Build ItNo AWS account needed
Grand prize
Announcing soon
+ $5,000
In AWS credits, on top
To the winning team
Build locally with the open-source AWS stack: Strands, Cedar, SAM Local, PartyRock, OpenSearch. No account, no card, no bill.
First Commit
01 / Prizes
Two tracks, a grand prize each
Nothing to pick when you enter. Build It and Ship It are decided by what your project turns out to be, and Best UI is open to both.
Two grand prizes
One per track, announced soon
Each comes with $5,000 in AWS credits, $10,000 across the two tracks. The three prizes under them are on top of that.
Ship ItRuns on the platform
Grand prize
Announcing soon
+ $5,000
In AWS credits, on top
To the winning team
Deploy it live on AWS and hand us a URL. Free credits cover the weekend, and the architecture is part of the score.
Judged prizeOpen to both tracks
Apple iPad
To every member of the team
Best UI
The best-designed project of the event: the one that is a pleasure to use, and not only a pleasure to describe.
Open to everyoneOn Builder Center
Amazon Alexa
To one writer
Best Blog
Write up what you built: the problem, the stack, what fought back. Publish it on AWS Builder Center and link it in your submission.
Open to everyonePost as you build
Swag boxes
To ten of you
Tour swag
Share what you are building while you build it, and tag WeMakeDevs so we can find it. The ten best posts get the tour kit.
The grand prizes are being finalised. They land on this page first, and everyone registered is told the same day. The $5,000 per track is awarded as AWS credits, not as cash.
02 / What you build
Bring the problem. We'll bring the shelf.
The theme is open. Build something real, something yours. What matters is that it works and you can show it.
Open source, on your machine
Build It
Strands Agents SDK
agents, on local models
PartyRock
AI apps in the browser
Cedar
authorization as policy
SAM CLI + LocalStack
serverless on localhost
OpenSearch, Firecracker, Corretto
the rest of it
No AWS account, no card, no bill.
Deployed, with a URL
Ship It
Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3
scales to zero
Amazon Bedrock
foundation models
Amplify Hosting, App Runner
a URL in minutes
Cognito, EventBridge, Step Functions
the plumbing
Free credits cover the weekend.
03 / Home base
Your home base
One free profile, and the workshops, sandboxes, learning paths and credits behind it are the whole reason the weekend works.
Everything starts at AWS Builder Center. Free, no credit card, two minutes to sign up.
Hands-on workshops
Hundreds of step-by-step labs, built by AWS.
Free sandboxes
Eight-hour AWS environments, with no account of your own.
Learn by doing
Curated learning paths for students, through your Builder ID.
Toolbox
Find AWS SDKs, open-source projects, and language resources in one place.
Your builder profile
Public, and yours to keep long after the weekend.
04 / Ideas
Bring your own idea, or start from one of these
None of these are briefs. They're the kind of small, real problem that wins this thing.
An agent that reads a confusing document and explains it: an electricity bill, a rental agreement, a syllabus.
A tool that automates the thing you do by hand every single week.
An app your hostel, your class, or your family group chat actually needs.
A local-language interface for something that only works in English.
A policy engine that decides who can access what, built on Cedar.
An offline-first app that survives bad wifi instead of waiting for it.
05 / Judging
What judges look for
Four things, and the second one decides most of it.
The idea
The theme is open, so the problem is yours to find. A tiny problem solved well beats a big one solved vaguely.
Built on AWS
Where you win or lose
Build It is judged on the open-source stack: Strands, Cedar, SAM Local, PartyRock, OpenSearch. Ship It is judged on the platform: the services you chose, the architecture, the cost decisions. Either way, AWS belongs at the core of the project and not in the README.
The execution
Does it work? Not perfect, not polished. Working. One feature that runs beats five that almost do.
The demo
Three minutes to show what it does, who it is for, and where AWS fits. Practise it, because it counts.
We judge what you built, not what you spent. Local projects and deployed projects are scored with the same care. Cloud usage counts only in Ship It, where architecture and cost decisions are part of the work. Best UI is judged on design and usability.
06 / FAQ
Got questions?
Do I need to know AWS?
No. Workshops run the week before, and the Build It track needs no AWS account at all.
Do I need a credit card?
No. Build It needs nothing. For Ship It, debit cards and RuPay work, and the verification charge is about ₹2.
Can I participate online?
Yes, fully. Same theme, same judging, same prizes, and no cap on numbers.
Where is the venue?
Polaris School of Technology in Bangalore, open on Sept 19. Online runs the whole four days from anywhere in India.
Who can participate?
University students across India.
How big can a team be?
One to four people.
Is it free?
Yes. Free to register, free to take part.
What do I submit?
A public repo, a demo video of two to three minutes, and a short writeup.
Can I start building before the event?
Learn and practise as much as you want. Project work starts when the clock does.
Stop 01 of 06
Make the first commit.
Four days, one project, and a Builder Center profile that outlasts the weekend. Your tour signup comes with it, and covers all six stops.
Bangalore opens the tour. Online is open to all of India.