Is the Google Solution Challenge 2026 still open to register?

No, that cycle is closed. Registration ran from 6 March to 15 April 2026, the top 100 teams were announced 29 May, the top 10 (actually 14) finalists were revealed 20 June, and the virtual grand finale wrapped on 4 July 2026. Asha AI, from Maharashtra Institute of Technology Aurangabad, took the top prize. If you want in, the next cycle typically opens in GDG on Campus chapters around March each year, so watch your campus GDG's page from early 2027.

What's the difference between the Solution Challenge and the Gen AI Exchange Hackathon?

Solution Challenge is Google's long-running student program, built around UN Sustainable Development Goals and judged through Google Developer Groups on Campus chapters, with an India track (run with Hack2skill) carrying a ₹10 lakh prize pool. Gen AI Exchange Hackathon is a separate, bigger program from Google Cloud with MeitY Startup Hub and Startup India, open to students and working professionals alike, built around real business problem statements from Indian companies. Its most recent edition pulled in 270,000 developers and wrapped its grand finale on 29 November 2025 at The Leela Palace, Bengaluru, with a $40,000 prize pool.

Is Gen AI Exchange Hackathon 2026 open for registration right now?

As of early October 2026, registration for the hackathon phase is closed on its official Devfolio and Hack2skill pages. The most recent full cycle ran from around August through its Bengaluru finale in late November 2025. Google hasn't published next-cycle dates yet, so if you want to catch it, check devfolio.co/google-genaiexchange again as the next academic year starts.

What is the Google India Hackathon with DeepStation and MSRIT?

It's a separate, smaller, in-person event, co-organized by DeepStation and Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) in Bengaluru, done in official partnership with Google and the National Digital Library of India. The 2026 edition ran as a weekend sprint from 8 to 10 May at the MSRIT campus, pulling in more than 75 teams and 350 developers building with Gemini, Google's Agent Development Kit, and Antigravity. Prizes were ₹50,000 for first, ₹30,000 for second, and ₹20,000 for third, judged by engineers from Google, IBM, and MSRIT.

Google Hackathon 2026: Solution Challenge, Gen AI Exchange, and the India Hackathon, Sorted Out

If you typed "Google hackathon 2026" into search, there isn't one single event that answers to that name, there are at least four, and they overlap enough to genuinely confuse people. There's the Solution Challenge, Google's flagship student competition. There's the Gen AI Exchange Hackathon, a much bigger Google Cloud program run with the Indian government. There's a smaller, in-person Google India Hackathon in Bengaluru co-run with DeepStation and MSRIT. And there's Girl Hackathon, Google's women-only coding event. As of this writing in early October 2026, most of these have already run their 2026 cycles and closed, so here's what each one actually was (or is), and what to watch for next.

Google Solution Challenge 2026: the one most people mean

This is almost certainly what you're thinking of if you searched "Google hackathon." Solution Challenge is Google's annual student competition, run through Google Developer Groups (GDG) on Campus chapters worldwide, asking student teams to build a working app or prototype using Google technology (Gemini, Firebase, Google Cloud, Android) that addresses one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

For 2026, the India track (organized with Hack2skill) ran on this timeline:

Registration: 6 March to 15 April 2026
Prototype submission: through 24 April
Evaluation: 29 April to 28 May
Top 100 teams announced: 29 May
Finalists announced: 20 June (14 teams made the cut, not the usual round number of 10)
Grand finale (virtual): concluded 4 July 2026

It's free to enter, open to any currently enrolled undergrad or postgrad student in India aged 18 or over, with teams of one to four. The India prize pool totaled ₹10,00,000: ₹4,00,000 for the winner, ₹3,00,000 for the first runner-up, ₹2,00,000 for the second runner-up, plus ₹50,000 special-category awards for things like People's Choice and Best Use of AI.

The winners are already public. Team Asha AI, from Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Aurangabad, took first place. Trouble Shooter (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Mumbai) was first runner-up, and Function Override (Delhi Technological University) took second runner-up. COSMOS3000 (Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata) won People's Choice.

If you're reading this hoping to still enter, that window's shut. The pattern over past years has been a March opening, so keep an eye on your campus's GDG on Campus chapter from around February or March 2027 for the next cycle.

Gen AI Exchange Hackathon: bigger, and not student-only

This one gets mixed up with Solution Challenge constantly because both are Google-branded and both target Indian students, but it's a different, larger program. Gen AI Exchange is run by Google Cloud together with MeitY Startup Hub and Startup India, and unlike Solution Challenge, it's open to working professionals and startups too, not just students. Instead of UN SDGs, teams tackle real business problem statements submitted by Indian companies and public-sector organizations.

The most recent full cycle, through what's being called its "second edition," drew roughly 270,000 developers over about five months and closed with a grand finale on 29 November 2025 at The Leela Palace in Bengaluru. Ten teams split a $40,000 prize pool, with winning projects spanning legal-tech (an AI platform called Legal SahAI), deepfake detection (Parallax), and AI career guidance tools.

