠不拼点子拼代码速度，面向全球开发者。

看点：5 条赛道（日志解析/倒排索引/恶意 CSV/图最短路/无损压缩）；提交的 Docker 镜像由主办方在赫尔辛基同一台机器上统一实测排名；65% 分数由赛前公开的效率系数公式决定，35% 由一线工程师评委读代码打分；1—4 人组队，免费参加，允许用 AI 编程工具。

奖金：2,000 美元现金（总冠军 800 美元、亚军 400 美元、季军 200 美元、单项最高效率系数奖 200 美元、最佳精简奖 100 美元；另有 300 美元写作奖，分 3 份各 100 美元）。

截止日期：10月26日组队截止（官网时间线「Team formation closes」，1—4 人）；11月2日 18:00 UTC 代码冻结（线上，全球）

活动日期：10月30日 18:00 UTC—11月2日 18:00 UTC（线上，全球）；11月13日公布获奖名单

Summarized from the organizer’s page and public posts. Please confirm details on the official site before registering.