Hefty Hacks is a fully-online Finance × Trading hackathon presented by TechZap. Over one intense sprint, engineers, quants and designers turn market chaos into working product — trading systems, market predictors, fintech, risk engines, DeFi and everything in between.
Pick a niche. Go absurdly deep. Ship something the street hasn't seen yet.
The markets never sleep, and neither do great builders. Hefty Hacks challenges you to build at the intersection of finance and trading — from high-frequency execution engines to market predictors, robo-advisors, fraud radars and on-chain quant tooling.
There's one rule that decides winners: go narrow. Anyone can build "a trading app." The teams that win pick a niche so specific it sounds obsessive — then own it.
Build on either track — or fuse them into something nobody has shipped yet.
Reinvent how money moves, grows and stays safe — on-chain or off.
Turn market microstructure into a working edge.
Combine both tracks into something genuinely unique.
Bring the idea. Let AI sharpen it.
Generating your idea straight from an AI is strongly discouraged — judges can smell a generated pitch, and a borrowed thesis has no conviction behind it. Instead:
Your niche, AI's leverage. Originality is the edge we score for.
| Phase | When | Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | 06 Jul | Registrations Open— lock your team of 2–6 |
| 02 | 10 Oct | Idea Submission— one crisp problem, one bold bet |
| 03 | 15 Oct | Soft Shortlisting— shortlisted teams unlock mentorship + Azure credits |
| 04 | 18 Oct | Mentor Matching— get paired with operators, quants & founders |
| 05 | 25 Oct | Prototype Checkpoint— show a working core |
| 06 | 31 Oct – 1 Nov | Final Hack Day— 36 hours, ship the build |
| 07 | 1 Nov | Demo & Judging— pitch live to the panel |
Dates are indicative and may be fine-tuned before the event.
Everyone starts on the same floor. Submit your idea, clear the first soft shortlisting, and the war room opens:
A sharp, unique idea executed well beats a broad idea half-built.
Hefty Hacks is built and run by TechZap — bringing builders together to disrupt finance.
Build. Innovate. Disrupt.