Quick Build, Careful Check? Generative AI Use in Hackathons

[2607.29178] Quick Build, Careful Check? Generative AI Use in Hackathons Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Computer Science > Software Engineering arXiv:2607.29178 (cs) [Submitted on 31 Jul 2026] Title: Quick Build, Careful Check? Generative AI Use in Hackathons Authors: Wangyiyao Zhou , Alexander Serebrenik , Alexander Nolte View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Hackathons are time-bounded events where participants form teams to rapidly build software projects. Their short-term nature makes them a natural setting for Generative AI (GenAI) use, given its promise of speed and efficiency. Yet despite GenAI being increasingly adopted in these events, we still know little about what participants use GenAI for and, crucially, what they do not use it for and why. We report an exploratory interview study with participants from different teams at a two-day AI-themed hackathon in central Europe. We found that participants used GenAI for purposes beyond coding, including learning unfamiliar topics, brainstorming, and preparing documentation. At the same time, they combined multiple GenAI and non-GenAI tools depending on task fit. We also found that, despite the absence of team rules, all participants we studied converged on an unwritten practice of checking GenAI output before using it, yet their ability to actually verify was constrained by time pressure and limited domain knowledge. This work aims to identify avenues for further investigation by outlining a follow-up study combining observation, surveys, and prompt-and-response logs. Comments: Accepted at ICGJ 2026 (International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events) Subjects: Software Engineering (cs.SE) Cite as: arXiv:2607.29178 [cs.SE] (or arXiv:2607.29178v1 [cs.SE] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.29178 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Proceedings of the 2026 International Conference on Game Jams Hackathons and Game Creation Events, 2026, pp. 23-27 Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1145/3833089.3833091 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Wangyiyao Zhou [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:59:18 UTC (16 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: cs.SE < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-07 Change to browse by: cs References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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