VITERBI
Working as a team in 48 hours
Name roles in the first hour. One person holds the demo path. One person holds the story and the pitch. One person watches the clock and cuts scope. If you are two people, split the first and the third, and share the story.
The leader is the person who created the team code. They can lock the roster. They are not the boss of the idea. Anyone can edit the team card until it is locked.
Check in every four hours. Three questions: what works, what we are cutting, who is stuck. Write the cut list where everyone can see it. A feature that is not on the demo path gets cut, even if it is clever.
Three hours before the Sunday lock, freeze features. From there you only fix the path a judge will touch. New ideas go on a note for later, not into the repo.
Sleep in shifts if you are up late. A person who has not slept cannot demo. The Midnight Games are for a break, not a reason to skip rest before judging.
If the team disagrees, return to the three lines from scoping: one user, one failure, one action. The build that serves those three lines wins the argument.
Write down who is holding each role so nobody assumes. If someone is new to hackathons, give them a piece they can finish: the user sentence, the slide with four criteria, the test of the happy path. Do not leave them watching. A team of strangers works when the next four hours are obvious.
Eat when food is out. The Midnight Games are a break, and mentors play, so go if you want a reset. Then sleep. Sunday judging starts at noon in Ginsburg Hall. A rested demo beats a larger one.