MLH Global Hack Week
Major League Hacking's free, week-long online hacker festival, held roughly once a month with a different theme each time, such as beginners, open source, AI agents or cloud. It mixes livestreamed workshops, daily challenges and small projects. Anyone, anywhere can join, which makes it an easy first step before an in-person hackathon.
Free
ghw.mlh.com · Oct 2026
Programme
Career Growth
Major League Hacking
One week per event
Beginner
Free
Hackathon
- When
- Open all yearRuns about once a month with open registration. Upcoming weeks in 2026: Builders Week (6 to 12 November) and Open Source Week (4 to 10 December).
- Who can apply
- Anyone, anywhere. Global Hack Week is free and open to all skill levels; MLH's general rules apply for younger participants.
- Where
- Online, global
Dates move from year to year. Check the official page before you plan around them.
What it is
Global Hack Week (GHW) is a free online event from Major League Hacking. Each edition lasts a week and has a theme. In 2026, themes included Beginners, Cloud, APIs, GenAI, Hacking for Good and AI Agents. During the week MLH streams workshops and talks, posts daily challenges and runs community sessions where you can meet other hackers.
Who can apply
Anyone, anywhere. You do not need to be a student or an experienced developer. It is a good fit for students in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh who have few in-person hackathons nearby.
Timeline
There is a Global Hack Week almost every month. The official page listed Builders Week from 6 to 12 November 2026 and Open Source Week from 4 to 10 December 2026. Register on the page before the week starts.
How to take part
- Sign up with a MyMLH account on the Global Hack Week page.
- Join the opening ceremony and the community chat.
- Do the daily challenges in short sessions; you do not need to attend everything.
- Build one small project around the week's theme and share it.
What you get
Free workshops, small challenges that earn points and sometimes swag, a community to learn with and finished mini projects for your GitHub. It is also a way to show interest in MLH programmes such as the MLH Fellowship.
How to use it well
- Treat each week as a sprint on one topic: pick the theme you want to learn, not every one.
- Write a short README for each mini project with what you learned.
- Use the weeks to find teammates for bigger MLH hackathons.
Pair it with on Sefism
- For open source weeks, follow the Open source roadmap.
- For AI weeks, use the AI agents roadmap.
- Start from a small idea in FYP ideas, and use the Programming roadmap if you are new to code.
Best for: beginners and busy students who want a free, low-pressure hackathon experience online.
Ready to start?
Opens on Major League Hacking in a new tab.
Stuck on something specific?
Writing only gets you so far. If you want an answer to your situation rather than the general case, book a session and we will work through it together. Sessions are free for approved Sefism members, and a few slots open each week.
Follow along
New writing, resources and project ideas land here first.