As of early October 2026, registration for the hackathon phase is closed on both its Devfolio page (devfolio.co/google-genaiexchange) and its Hack2skill listing, and Google hasn't published dates for a next cycle yet. Given the program has run on a roughly August-to-November cadence in past years, a new cycle announcement sometime before the end of 2026 wouldn't be surprising, but that's an inference from past timing, not a confirmed date, so don't take it as official.

Google India Hackathon: the DeepStation x MSRIT event

This is a smaller, separate event that's easy to mistake for an official Google hackathon because Google is a named partner, but it's actually co-organized by DeepStation (an AI community and events organizer) and Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) in Bengaluru, done in partnership with Google and the National Digital Library of India.

The 2026 edition ran as an in-person weekend sprint from 8 to 10 May at the MSRIT campus, with daily sessions from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM IST. It pulled in more than 75 teams and 350 developers, all building with Gemini, Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK), and Antigravity. Prizes were ₹50,000 for first place, ₹30,000 for second, and ₹20,000 for third, with submissions judged live by a panel of engineers from Google, IBM, and MSRIT.

If you're not based in or near Bengaluru, this one's worth knowing about mostly so you don't confuse it with Solution Challenge when you see "Google" and "hackathon" together. It's also already closed for 2026.

Google Girl Hackathon: the women-only track

Girl Hackathon is Google's coding competition specifically for women students in computer science and allied branches, open to Indian nationals across a range of graduating batches in a single cycle. The most recent confirmed cycle (branded "Girl Hackathon 2025") was open to students from the 2026 through 2029 graduating batches, with registration running from 20 January to 11 March 2025.

As of October 2026, no dates for a fresh 2026-branded cycle have surfaced yet. If this is the one you're after, it's worth checking Google's own careers and community channels directly rather than relying on third-party listing sites, since those tend to lag when a new cycle actually opens.

So which one should you actually track

Want the best-known, most accessible student competition with a clear India prize pool and a straightforward SDG-based format? That's Solution Challenge. Watch your GDG on Campus chapter from around February 2027.
Want a bigger, more business-facing program open to professionals too, with real corporate problem statements and a serious prize pool? That's Gen AI Exchange Hackathon. Check Devfolio for next-cycle dates.
Want an in-person, Bengaluru-based weekend sprint with direct access to Google and IBM engineers as judges? That's the DeepStation x MSRIT Google India Hackathon.
A woman engineering student specifically? That's Girl Hackathon, and its next cycle isn't announced yet.

All four tend to follow a similar shape year to year: an application or registration window of a few weeks, one or more filtering rounds, and a finale months later. If you've missed this year's edition of whichever one you actually wanted, the safest move is to bookmark its official page (not a third-party aggregator) and check back a few months ahead of when it last opened.

FAQ

Is the Google Solution Challenge 2026 still open to register?: No, that cycle is closed. Registration ran from 6 March to 15 April 2026, the top 100 teams were announced 29 May, the top 10 (actually 14) finalists were revealed 20 June, and the virtual grand finale wrapped on 4 July 2026. Asha AI, from Maharashtra Institute of Technology Aurangabad, took the top prize. If you want in, the next cycle typically opens in GDG on Campus chapters around March each year, so watch your campus GDG's page from early 2027.
What's the difference between the Solution Challenge and the Gen AI Exchange Hackathon?: Solution Challenge is Google's long-running student program, built around UN Sustainable Development Goals and judged through Google Developer Groups on Campus chapters, with an India track (run with Hack2skill) carrying a ₹10 lakh prize pool. Gen AI Exchange Hackathon is a separate, bigger program from Google Cloud with MeitY Startup Hub and Startup India, open to students and working professionals alike, built around real business problem statements from Indian companies. Its most recent edition pulled in 270,000 developers and wrapped its grand finale on 29 November 2025 at The Leela Palace, Bengaluru, with a $40,000 prize pool.
Is Gen AI Exchange Hackathon 2026 open for registration right now?: As of early October 2026, registration for the hackathon phase is closed on its official Devfolio and Hack2skill pages. The most recent full cycle ran from around August through its Bengaluru finale in late November 2025. Google hasn't published next-cycle dates yet, so if you want to catch it, check devfolio.co/google-genaiexchange again as the next academic year starts.
What is the Google India Hackathon with DeepStation and MSRIT?: It's a separate, smaller, in-person event, co-organized by DeepStation and Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) in Bengaluru, done in official partnership with Google and the National Digital Library of India. The 2026 edition ran as a weekend sprint from 8 to 10 May at the MSRIT campus, pulling in more than 75 teams and 350 developers building with Gemini, Google's Agent Development Kit, and Antigravity. Prizes were ₹50,000 for first, ₹30,000 for second, and ₹20,000 for third, judged by engineers from Google, IBM, and MSRIT.