Getting ready for an IBM Cloud Hackathon?

Here is a list of material that we found particularly useful to get hackathon participants up and running quickly.

Sign up for IBM Cloud

Make sure to sign up here for IBM Cloud before the hackathon. It's free.

Learn the Basics

Understand how to deploy an app based on Cloud Foundry

Cloud Foundry is an open-source platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that allows you to concentrate on your code without worrying about the underlying infrastructure (like VMs or containers). That allows you to get your apps up and running quickly ... an ideal environment for a hackathon.

Here's a a link to get you started: Creating Cloud Foundry apps

Using node.js? If so, here is a guided experience that will have your first node app running in a few minutes: Get started with Node on IBM Cloud

Have a look at this IBM Redbook as well, it gives a good overview of how to deploy your first app on Bluemix: Essentials of Cloud Application Development on IBM Bluemix

If you prefer a more structured course, here is a link to a 4-hour online class to get you started with Bluemix: Bluemix Essentials

Go serverless by using IBM Cloud Functions

IBM Cloud Functions is an event-based driven environment that allows you to deploy serverless apps.

Interested? Take this online workshop to dive in.

Drill down

Covered the basics and want to move on? Level up with this in-depth material.

Collaborative coding and CI/CD pipeline

If you're working with others as part of a team, you'll probably want to use a collaborative coding tool like github and maybe also automate and orchestrate testing, notifications and deployments. The toolchain feature is meant to do exactly that. Click here to find out how to use it.

Internet of Things (IoT)

If the hackathon has an IoT theme to it, you'll want to learn Node-RED. It's an open-source "visual tool for wiring the Internet of Things" and a great way to quickly become productive in a very short period of time. It also requires very little coding knowledge.

Node-RED can be deployed on IBM Cloud with a single click.

Next, learn more about our IoT platform service. Once you understand how it works, go to this link here to find step-by-step instructions to connect your physical devices (like a Rasperry Pi, an Arduino or TI Sensor Tag).

Using Watson cognitive services

Most hackathon participants want to take our IBM Watson services for a spin. Here are two detailed tutorials on how to integrate a cognitive service into your app:

• Developing a Watson application in Node.js
• Developing a Watson application in Java

Or (if you prefer Python) take this free 2-hour class on codecademy.com

• Learn the Watson API: Personality Insights

Blockchain technology

Blockchains are all the rage these days and many hackathon apps make use of them. Here are some quick tutorials to get you started.

If you want to dive deeper, here is a full collection of developer resources to get started with the IBM Blockchain service

Online Courses

Here is the link to all the IBM Cloud online classes from IBM: developerWorks Courses

"IBM Cloud Essentials" will give you a good introduction and take about 3 hours of your time.

To really dive deep, you might want to take "Cloud Application Developer Certification Preparation", which should take you two or three days: Cloud Application Developer Certification Preparation

Webinars

We have an assortment of webinars available in various languages. Have a look here.

Over 400 step-by-step tutorials

And if you're looking for more, here is a link to over 400 detailed step-by-step coding tutorials for Bluemix.

Stuck? Need help?

Make sure to search the IBM Cloud docs first.

Still stuck? Head on over to stackoverflow.com and make sure to tag your question with "bluemix". Here is a direct link.

Inspiring examples

Looking for some inspiring examples? Here is a gallery of 20 well documented apps built on Bluemix. All of them with a cognitive capability and based on the Watson technology. Each has a link to the running app and also links to the source on github.

Head over to https://ibm-cloud.github.io for more featured samples, most accompanied by an in-depth blog post.

And here are almost 500 apps built on IBM Cloud from previous hackathons, many linking to the source code.

Impressions from previous hackathons

Have a look at these videos to see what a hackathon feels like:

ABN Amro #HackITon

The Nordea Innovation Challenge

Westpac & IBM Payments Hackathon

SwissRe Hackathon NYC

SwissRe Hackathon Bangalore

Desjardins Healthy Living Hackathon

ANZ Data Science Hackathon

Multiple Sclerosis Hackathon 2016

Contribute

Do you know of any other good material? Maybe something that helped you to get ready for a Bluemix hackathon? Feel free to send us a pull request!

License

See License for license information.