Dev Opportunity Radar #25: $120K+ Atlassian Hackathon, MLH Fellowship, and INSEAD AI Founder Sprint

TL;DR

Welcome back to Dev Opportunity Radar! 💙

This is a weekly series where I share opportunities, resources, communities, and interesting finds that I come across, with the goal of helping people discover things they might otherwise miss.

And we're celebrating 25 editions this week 🥳

This week's edition features the MLH Fellowship – Spring 2027, a 12-week educational program focused on open-source contributions and practical software engineering experience; INSEAD AI Venture Lab – AI Founder Sprint 2027, a free, 10-week virtual program for early-stage founders; and Codegeist 2026, Atlassian's hackathon with a prize pool of $120,000+.

I'm also sharing a freeCodeCamp learning resource on Agentic Coding with Codex and AI Coding Agents, with lessons on working with coding agents, managing project context, testing, Git, MCP, and more.

In this edition's 🌟 Community Finds, you'll find DevFest Los Angeles 2026, shared by La Shara Cordero (@earlgreyhot1701d), along with the November Hacker News Who is Hiring? thread and GetHNJobs, a tool built by Boon(@hboon) to make browsing those job listings easier. Thank you both for sharing these with the community!

As always, I'd love to hear from anyone who has discovered something through the Radar. Whether you've applied to an opportunity, attended an event, joined a community, completed a program, or found a useful resource, feel free to share your experience in the comments. With your permission, I'd be happy to feature it in a future 💙 Reader Updates section.

If you've come across an opportunity, resource, community, program, or event that you think others should know about, you're welcome to share that too. I'll always make sure to credit you if I feature it in a future 🌟 Community Finds.

And since this is our 25th edition, there's something special coming on Wednesday! I'll be publishing a separate article with a behind-the-scenes look at Dev Opportunity Radar, some updates about the website, and an AMA about starting and running a series on DEV. If you've ever thought about starting a series of your own, I'd love for you to join the conversation!

Finally, when you reach the end of this edition, do take a moment to read the special 👋 Until Next Friday section. I have a little something to say to everyone who has been part of these 25 editions 💙

Table of Contents

• ⚡ Quick Scan
• 🔄 Still Open From Previous Editions
• 📍 This Week's Opportunities
  • 📌 MLH Fellowship – Spring 2027
  • 📌 INSEAD AI Venture Lab – AI Founder Sprint 2027
  • 📌 Codegeist 2026 – Atlassian Hackathon
• 📚 Resources Worth Checking Out
  • Codex & AI Coding Agents – Learn Agentic Coding
• 🌟 Community Finds
  • DevFest Los Angeles 2026
  • Hacker News Who is Hiring? – November 2026 & GetHNJobs
• 💙 Reader Updates
• 🎉 25 Editions, and Something Special on Wednesday!
• 👋 Until Next Friday
• 🌐 Dev Opportunity Radar Website

⚡ Quick Scan

Opportunities

Resource Highlight

Community Finds

📝 A quick note: I spend a lot of time researching and reviewing the opportunities I feature in Dev Opportunity Radar. However, deadlines, eligibility, program details, and application requirements can change after publication. Before applying, please visit the official program page, review the latest information, and confirm that you're eligible.

🔄 Still Open From Previous Editions

Before we get into this week's opportunities, here are a few from the two most recent editions that are still accepting applications or submissions.

As the Radar has grown, there are now quite a few opportunities spread across the different editions. I used to keep all the still-open opportunities here, but I don't think repeating a long list every week makes the editions easier to read.

So I keep this section to the two most recent editions as a quick reminder of opportunities you may have missed. Older opportunities are still available on the Dev Opportunity Radar website, where you can browse the collection and use the filters to find something specific.

I've already covered these opportunities in detail, so I won't repeat everything here. If any of them catch your attention, you can go back to the original edition for the full overview, eligibility details, and application links.

Please check the original editions for complete details and confirm that each opportunity is still accepting applications or submissions before proceeding.

📍 This Week's Opportunities

Here are a few opportunities I came across this week that I thought were worth sharing.

📌 MLH Fellowship – Spring 2027

Who it's for: Aspiring software engineers who already have experience coding in at least one programming language and want to gain practical experience working on real-world software projects.

What it's about:

The MLH Fellowship is a 12-week educational program that gives participants an opportunity to contribute to open-source projects and work alongside other developers. Rather than joining a single company as an intern, fellows work in small groups, collaborate on projects, and receive guidance from professional software engineers.

The program includes technical mentorship through code reviews and pair programming, practical learning around tools such as Git and GitHub, and activities focused on career preparation. Participants can also take part in speaker sessions, hackathons, and other community activities during the program.

