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2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge
Celebrate open source through writing!
It's that time of the year again! Hacktoberfest is a month-long celebration of open source that brings together contributors and maintainers from around the world. This year's writing challenge is designed to happen in parallel with your Hacktoberfest participation, helping drive visibility for maintainer projects and encouraging contributors to write about their contributions while the experience is still fresh.
Unlike last year's challenge which focused solely on end-of-month reflections, this year's writing challenge is designed to happen in parallel with your Hacktoberfest participation if desired.
We want to help drive visibility for maintainer projects and encourage contributors to write about their contributions while the experience is still fresh. And don't worry, we still have a prompt for reflections for anyone who would prefer to code now and write later.
Key Dates
- Contest start: October 01, 2025
- Submissions due: November 02, 2025
- Winners announced: November 20, 2025
Badge Rewards
Challenge Prompts
Maintainer Spotlight - Share Your Project
For maintainers: Showcase the open source project you maintain and invite contributors to get involved!
Tell us about your project, what makes it special, why you're passionate about maintaining it, and how others can contribute.
This is your chance to attract new contributors, celebrate your community, and share what you've learned as a maintainer.
Judging Criteria:
- Style and Presentation
- Clarity
- Originality
Contribution Chronicles - Share Your Impact
For contributors: Highlight the contributions you're making during Hacktoberfest and what you learned along the way!
Whether you're documenting a single meaningful contribution or reflecting on multiple PRs across different projects, we want to hear about it.
Share the issues you tackled, the projects you discovered, the challenges you overcame, and what you gained from participating. You can write one post per contribution or combine them all into a single reflection.
Judging Criteria:
- Style and Presentation
- Clarity
- Originality
Open Source Reflections
For everyone: Reflect on your Hacktoberfest experience and what open source means to you.
Share your thoughts on participating in Hacktoberfest 2025. What did you learn? How did it change your perspective on open source? What advice would you give to someone considering participating next year?
This prompt welcomes all voices: maintainers, contributors, first-timers, and veterans alike.
Judging Criteria:
- Style and Presentation
- Clarity
- Originality
Frequently Asked Questions
Participation
Can I submit to multiple prompts?
Yes, you are welcome to submit to multiple prompts.
Can one submission qualify for multiple prompts?
Yes, if your submission offers a solution to multiple prompts, it can qualify for multiple prompts.
Can I submit to a prompt more than once?
No, you can only submit to each prompt one time.
Can I work on a team?
Yes, participants can work on teams of up to four people for any prompt.
- If you collaborate with anyone, you'll need to list their DEV handles in your submission post so we can award a badge to your entire team! Please only publish one submission per team.
- DEV does not handle prize-splitting, so in the event that your submission wins, you will need to split any prizes amongst yourselves. Thank you for understanding!
How old do I have to be to participate?
Participants need to be 18+ in order to participate.
If I live in X, am I eligible to participate?
For eligibility rules, see our official challenge rules.
Submission
Do submissions have to be in English?
Non-english submissions are eligible for a completion badge but not eligible for prizes due to the current limitations of our judges. We will not be judging on mastery of the English language, so please don't let this deter you from submitting if you are not a native English speaker! We hope to evolve this in the future to be more accommodating.
Can I use AI?
Your writing must be original but you are allowed to use AI for light support and assistance.
What if I've already been publishing with the #hacktoberfest tag?
Great news! We'll consider all posts published during the challenge period (October 1 - November 2) with the #hacktoberfest tag as a submission.
Judging and Prizing
Can there be ties?
In the event of a tie in scoring between judges, the judges will select the entry that received the highest number of positive reactions on their DEV post to determine the winner.
How will I know if I won?
Winners will be announced in a DEV post on the winner announcement date noted in our key dates section.
When will I receive my DEV badge?
Both participation and winner badges will be awarded, in most cases, the same day as the winner announcement.
2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge Rules
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends November 2, 2025 at 11:59 PM PST. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entries must be submitted during the contest period. For Official Rules, see 2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge Contest Rules and General Contest Official Rules.