Conversational form
Hackathon registration form that handles solo and teams
Half the people who register for a hackathon do not have a team yet, and a form that assumes otherwise loses them on the second question. This one asks solo or team first, then keeps the teammate table optional, and turns the skills tick list into the data the Friday night matching actually runs on.
The form itself
The first screen of the form. A conversational form shows one question per screen, so the remaining screens are listed in the field table below. Nothing here can be filled in or submitted, so read it as a reference and build your own from the button above.
Every field, and what it collects
The complete field list, in the order respondents meet it.
- What is your name?Short textRequired
- Use the name you want called out if your team wins something.
- Where should the confirmation go?EmailRequired
- One email when your place is confirmed and one the week of the event. Nothing else, and the list is not shared with sponsors.
- Solo or with a team?Single choiceRequired
- Roughly half of every cohort registers solo. Team forming on the Friday evening is a real part of the event, not a fallback.
- Options: Solo, please match me with a team · I have a team and I am registering us · I have one or two people and we want more
- Your teammatesTable
- Up to three, since teams cap at four including you. Everyone listed gets their own confirmation email and has to accept it, so a name here is an invitation rather than a registration. Leave it blank if you are solo.
- Columns: Name · Email · Role they want
- Which track?DropdownRequired
- Tracks are judged separately with their own prize. You can change track until the Friday briefing but not after it.
- Options: Climate and energy data · Accessibility and assistive tech · Civic services and open data · Open track, anything you like
- What do you bring to a team?Multiple choiceRequired
- Tick everything that is true, not everything you are best at. This is what the Friday matching runs on, so an honest four ticks beats an ambitious eight.
- Options: Front end · Back end · Mobile · Data and machine learning · Design and user research · Hardware and electronics · Product and pitching · Domain expertise in one of the tracks
- A code handle or portfolio linkShort text
- Optional, and never used to judge anybody. Organisers use it to balance teams so that four people who have never shipped anything do not end up together by accident.
- What laptop are you bringing?Single choiceRequired
- The venue has power at every seat and a wired option at half of them. This answer decides how many adapters and how many loan machines are on the table.
- Options: macOS laptop · Windows laptop · Linux laptop · Chromebook or tablet only · I do not have one and would like to borrow
- Have you been to a hackathon before?Single choiceRequired
- First timers get a Friday walkthrough of how the weekend runs and what judging actually looks for. Nobody is placed differently because of this answer.
- Options: This is my first · One or two · Several · I have mentored or judged one
- How do you eat?Multiple choiceRequired
- Six meals are provided across the weekend. Tick everything that applies and put severe allergies in the last screen as well.
- Options: No restrictions · Vegetarian · Vegan · Halal · Gluten free · Dairy free
- The code of conductMultiple choiceRequired
- It is short, it is enforced, and the organisers have removed people for breaching it. Reading it is the condition of a place.
- Options: I have read the code of conduct and I accept it · I understand harassment of any kind ends a participant place immediately · I know how to reach the two named organisers on call during the weekend
- Accessibility needs, severe allergies, anything elseLong text
- Read only by the two organisers running the weekend, and arranged before you arrive rather than on the day.
Solo is the default path, not the exception
The third screen offers three answers and the first is solo, please match me with a team, with a description saying roughly half of every cohort does that and that Friday night matching is a real part of the event. Events that bury the solo option under a required team name lose exactly the people they most want, the ones who saw the poster and do not know anybody. The teammate table that follows is optional and holds three rows, because teams cap at four, and its description says a name there is an invitation rather than a registration.
The skills list is matching data, and it says so
Eight ticks covering front end through domain expertise, with a description asking for everything that is true rather than everything somebody is best at. That sentence is the whole design. A skills question read as a resume gets eight ticks from everybody and matches nothing, while one read as a team building input gets four honest ticks and produces teams with a designer in them. The optional code handle sits underneath for the same reason, with the promise that it is never used to judge anybody, only to avoid a team of four first timers formed by accident.
How to adapt this form
A student only hackathon adds a university and year screen and turns the laptop question into a loan request, since many campuses lend machines. A corporate internal hack drops the code of conduct screens down to one and replaces the track dropdown with a business unit. A hardware focused event needs a screen listing what participants are bringing, because a room full of soldering irons and a room full of laptops need different power, ventilation and insurance, and none of that can be arranged in the week before.
What makes this form work
The solo option is listed first and normalised
Solo, please match me with a team sits at the top with a note that half the cohort does the same. That one line converts the registrant who was about to close the tab because they have nobody to bring.
The skills tick list asks for true, not impressive
Eight options and an instruction to tick everything that is true rather than everything you are best at. Honest answers are what let organisers put a designer and a presenter in every team on the Friday night.
The teammate table collects the role each person wants
Name, email and role they want, three rows. A team that registers with three back end people and no presenter is visible weeks early, and organisers can suggest a fourth before the weekend rather than after the pitch.
Questions people ask
How many questions should a hackathon registration ask?
Twelve screens here and nine are required. The three optional ones, the teammate table, the code handle and the final notes box, each apply to a subset of registrants. An event that makes the teammate table required has just told half its audience that they are not welcome.
Why is the teammate table limited to three rows?
Because teams cap at four including the person registering, and a table renders exactly the rows it is given. A fifth name would be a second team. The rows also collect the role each person wants, which is the field that stops four back end developers registering as a team with no one to present.
Can this form take a ticket fee?
No, and this event does not charge one. Where a hackathon does charge, the place is usually conditional on track balance, as it is here with two confirmation batches, so taking money at registration creates refunds for everybody who is not placed. Payment belongs after a place is confirmed.
What about participants under eighteen?
This form is written for adults and does not carry a guardian block. A student event that admits minors needs a guardian name, contact and consent, plus a separate question about overnight access, because a forty eight hour event with no lockout is a very different proposition for a sixteen year old.
Why ask which laptop somebody is bringing?
Because it decides how many adapters, how many wired seats and how many loan machines sit on the table on Friday. The last option, I do not have one and would like to borrow, is the one that matters, and an event that never offers it never learns how many people it excluded.
Is the code of conduct really three ticks?
Yes, and each one is a different fact: that they read it, that harassment ends a place immediately, and that they know how to reach the two on call organisers. The third is the one that does the most good on the night, because a person who has already read a name is far more likely to use it.
Build your own in about a minute
The button below opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own, generate, then edit anything you like.
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