The upcoming Spring 2027 Software Engineering batch runs from January 25 to April 16, 2027. The expected commitment is around 20 hours per week, with activities scheduled across Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

There are a few eligibility requirements worth checking before applying. Applicants must be at least 18 years old, be proficient in at least one programming language, communicate comfortably in English, and be able to commit the required time. The FAQ also lists previous participation in an MLH Hackathon or Global Hack Week as a requirement.

One important location restriction: Although the general application page mentions applicants from all regions, MLH's FAQ currently states that applications are not open to candidates in the Asia-Pacific region, including India. So, if you're based in APAC, this batch isn't currently available to you.

Program: Software Engineering Fellowship

Batch: Spring 2027

Duration: January 25 – April 16, 2027 (12 weeks)

Format: Fully remote

Time commitment: Approximately 20 hours per week

Schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Application deadline: January 4, 2027

Compensation: Educational stipend or university credits, depending on the program. Stipends are available only for select programs.

If you're eligible based on your location and experience, you can check out the program details and application requirements below.

Explore the MLH Fellowship | Read the FAQs

📌 INSEAD AI Venture Lab – AI Founder Sprint 2027

Who it's for: Early-stage founders who have an idea or an existing venture and want to explore how AI can help them build, test, and grow their business.

What it's about:

The AI Founder Sprint is a 10-week virtual program by INSEAD's AI Venture Lab. It brings together early-stage founders from different parts of the world to learn how to use AI throughout the process of building a company, from developing an idea and testing a business model to working towards scaling the venture.

The program includes research-backed frameworks, small peer groups, and masterclasses led by experienced founders, investors, and AI experts. Participants also get access to mentorship, feedback, and a global network of other founders. The program concludes with a Demo Day, where founders can showcase their ventures to partners and investors.

One thing worth highlighting is that you don't need to be building an AI product or an AI startup to apply. The program is focused on helping founders use AI to build better businesses, regardless of the industry they're working in. You also don't need to be affiliated with INSEAD or any other university.

The Sprint is completely free, and INSEAD does not take any equity in participating ventures. It is also not a full-time commitment. Founders should plan for around 2–3 hours per week during the first two weeks, 4–5 hours per week during the build phase, and 2–3 hours per week towards the end.

Program: AI Founder Sprint 2027

Organized by: INSEAD AI Venture Lab

Duration: January 27 – April 2, 2027 (10 weeks)

Format: Fully virtual

Time commitment: Approximately 2–5 hours per week, depending on the program stage

Eligibility: Early-stage founders aged 18 and above, from anywhere in the world

Cost: Free (no fees and no equity taken)

Application deadline: December 1, 2026, at 11:59 PM GMT+8

If you're working on a startup idea or already building a venture and want to understand how AI can fit into the process, this could be worth exploring.

Explore the AI Founder Sprint | Apply

📌 Codegeist 2026 – Atlassian Hackathon

Who it's for: Developers interested in building apps and integrations for Atlassian products, including Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, and Bitbucket. It's also a good opportunity to explore building AI-powered tools for software, business, and specialized industry teams.

What it's about:

Codegeist is Atlassian's annual hackathon, where developers build apps using Forge, Atlassian's serverless app development platform. For the 2026 edition, the theme is Build with context. Ship with confidence.

The main idea is to use the information already available across an organization, such as projects, people, decisions, and goals, to build apps that help teams work better. For example, you could build something that helps developers understand the context behind a code review, gives business teams the information they need to make decisions, or helps professionals in a particular industry access relevant knowledge.

Participants need to build an app using Atlassian Forge and integrate it with at least one Atlassian product or platform capability. The available categories include Apps for Software Teams, Apps for Business Teams, and Apps for Specialized Industries.

There are also additional prizes for projects that use Rovo agents, integrate with Atlassian's Model Context Protocol (MCP) support, connect with Teamwork Graph, or publish an app to the Atlassian Marketplace. So, there are a few different directions you can take depending on what you want to build.

For submissions, you'll need to provide access to your app so judges can test it, along with a public YouTube demo video of under five minutes explaining how it works. You'll also need to select the category and any bonus prizes you're applying for.

Prize pool: $120,000+ in cash prizes.

1st Place: $15,000 (3 winners) | 2nd Place: $8,000 (3 winners) | 3rd Place: $5,000 (3 winners)

There are also six $1,500 prizes in each of the four bonus categories. Additionally, 300 eligible submissions can receive an Atlassian Developer Swag Pack on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last.

Format: Online

Platform: Atlassian Forge

Deadline: December 23, 2026, at 1:30 AM IST

Registration: Open

One thing to check before registering is the full eligibility rules, as certain countries and territories are excluded.

