Blaze's Trailblaze through Syntax Error X
A Journey Begins
As a fresher, I was passionate about development but lacked the experience and skills to back it up. I had been attending lectures organized by SDSLabs, and it was during one of those that I heard about their hackathon, Syntax Error. Curious, I decided to check out some of the projects from previous editions. The creativity and innovation behind those ideas blew me away. Without wasting any time, I called my friend and excitedly said, “We have to participate in this!”
So, we started looking for teammates and eventually put together a team of four. Then came the hard part—brainstorming. We spent hours coming up with ideas, but we couldn’t settle on a single one.
On the day of the hackathon, during the opening ceremony, we were still completely clueless about what we were going to build. There was an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session after the opening ceremony, and I rushed over to some seniors and admitted we still didn’t have a single idea. They told me to stay calm and assured me that it wasn’t too late—we could still come up with something during the hackathon. That’s when it hit me: I love music, so why not build something related to it?
That’s when I stumbled upon the Spotify API. I was impressed by how well it was structured and how easy it was to use. I pitched the idea to my teammates, and we started exploring different ways we could use it. After a lot of back-and-forth (and with the hackathon already well underway), we finally decided to combine all our ideas into one.
By the way, our team name was cout<<hello world;, which, if you’re familiar with C++, gives a syntax error—very fitting for a hackathon called Syntax Error, right?
Our Ideas
We had four core ideas:
- Moodify: You share your mood, and we suggest a song to match it.
- Quizzical: A music quiz where you guess a song’s genre after hearing it.
- KeyDM: Every key you press creates a beat, so you can make your own music.
- Lyricsage: You input a song, and it gives you a summary of the lyrics.
Now, here’s the kicker—we had never built a full-stack application before. We only knew how to make simple frontend pages, but I had recently learned Python. That’s when I discovered Flask, a Python backend framework. We all said, “Jai Mata Di!” and decided to go with Flask for our backend.
I made a pact with myself: no sleep for the next 36 hours. I downed espresso shots like they were water and got to work. I even skipped all my classes the next morning. By the evening, my teammates and I remembered that we had our departmental freshers’ party, but we quickly decided, “Nope, we’re skipping that too!” We stayed focused on the hackathon.
The Final Push
We somehow managed to assemble all the parts of our code that we had made individually and got it to work. There were definitely moments of disapproval and miscommunication within the team, but we pushed through and managed to make it work in the end. It was already around an hour or two left for submission, and we had to make a video for our project. We scrambled to put everything together and submitted it just in time.
After submitting, I crashed—hard. I hadn’t slept for over 50 hours at that point (thanks to the hackathon and the previous day). I locked my door and went into deep sleep mode.
Later that evening, I woke up to loud banging on my door. My phone had hundreds of missed calls from my teammates. I panicked, thinking I had messed something up. I opened the door, and my friends were there, telling me we had just 10 minutes to show our project to the seniors. We ran to SDSLabs immediately, and after a few rounds of interviews and demos, we got the news: We won!
Wrap-Up
It was unreal. This was my first hackathon, and it was honestly an unforgettable experience. I don’t think I’ll ever feel the same kind of thrill and excitement that I had during Syntax Error. It will always be my favorite hackathon.
I learned so much in such a short amount of time. From figuring out how to use the Spotify API to building a full-stack app with Flask. The whole experience felt like a rollercoaster—full of stress, exhaustion, but also excitement. Winning the hackathon was the cherry on top, but the real reward was the journey, the team spirit, and everything I got to learn along the way.
Participating in Syntax Error made me realize that even when you feel like you don’t know enough or that you’re not ready, just diving in and figuring things out as you go can lead to incredible outcomes. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, forced me to think on my feet.
Looking back, I can’t help but smile. That sleepless, chaotic, espresso-filled hackathon taught me more than I could have learned in weeks of traditional studying. It also showed me that the developer community is filled with supportive people who are there to help you when you need it.
Since then, I’ve been hooked on hackathons, but Syntax Error will always hold a special place in my heart as the first one that sparked my passion for development.