I skipped 5 days of school to build an AI app. Here is what a real hackathon sprint looks like. 🚀

Building a full-stack mobile app by yourself is hard. Building it for a major hackathon like Shipaton 2026 (NextGen track) while trying to manage a normal student schedule? Almost impossible.

Last week, I looked at my timeline for Sprout Atlas—an AI-powered botanical guide and produce scanner—and realized I was running out of runway. The RevenueCat paywalls needed wiring, the Gemini AI vision prompts needed fine-tuning, and the UI was only half done.

So, I made a tough call: I bunked 5 days of school to go completely off the grid and code.

Here is what I learned from a 5-day solo code sprint:

It is not a movie montage.