If you're interested in building apps around Atlassian products or experimenting with AI-powered workflows, you can explore the challenge and see which category fits your idea.

View challenge details and prizes

📚 Resources Worth Checking Out

Not every useful find comes with an application deadline.

Here's one resource worth checking out this week.

Learn Agentic Coding with Codex and AI Coding Agents

If you've been experimenting with AI coding tools or are curious about how coding agents actually work, freeCodeCamp has a new hands-on course worth checking out.

In this course, Tom Chant, Head of Education at Scrimba, walks through working with AI coding agents such as Codex. Instead of focusing only on prompts, the course looks at how to give an agent the right context, break down larger tasks, review its changes, and make sure the results actually work.

You'll go through topics such as writing effective prompts, setting up project instructions with AGENTS.md, using Plan Mode, extending agents with skills, testing code, working safely with Git, protecting API keys and other secrets, managing permissions, and connecting external tools through MCP.

The course is available as a YouTube video, and there's also an interactive version on Scrimba if you'd prefer to follow along with the lessons. The code for each lesson is available through the Scrimba course page.

Topics covered: Prompting, AGENTS.md, Plan Mode, Skills, Testing, Git, Secrets, Context Management, Permissions, and MCP.

Instructor: Tom Chant, Head of Education at Scrimba

Duration: Approximately 1 hour 50 minutes

Format: Free video course with an interactive Scrimba version

Watch the course on freeCodeCamp | Try the interactive Scrimba course

🌟 Community Finds

One of my favorite things about this series has been seeing people share opportunities, communities, and resources that others might not have discovered otherwise. It's always nice when something makes its way to the Radar because someone in the community thought others would find it useful.

DevFest Los Angeles 2026

Shared by La Shara Cordero (@earlgreyhot1701d).

La Shara shared DevFest Los Angeles 2026, happening on December 12 in Los Angeles, California.

If you haven't come across DevFest before, it's an annual event organized by Google Developer Groups, bringing developers, builders, and tech enthusiasts together for a day of talks, workshops, and networking.

This year's event has quite a bit happening around AI, Gemini, Google Cloud, Firebase, and web development. There are talks from people working in the industry, along with hands-on workshops. Some of the topics include building multi-agent systems with Python, Gemini, and MCP, exploring generative UI, and going over some common mistakes people make when building AI applications.

There will also be opportunities to meet other developers, a job fair, food, and giveaways. So, beyond just attending talks, there's a chance to learn something new and connect with people in the local tech community.

I usually try to prioritize free opportunities and events because I want the Radar to be accessible to as many people as possible. Not everyone has the means to pay registration fees, and I don't want that to become a barrier to discovering something worthwhile.

I've also received paid challenges and other opportunities through Community Finds that I've chosen not to feature for this reason. It's not always easy to say no, especially when someone has taken the time to find something and share it with me.

I genuinely appreciate everyone who thinks of Dev Opportunity Radar when they come across something interesting. Even if I can't feature every submission, I never take that time or effort for granted. Knowing that you're looking out for the community and taking the time to send something my way means a lot to me 💙

For this particular event, though, I felt it was worth making an exception. Beyond the speaker lineup, there are hands-on workshops, opportunities to learn from people working in the field, and plenty of scope to meet and network with other developers. I think there's real value in that experience.

General admission is listed at $20, so I'm sharing it with that in mind. There's also an option for general admission with parking for $40. As always, please check the registration page for the latest ticket pricing before signing up.

A small tip from La Shara: She mentioned that some GDG events have offered discounted tickets for members, so you could check if that's available for this event too. She also suggested reaching out to the organizers about volunteering. She's managed to attend other events that way, so that's another thing worth trying if you'd rather not pay for a ticket. I don't know if either option is available for this particular event, but I thought I'd pass along her suggestions!

Date: Saturday, December 12, 2026

Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM PST

Location: Braille Institute Los Angeles Center, Los Angeles, CA

Format: In-person

General Admission: $20 | General Admission + Parking: $40

🔗 View Event Details & Register

Hacker News: Who is Hiring? (November 2026) + GetHNJobs

Shared by Boon (@hboon).

Boon shared the November Who is Hiring? thread on Hacker News, where companies post the positions they're actively hiring for.

If you haven't come across these threads before, Hacker News has a monthly thread where people from companies share their open positions. You'll find listings across different roles, technologies, and locations, including remote opportunities. The thread also has guidelines for companies posting jobs, including that they should be part of the hiring company and actively filling the position.

I hadn't really explored these threads before, so this was a cool find for me too!

Along with the thread, Boon also shared GetHNJobs, a tool he built to make browsing through these listings easier. You can search by role, technology, location, and remote policy, and it provides links back to the original Hacker News posts.

