[zbentley]

The "Why Do Developers Participate in Hackathons?" question is missing an answer option that I suspect is distressingly common: employer-mandated hackathon participation.

Multiple places I've worked, and many places I've heard about from my peers, require employees to participate (either as a "this is just mandatory" requirement or as a "this influences a milestone on your performance review" requirement) in company-sponsored or external hackathons.

This trend is somewhat distressing and deserves to be highlighted, I think.