Every year, the Lyft Hackathon answers a question the company never stops asking: What if we actually had time to build that?

This year, the answer came back louder than ever. With more than 200 team sign-ups, approximately 1,300 participants, 31 job families represented, and teams spanning 5 countries, Lyft's 2026 Hackathon was more than an internal event — it was a snapshot of everything this company is capable of when the calendar clears and curiosity takes over.

Some of the most compelling submissions this year began not with a whiteboard session, but with a genuine pain point. A problem that had been sitting in the back of someone's mind for months, finally given time and a team to tackle it. That's the engine of a great hackathon — real people, working on real problems, without permission slips.

This year, teams showed up with ideas spanning every part of the business: rider experience, driver tools, internal operations, AI, machine learning, and more. The range was remarkable. So was the quality. Judging, by all accounts, was hard.

One of the quieter stories of this hackathon was how many people showed up not just to build, but to grow. The Top Learner Awards recognized those who leaned hardest into the educational sessions running throughout the week: Piyush Garg for most participation in AI Enablement Sessions, Ramiro Abelardo Delgado for most participation across all sessions, and Abhinav Solan for hosting the most sessions of anyone. The highest-attended session of the week was State of the World: AI at Lyft — a fitting reflection of where this company's collective curiosity is pointed right now.

What makes a hackathon worth doing isn't just the winning projects — it's the permission it gives people to think beyond their lane. To work with someone they've never worked with. To dust off an idea that's been sitting in a doc somewhere and finally give it a shot.

This year's event had all of that in abundance. The energy was real, the submissions were incredible, and the videos made judging genuinely difficult — in the best way.

Congratulations to every hacker, organizer, judge, session host, and voter who made this year's event what it was. We'll see you next year — bigger, better, and with even more unexpected team names.