Brainstorm word cloud
Terms mined today from the brief, current gallery submissions, past winning projects in related Devpost hackathons and the discussion board. Bigger = more frequent (brief and winners weigh more). Click a word to see winning projects that mention it.
students · building · platform · safety · smarter · plan · chutes · memory · smart · agents · next · explore · developer account · route · web · zero · scales · reads · digital · resources · bridge · waste · confidential · patient · discover · sooner · helping · glasses · notes · intelligent · money · set · business · wallet · sign · support · problem statements · businesses · put · developers
Past winners in related hackathons
Winner-badged projects from ended Devpost hackathons that share a theme with this one. Read a few before you pick an idea.
- Tether — Tether is a night-out safety app that turns passive location sharing into proactive alerts, connecting friends and sober guardians when users need help most. Leave Tethered, Return Together! (UIUC Product Hackathon - Hack to the Future)
- Seismic — When earthquakes strike, Seismic is what keeps you safe and alive! (MarinHacks)
- productivity tool — an productivity tool used for students daily work and shows dashboards etc.. (Hackdays Maa Chandika Convent School )
- Umbra City—Paris — The coolest route is the shadiest one — sun-smart streets for smarter walkers. (Lumora Hacks)
- SafeHer — Not just the fastest route — the safest one (Zero Origin)
- RoofGrid — Turn any rooftop into a practical, data-driven solar plan. (InfinityX Global Hackathon 2K26)
- Tunjuk — Tunjuk is an open-source web AI screen tutor. Sign in with Chutes, share any window, ask anything. Every inference call hits your own wallet, Tunjuk holds zero credits and scales free forever. (Chutes Hack Malaysia 2026)
- Fluent AI — Translation isn’t understanding. Our AI browser extension explains forms in your language, talks you through each question, and fills them in as you reply—making complex paperwork easier to complete. (UIUC Product Hackathon - Hack to the Future)
- Fyrefly — Lighting the Way Out-When fire strikes, FYREFLY reads the danger, reroutes in real time, and gets people out before the flames close in. (MarinHacks)
- TransPride Equality Among All — TransPride empowers equality for all communities—building an inclusive digital space with resources, stories, and support to bridge divides and celebrate unity. Join us! (Hackdays Maa Chandika Convent School )
- Arbiter — Arbiter sorts recycling from trash at the bin. Pi Camera + MobileNetV3 + servo lever. Locked domain for consistent captures. 97% waste precision, 86% recall on Pi-captured holdout. (Lumora Hacks)
- ScaleFlow — ScaleFlow dynamically scales cloud resources during traffic spikes, distributes workloads across healthy instances, monitors infrastructure, and enables automated failure recovery. (Zero Origin)
Judging criteria
Criteria as listed on the official page; weights are not stated there, so they are drawn equal. source ↗
How thoroughly and skillfully does the project use PayPal Developer Platform and AI tool(s)? Does the project reflect genuine effort and a working, non-trivial implementation?
Does the project deliver a complete, coherent product experience — not just a technical proof of concept?
Does the project make a credible, specific case for solving a real problem for a real audience — and does the solution actually address that problem based on what's demonstrated?
How creative and novel is the concept and does the project differ from existing concepts?
Does the video clearly demonstrate the project working end-to-end? Does the pitch communicate what problem is solved, who it's for, and why it matters? Is the overall presentation easy to follow?
Timeline
Submission period (from Devpost): Oct 01 - Nov 12, 2026. Deadline: Deadline: Nov 12, 2026 @ 12:00pm PST.
How a beginner can ship
- Read the rules page
Check eligibility, team rules and what must be submitted.
- Pick one idea from the word cloud
Choose one problem and one user; cut everything else.
- Build the smallest working version
One flow that works end to end beats five half features.
- Record the demo early
Most Devpost judging leans on the video and description.
From the discussion board
- Sandbox - PayPal wallet Vault refused for platform app (NOT_ENABLED_TO_VAULT_PAYMENT_SOURCE)
- Problem statements
- API Key for Judges
- PayPal sandbox MCP - Error
- Do I get recording of the 6th Oct,2026 session.
- How to join a team?
- How to sign up for a PayPal developer account from a country(Bangladesh) that doesn't has PayPal support?
- Looking for new teammates in design and presentation
- Unable to create paypal developer account
- Maximum Team size?
- Looking for teammate
Discussion 0
No discussion yet. Ask the first question or post a team-up for this competition.
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Same account as pocketplay.win (Google or username). Posting needs a Google-linked account.