I had a look at it and thought it was useful enough to share alongside the thread. Just to be clear, sharing something here doesn't mean I'm promoting or endorsing a particular tool or service. If something is a promotion or an endorsement from my side, I'll always make that clear. In this case, I simply thought what Boon built was cool and could be useful to people looking for opportunities, so I wanted to share it with the community.

Thread: November 2026

What you'll find: Job openings shared directly by people from the hiring companies

Tool: Search listings by role, technology, location, and remote policy

🔗 Read the November Who is Hiring? Thread

🔗 Explore GetHNJobs

Thank you to La Shara Cordero (@earlgreyhot1701d) and Boon (@hboon) for thinking of the Radar and sharing these with the community. And thank you to everyone who takes the time to send something my way. It really does mean a lot. 💙

I'd love for this section to keep growing.

If you've come across an opportunity, fellowship, grant, hackathon, conference, community, resource, or anything else you think more people should know about, feel free to share it in the comments.

If I feature it in a future edition, I'll always make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.

One small request: If you're sharing an opportunity, please avoid posting raw URLs directly in the comments. DEV sometimes filters them before I get a chance to see them.

A short description alongside the link makes it much easier for me to review and potentially feature it in a future edition.

💙 Reader Updates

I'm looking forward to this section gradually growing over time, and I'd still love to hear from you.

One of my favorite parts of writing Dev Opportunity Radar has been hearing from people who discovered something they otherwise might have missed.

If you discovered an opportunity through the radar, applied to something, joined a community, attended an event, or simply found a resource you hadn't seen before, I'd genuinely love to hear about it.

You don't need to have been accepted or have a big success story to share. Sometimes simply discovering the right opportunity at the right time is already a win.

If you'd like to share an update, feel free to leave a comment on this edition. With your permission, I may feature it in a future 💙 Reader Updates section and tag you so other readers can celebrate your journey too.

I hope this section gradually becomes a place where we can celebrate those stories together, one update at a time.

🎉 25 Editions, and Something Special on Wednesday!

Reaching 25 editions feels a little surreal, and I didn't want to let this one pass without doing something a little different.

I've been working on Dev Opportunity Radar week after week, and there's quite a bit that happens behind the scenes that I don't usually get to talk about in the regular editions. So, this Wednesday, I'll be sharing a separate article where I'll take you behind the scenes, talk about how the Radar has grown, share a few things I've been working on, and give you some updates about the website too.

But I also wanted to make it a chance to connect and share a little more with everyone here.

I'll be hosting an AMA about starting and running a series on DEV!

If you've ever thought about starting a series of your own, or you're already working on one, I'd love to hear your questions. It doesn't matter what your topic is. It could be technology, learning, personal interests, or anything else you enjoy writing about.

I'll be happy to share what I've learned from my experience, the things that have worked for me, the challenges I've come across, and even the things I'm still figuring out. And of course, we have such a lovely community here, so I'm sure others will have their own experiences and ideas to share too.

You don't need to have everything figured out before starting something. Sometimes it's just about giving an idea a chance and seeing where it takes you.

So, if this is something you've been thinking about, come hang out with me on Wednesday! I'd really love to have you there.

👋 Until Next Friday

And that's another edition done! Twenty-five of them now.

When I started Dev Opportunity Radar, I honestly just wanted to create something that would help people discover opportunities they might otherwise miss. I didn't know exactly where it would go or how many people would eventually become part of it.

But somewhere along the way, it became more than just me putting together a list of opportunities every Friday.

It's the people who come back to read each edition, the conversations in the comments, the opportunities you share with me, the suggestions for Community Finds, and the messages from people telling me they discovered something through the Radar. I don't think I'd enjoy doing this nearly as much without all of that.

To everyone who has supported this series, whether from the very beginning or just recently, thank you. Every comment, reaction, suggestion, kind message, and shared opportunity means more than you probably realize.

And to everyone who has contributed to Community Finds, thank you for trusting me with something you thought others should know about. I love that this has become a place where we can discover things from each other.

I'm the one who sits down every week to put these editions together, but so many of you have helped shape what Dev Opportunity Radar has become. I genuinely appreciate that.

25 editions down, and many, many more to go 💙

Thank you for being here, for reading, for sharing, and for making this journey so much more meaningful.

I'll see you on Wednesday, and then back here next Friday with another edition.

Until then, take care, keep exploring, and I hope you discover something amazing this week!

🌐 Dev Opportunity Radar Website

If this is your first time discovering the series, you can explore every edition, browse opportunities by category, discover Community Finds, and catch up on Reader Updates on the Dev Opportunity Radar website.

👉 Website

I also wrote a short post about why I built the website and the journey behind it.

👉 Website Launch Post