How Hackathons Make You a Better Software Engineer
Beyond Coding8 Loka 2025

How Hackathons Make You a Better Software Engineer

What if you could turn a weekend project into a core product feature at a major tech company? We sit down with Behrouz Pooladrak, a software engineer and hackathon legend at Booking.com, to uncover how these intense competitions can fast-track your skills, career, and impact. He shares the mindset and strategies that took his ideas from a one-day build to a real-world product used by millions.


In this episode, we cover:


How to treat your hackathon project like a mini-startup to guarantee success.

The surprising skills you gain from short-term projects that your daily job can't teach you.

How companies like Booking.com use hackathons to innovate and train new talent.

Why personal projects are the secret weapon for career growth.


This episode is for any software engineer looking to distinguish themselves, learn new technologies rapidly, and make a real impact in the tech industry.


Timestamps:

00:00:49 - The Mindset of a Prolific Builder
00:02:42 - How AI Helps You Build an MVP in One Day
00:06:26 - Why This Engineer is a Hackathon "Living Legend"
00:07:41 - From Hackathon Idea to Real AI Product
00:11:42 - The Secret to Winning: Treat it Like a Startup
00:17:22 - How Booking.com Onboards Juniors with a 4-Week Hackathon
00:20:25 - Why We Still Need Junior Engineers in the Age of AI
00:26:57 - The #1 Struggle Teams Face in Hackathons
00:31:04 - The Real Reason to Join a Hackathon (It’s Not the Prize)
00:35:46 - How to Start and Finish Your Personal Projects
00:40:12 - The Feedback Loop Between Your Job and Hobby Projects


#SoftwareEngineering #Hackathon #CareerGrowth

Jaksot(244)

Your Software Architecture Follows The Money. Here's Why

Your Software Architecture Follows The Money. Here's Why

Most senior engineers don't realize they're stuck until it's too late. The longer you stay, the more people around you have already decided who you are and what you're for. Ian Miell, CTO at Container...

25 Maalis 1h

How to Battle Complexity Before It Kills Your Software (30-Year Veteran's Take)

How to Battle Complexity Before It Kills Your Software (30-Year Veteran's Take)

Most architects stop coding... and that's exactly where they lose their edge. Dennis Doomen has been a hands-on coding architect for 30 years, and his take is blunt: if you're not in the code, you can...

18 Maalis 52min

Uber Engineering Manager on Scaling Systems, Career Trade-offs, and Why Clarity Beats Seniority

Uber Engineering Manager on Scaling Systems, Career Trade-offs, and Why Clarity Beats Seniority

Sendil Nellaiyapen, Engineering Manager at Uber, has built systems that scale to millions of users. In this episode he shares what most engineers get wrong about both system design and the move into e...

11 Maalis 44min

 Lead Software Engineer: Why You Can Write the Code in a Day but Ship in a Month

Lead Software Engineer: Why You Can Write the Code in a Day but Ship in a Month

Are you over-engineering for a future that might never come? In this episode, we explore why "future-proofing" often leads to wasted time and sunk costs, and how shifting your mindset from opinions to...

4 Maalis 39min

How Senior Software Engineers Balance Speed and Quality (Scale-Up Lessons)

How Senior Software Engineers Balance Speed and Quality (Scale-Up Lessons)

The difference between a junior and a senior engineer isn't coding speed, it's knowing when to say "no.""The best code you can write is the code you don't write." In this episode, I sit down with Ales...

25 Helmi 47min

How to Think About Software Engineering (CTO's Perspective)

How to Think About Software Engineering (CTO's Perspective)

We are at a unique point in history where there is finally an alternative to human coding. If AI can write the code effectively, what is left for the software engineer?In this episode, Joris Conijn (A...

18 Helmi 46min

How to Build the Best Platforms for Software Engineers

How to Build the Best Platforms for Software Engineers

Is your internal developer platform actually improving velocity, or is it a bottleneck? We discuss why platform teams building "cool" abstractions is a red flag, and you should aim to create the best ...

11 Helmi 43min

Career Advice I'd Give Every Software Engineer Right Now

Career Advice I'd Give Every Software Engineer Right Now

Engineering hasn't become easier, writing code has just become faster. Time to stop fighting symptoms and start thinking in systems. In this Q&A, I break down the career advice I'd give to any enginee...

4 Helmi 1h 1min