Global Hack Week is Major League Hacking's (MLH) recurring virtual hackathon series, offering themed week-long events throughout the year where participants build projects, complete technical challenges, and attend live sessions on Twitch and YouTube. Each edition has a distinct focus — past and upcoming themes include Hacking for Good, AI Agents, Data, APIs, and more.
Events are completely free and open to anyone age 13 and older, including high school students, university students, and working professionals. Participants under 18 require parental permission. Teams are optional; participants can work individually or collaborate with others found through the MLH Discord community. Challenges vary in difficulty and are categorized as social, technical, and design. Completing challenges earns experience points and digital swag, with physical stickers mailed to participants who provide a mailing address.
As checked November 4, 2026, upcoming editions are Builders Week (November 6–12) and Open Source Week (December 4–10). September Data Week and October Hacktoberfest are past. Register separately through each event’s official MLH link; no exact registration cutoff was found.
The historical GHW Hacktoberfest page gives October 9–15, 2026, while the MLH registration record gives October 9–16 and explicitly marks the event ended. The end-date difference remains disclosed. Builders registration and Open Source registration confirm their separate November/December dates, participant categories and parent-permission condition. They permit N/A for a missing GitHub handle and do not list a required Discord handle. The GHW homepage explicitly confirms free participation worldwide. No later 2027 edition dates are announced in the checked listings.