🚀 Hackathon Buddy

A full-stack MERN platform that intelligently matches hackathon participants with the right teammates, projects, and now live hackathons across platforms.

🌐 Live Demo

🚀 Live Website

https://hackathon-buddy-three.vercel.app/

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📸 UI Preview 🏠 Dashboard

🤝 Matching Page

📦 Projects Page

🌍 Hackathons Page

👤 Collaborative Editor

👤 Profile Page

🌟 Key Features

🧠 Smart Team Matching

Matches users based on:

Factor	Weight	Method
Skills	50%	Jaccard similarity
Interests	30%	Jaccard similarity
Role Compatibility	20%	Compatibility matrix

• Score range: 0–100
• Returns Top 5 best matches

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🧑‍💻 Project Collaboration

• Create / join / leave projects
• Role-based team building
• Project-specific chat rooms

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💬 Real-time Chat (Persistent)

• Built with Socket.io
• Room-based messaging per project
• Stores chat history in MongoDB
• Loads last 100 messages on join

Socket Events:

• join_room
• send_message
• receive_message
• room_history

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🌍 Hackathon Discovery (NEW 🚀)

Browse hackathons from multiple platforms in one place:

• Devpost
• Devfolio
• HackerEarth
• Unstop

Features:

• Live aggregated hackathon feed

• Filters:

  • Platform
  • Mode (Online / Hybrid / In-person)
  • Status (Open / Upcoming)

• Search by tags, organizers

• Sort by prize

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🏗️ Tech Stack

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• JWT Authentication
• Socket.io
• bcryptjs

Frontend

• React 18
• Vite
• Tailwind CSS
• Axios
• React Router DOM
• Socket.io-client

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📁 Project Structure

hackathon-buddy/
├── server/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── auth.js
│   │   ├── users.js
│   │   ├── projects.js
│   │   ├── match.js
│   │   ├── github.js
│   │   └── hackathon.js   # NEW
│   ├── services/
│   ├── middleware/
│   ├── sockets/
│   │   └── editorSocket.js
│   └── server.js
│
├── client/
│   └── src/
│       ├── components/
│       ├── pages/
│       │   ├── Dashboard.jsx
│       │   ├── Matching.jsx
│       │   ├── Projects.jsx
│       │   ├── Hackathons.jsx  # NEW
│       │   ├── Profile.jsx
│       │   └── Chat.jsx
│       ├── context/
│       ├── services/
│       └── utils/

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⚙️ Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18+
• MongoDB (local or Atlas)

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1️⃣ Backend Setup

cd server
cp .env.example .env
npm install
npm run dev

Server runs on: 👉 http://localhost:5000

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2️⃣ Frontend Setup

cd client
npm install
npm run dev

Frontend runs on: 👉 http://localhost:5173

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🔐 Environment Variables

server/.env

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/hackathon-buddy
JWT_SECRET=your_secret_key
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

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🔌 API Endpoints

🔐 Auth

Method	Endpoint
POST	/api/auth/register
POST	/api/auth/login

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👤 Users

Method	Endpoint
GET	/api/users/me
PUT	/api/users/update
GET	/api/users/all

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📦 Projects

Method	Endpoint
POST	/api/projects
GET	/api/projects
GET	/api/projects/my
POST	/api/projects/join/:id
POST	/api/projects/leave/:id

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🤝 Matching

Method	Endpoint
GET	/api/match/users
GET	/api/match/projects

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🌍 Hackathons (NEW)

Method	Endpoint
GET	/api/hackathons

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🔄 Real-time Chat Flow

1. User joins project
2. join_room event triggered
3. Server sends room_history
4. User sends message → send_message
5. Server saves to DB
6. Broadcast via receive_message

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📸 UI Preview

• Dashboard
• Matching Page
• Projects Page
• Hackathons Page
• Chat System

(Add screenshots here for GitHub impact)

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🚧 Known Issues

• Hackathon prize field sometimes shows raw HTML (<span>) → needs parsing fix
• No pagination in chat (limit: 100 messages)
• No authentication validation in socket events

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🔮 Future Improvements

• AI-based hackathon recommendations
• Chat pagination + infinite scroll
• Typing indicators
• Notifications system
• OAuth (GitHub login)
• Email verification
• Better hackathon data sanitization

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🧪 Testing

• Chat works across multiple users
• Messages persist in MongoDB
• Hackathon data loads with filters
• Matching algorithm returns top 5 users

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⚠️ Reality Check (Important)

• You built a strong MVP, not a production-ready system

• Biggest weak points:

  • No validation on socket layer
  • Hackathon data parsing is sloppy
  • No caching → API will slow down

• If you show this in interview, be ready to explain:

  • scaling strategy
  • data normalization
  • real-time architecture

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👥 Team Members

Roll No.	Name
35	Nilesh Anil Bhat
18	Arya Niraj Gaikwad
26	Abhishek Bhimrao Patil
29	Komal Ganesh Walke

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🏁 Conclusion

Hackathon Buddy now combines:

• Smart team matching
• Project collaboration
• Real-time communication
• Hackathon discovery

This makes it a complete ecosystem for hackathon participants, not just a matching tool.

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