I just beat 30 FAANG engineers at a hackathon by myself as a freshman in college.

I just beat 30 FAANG engineers at a hackathon by myself as a freshman in college. So here are the tips I have for you if you want to win your next hackathon too. The last tip is the one that everyone misses. The first thing's first, you need to know what you're gonna build ahead of time. Have an idea in mind and come fully prepared, having read all the API and integration docs that you need. Number two is probably the most obvious, you need to use and leverage AI smarter and faster than your competitors. Use Next, Tailwind, and V0 to set up your front end, and then from there I prefer Express, you can use Fast API, Superbase, you can also use MongoDB, and Cursor for the IDE to set up the back end. I was in a room full of 10x engineers, but I was still able to outwork all of them by efficiently using the stack. Third, and the one that basically everyone neglects, is that your presentation skills matter as much as your coding skills. You can't just get up on stage and start reading off a boring slideshow. Instead, engage the audience in a meaningful way. Have your demo require audience participation or something that's tangible and doesn't just live on a screen. Also really important, if there's a rubric, be sure to address every single criteria on the rubric during your presentation. If you want a part two, drop a follow.