Code Sprint
A non-competitive concentrated-work event for an open-source codebase, distinguished from the competitive hackathon by the absence of rankings, prizes, and rubric-driven judging.
A code sprint is a non-competitive concentrated-work event for an open-source codebase, distinguished from the competitive hackathon by the absence of rankings, prizes, and rubric-driven judging. The OpenBSD Hackathon has run them since 1999, and the format is the historical origin of the word "hackathon" itself — the contemporary competitive form developed later. Many open-source projects use code sprints alongside their conferences, gathering a small group of contributors in person for concentrated work over a weekend or week. See format-taxonomy and openbsd-hackathon.
The format is included in the format taxonomy because the word "hackathon" covers it culturally and historically, and because organizers considering the format should know what they are choosing — an event optimized for concentrated work rather than for ranked output. Code sprints are valuable precisely because they remove the ranking-against-peers dynamic and let contributors focus on the work; participants who attend expecting prizes or rankings will be disappointed, and the disappointment is worth pre-empting through clear communication. The competitive judging machinery that preoccupies the rest of the site does not apply to code sprints at all.