ETHIndia and the wider ETHGlobal circuit run differently from a standard corporate hackathon. The application model and the prize structure both work on rules worth knowing before you register.
Team size: smaller and less fixed than you'd expect
Most ETHGlobal events cap teams at 5, and solo hacking is explicitly fine too, with no penalty for entering alone. Specific events vary this: ETHIndia has in the past run smaller formats, groups of 3 to 4 with a designated "Super Hacker" role rather than the general 5-person cap. Don't assume one ETHGlobal event's rules carry over to the next; check the specific event page each time.
Applications work at the individual level
This is the detail that catches people off guard: you don't apply as a pre-formed team. Each person applies and is accepted individually, and accepted members typically need to stake individually to lock in their spot. That means a team can be split up by the acceptance process itself, since one member getting in doesn't guarantee the rest do. Plan for this rather than assuming your whole group is in together.
Bounties, not one prize pool
Standard corporate hackathons usually run one prize pool split among winners. ETHIndia runs on bounties instead: each sponsor, a protocol, an L2, a wallet provider, a tooling company, puts up its own prize for teams that build using its specific stack. The important part is that these bounties aren't exclusive. The same project can be submitted to the open track and to several sponsor-specific bounties simultaneously, so a single well-built project can realistically stack multiple prizes if it genuinely integrates more than one sponsor's tools. Read each sponsor's specific bounty terms before you build toward it: payout currency (often stablecoins or a sponsor's own token) and any vesting conditions vary sponsor to sponsor.
You don't need to already know Web3
Sponsor-run workshops and on-site mentor support exist specifically to onboard people newer to the stack. Bounty prizes reward using a sponsor's tools well during the event, which is a learnable skill inside the hackathon itself, not a prerequisite for showing up. If a specific sponsor's bounty looks interesting, their workshop slot is usually the fastest way to get competent with their tool in the time you have.
The practical takeaway
Because bounties stack, the strongest strategy at an ETHGlobal-style event is often picking two or three sponsors whose tools genuinely fit your idea and building a project that uses all of them well, rather than building something generic and hoping it lands the open-track prize alone.