1. Zero tolerance policy on racism, sexism, homophobia, abuse, or anything inappropriate. If you would like to report any misconduct, please do so here: https://forms.gle/t3YD8SbuDgMmugif6
  2. There is a maximum team size of 4, no minimum team size.
  3. Teams should be made up exclusively of students who are not organizers, during-event volunteers, judges, sponsors, or in any other privileged position at the event.
  4. All team members should be present at the event. Leaving the venue for some time to hack elsewhere is fine.
  5. Teams can, of course, gain advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.
  6. All work on a project should be done at the hackathon (do not start hacking before 12pm Saturday, Nov 7 or after 12pm Sunday, Nov 8).
  7. Teams can use an idea they had before the event.
  8. Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. Hacks do not have to be "innovative." If somebody wants to work on a common idea they should be allowed to do so and should be judged on the quality of their hack, not the originality of the idea.
  9. Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code).
  10. Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.
  11. Teams must stop hacking once the time is up. However, teams are allowed to debug and make small fixes to their programs after time is up — e.g. if during demoing your hack you find a bug that breaks your application and the fix is only a few lines of code, it's okay to fix that. Making large changes or adding new features is not allowed.
  12. Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers' discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the Competition Rules, or other unsporting behavior.
  13. High school participants must have a signed guardian waiver on file before the event begins, per GullHacks' eligibility policy for minors.
  14. This event follows the MLH Code of Conduct in addition to the rules above.