Frequently Asked Questions

If you have other questions that are not covered here or in the rules, please feel free to either ask on #hack-help on our Discord or send an email to the organizing team.

Q. When is the hackathon, and is there a registration deadline?

The hackathon will run from June 3-17th, and you can register at any point before the event is over.

Q. Does it cost anything?

Nope, but YOU can get paid if you work on an issue with a bounty and your contribution is selected by the project maintainers!
See the list of participating projects to see the bountied issues for each repo.

Q. How does the hackathon work?

tl;dr: Make an approved contribution to a participating open source project between June 3-17th and you will win SWAG. If your contribution to a bountied issue is deemed the satisfactory solution by the maintainers of the project, we will send you cash via PayPal.

Q. Can I work on a team? If I want a team, how can I find one?

Absolutely!
You are free to work on teams, just make sure that everyone's username is mentioned in the pull request!
Please note that the bounties are awarded per solution/pull request and it is up to the team to split the money.

If you are looking for a team, please check out the #find-a-team channel on the Discord or post on your favorite social media with the hashtag #unitaryhack.

Q. How difficult is this hackathon?

Contributors with any skill level can participate in unitaryhack. We have worked with maintainers to make sure there are issues available for all levels of experience, both for quantum-related as well as simply open-source-related contributions.
If you are having trouble finding issues you want to work on, be sure to ask on the Discord and the organizing team can brainstorm with you.

Q. What are qualifying pull requests?

Hackers can make contributions anytime between June 3rd and June 17th. Just be sure to sign up here and make sure that you put [unitaryhack] in the title of your pull request so the bots can find your contributions and make sure you get credit!

Q. Will there be mentors who can help us during the event?

Totally! You can find our friendly, open source quantum community on our Discord, where you can as questions in chat and at office hours as well.
Office hours schedule will be posted on Discord closer to the event.

Q. What technology is the focus of this event? (commercial app)

Any quantum open source project listed on our participating projects page.
You will find projects built with a wide variety of languages like Python, Q#, Julia, Ruby, C++, and more.
There is a good mix between industry-focused and application-focused projects as well as some that are more on the research side.
We have projects for everyone!

Q. What languages can I program in to contribute?

See the question above, there is a wide variety of options so you can pick one you already know, or use this opportunity to learn a new one!

Q. What can I do to prep for the event?

We have tons of good resources for you over on the hacker guide!

Q. Is there specific quantum computing knowledge required?

Nope! You can start learning the day the event starts if you want!
We have lots of great resources on the hacker guide if you want to get started early though.