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Qloo (run on Devpost) · HackathonQloo Agentic Hackathon 2026
Build an AI agent grounded in Qloo's taste-data API for $25,000 in cash, topped by a $15,000 first prize. Only three places pay — but only 1,798 people had registered by 19 October, a far smaller field than any other hackathon on the page. Submissions close 30 October.
Dates & timeline
Prizes
- 1st place: $15,000 cash
- 2nd place: $6,000 cash
- 3rd place: $4,000 cash
- Each project can win one prize
- 1,798 registered participants as of 19 October 2026 — up from 1,142 on 12 October
- $25,000 all cash — no credits in the pool
- Judging criteria: technological implementation, design, potential impact, quality of the idea
Why it's worth your time
Qloo runs a cultural-taste API — its hackathon page describes a taste graph of 250M+ entities across music, film, dining, fashion and more — and this hackathon asks you to build a working application that integrates the Qloo API and either works as an agentic tool, is built with an agent framework, or wires Qloo into an agent you already have. The brief is explicit that it is not looking for demos of what LLMs can already do: the agent should do something it could not do without knowing what people actually like.
The editorial case is contention. $25,000 in cash across three places — $15,000, $6,000 and $4,000, one prize per project — against 1,798 registrations as of 19 October 2026. For comparison, the PayPal AI Hackathon on this page has 16,830 registrations for $67,500 and Amazon's Build Ship Shape has 56,965 for $138,000. The honest counterweight is that only three projects are paid, so this suits a team that can ship a genuinely finished product in about three weeks rather than one hoping to place on a wide table.
The submission is unusually practical: no demo video is required. Instead you must submit a functional demo that is hosted and fully published externally — a live website or web app, a hosted APK or a TestFlight build; projects that only run locally do not qualify — plus a public code repository on GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket with an open-source licence file, and a text description. API access is given by filling in a Google Form linked from Qloo's developer guide, so request your key on day one rather than the week of the deadline. Rules are standard Devpost terms: free, age of majority where you live, individuals or teams, and India is not on the excluded list.
How to apply
Register on qloo.devpost.com — registration closes with submissions on 30 October.
Request a Qloo API key through the Google Form linked from Qloo's hackathon developer guide (docs.qloo.com) straight away; access is by request, not instant.
Build an agentic app where Qloo's taste data is the differentiator, not a garnish on an LLM chat.
Host the demo publicly (live web app, hosted APK or TestFlight) — local-only projects are disqualified.
Submit the demo link, a public repo with an open-source licence file, and a text description before 30 October 2026, 11:45pm ET.
Frequently asked questions
Can students in India enter?
Yes. The official rules exclude residents of Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, plus OFAC-sanctioned countries; India is not on the list. You must be at least the age of majority where you live, which is 18 in India.
How many prizes are there?
Three, all cash: $15,000, $6,000 and $4,000. Each project can win only one prize.
Do I need to make a video?
No. Qloo states demo videos are not required; instead you submit a working demo that is hosted and fully published externally, plus a public repository with an open-source licence and a text description.
How do I get the Qloo API?
Through a Google Form linked from Qloo's hackathon developer guide on docs.qloo.com. Access is granted on request, so apply for your key as soon as you register.
Why enter a contest with only three prizes?
Because the field is small: 1,798 registrations as of 19 October 2026 for $25,000 in cash. A narrow, finished, genuinely useful agent has a realistic shot here in a way it would not against tens of thousands of entrants.
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