Frequently asked questions

Any student enrolled in high school as of November 14, 2026, anywhere in the world. There are no grade, country or experience restrictions.

No. Registration, workshops and starter materials are all free.

No. Our starter notebooks and free workshops cover what you need to build your first model. We also have a Best Beginner Build award for first-time builders.

Either. Teams can have 1 to 3 members, and teammates can be from different schools or countries. When you register, choose solo, a team of 2 or a team of 3, and add your teammates' names and emails.

Fully virtual. Kickoff, submissions, workshops and the November 21 finals all happen online, so you can take part from anywhere.

All times are in ET. The challenge briefs drop at 12:00 AM ET on November 14 and are sent by email, and submissions close at 11:59 PM ET on November 15. You can work whenever suits you in between, so you won't miss anything if it's the middle of the night where you are.

You can learn, practice and form your team as early as you like, but all project code has to be written during the 48 hours. The challenges aren't revealed until kickoff.

Yes, the same way working engineers do: to debug, explain concepts or speed up routine code. But you need to understand and be able to explain everything in your project, and finalists will be asked about their choices live. Public datasets, open-source libraries and pre-trained models are allowed as long as you credit them.

Working code (a Colab notebook or GitHub repo), a short write-up, and a 2-minute demo video. See About for the details.

Round 1 submissions are reviewed blind by the Veritas AI team against our published rubric. Finalists then demo live to our judging panel on November 21.

Deadlines are firm, and late submissions aren't accepted. We strongly recommend submitting at least an hour early. We can't make exceptions for technical issues in the final minutes.

Live at the Finals and Award Ceremony on Saturday, November 21, 2026. It's livestreamed, so friends and family can watch.

An internship at a health AI startup for every member of the Gold-winning team, plus scholarships to Veritas AI Scholars and the Veritas AI Fellowship, from a prize pool worth over $75,000. Winning projects are also featured on veritasai.com. See the full list on the Prizes page.

A remote, working internship at Arecibo AI for every member of the Gold-winning team. Arecibo AI is a healthcare AI startup founded by serial entrepreneur Benny Esparra and Dr. Yanshan Wang of the University of Pittsburgh. It builds AI systems for healthcare organizations and HealthTech companies, along with Arecibo ARC, an AI companion app for older adults living with cognitive impairment. Because the internship is remote, you can do it from anywhere in the world.

Winners and award recipients get claim instructions by email after November 21. Internships and scholarships must be claimed by December 6, 2026. They're non-transferable and have no cash value.

Yes. Everyone who submits a project gets a digital certificate of participation, and award winners get award-specific certificates.

No. The hackathon is run by Veritas AI, which was founded by Harvard graduate students and alumni. Veritas AI is part of the Lumiere Education family.

You'll finish with a real AI project, a working demo and, if you place, a verifiable award you can list and talk about in essays and interviews. We don't make claims about admissions outcomes, because no competition honestly can.