Selected Out of 13,000: Inside the Claude Code Hackathon

We Got the Email

On a Tuesday afternoon, an email landed in Yohanes Woldegerima's inbox that changed the trajectory of AskQuala's AI capabilities:

"Congratulations — you've been selected to participate in the Built with Opus 4.6 hackathon."

Out of over 13,000 applicants, AskQuala was selected to compete in Anthropic's official Claude Code hackathon — a week-long competition running February 10-16, 2026, with $100,000 in API credits on the line and six judges from Anthropic's Claude team evaluating submissions.

This isn't a "show up and participate" event. This is an invite-only competition where every team was vetted and approved. The fact that a small Arlington-based software company made the cut alongside AI researchers, YC-backed startups, and teams from major tech companies says something about what we're building.

What Is the Claude Code Hackathon?

The "Built with Opus 4.6" hackathon is hosted by Cerebral Valley and Anthropic. Here's what makes it different from every other AI hackathon:

The Model: Claude Opus 4.6

Participants get access to Anthropic's most powerful model — Claude Opus 4.6 — with a 1 million token context window. That's not a typo. One million tokens means the model can process, understand, and reason about massive codebases, entire document libraries, or complex multi-step workflows in a single conversation.

For context, most AI models work with 4,000-128,000 tokens. A million tokens is a paradigm shift. It means you can feed the model an entire codebase and ask it to build, debug, and improve software with full context of every file, every dependency, and every design decision.

The Format

• Duration: One week (Feb 10-16, 2026)
• Team size: Maximum two developers
• Evaluation: Six judges from Anthropic's Claude team
• Prize: $100,000 in Claude API credits
• Requirement: Build something real using Claude Code and Opus 4.6

The Competition

Over 13,000 teams applied. Only approved applicants were admitted. The selection process evaluated technical capability, project ambition, and the potential to push the boundaries of what AI-assisted development can do.

Why We Applied

AskQuala isn't an AI research lab. We're a software company that builds custom products for businesses. So why enter an AI hackathon?

Because AI-assisted development is the future of how software gets built, and we want to be at the frontier — not following it.

Here's what's already happening in our workflow:

• Code generation — Claude writes first drafts of features, components, and API endpoints
• Code review — Claude catches bugs, security issues, and performance problems before they reach production
• Documentation — Claude generates and maintains documentation as code changes
• Testing — Claude writes test cases, identifies edge cases, and ensures coverage
• Architecture — Claude reasons about system design decisions with full codebase context

This isn't hypothetical. We're already using Claude Code to build products for our clients. The hackathon is about pushing those capabilities further — building tools and workflows that make our development process even faster and more reliable.

What This Means for AskQuala Clients

Here's the practical impact for businesses that work with us:

Faster Development

AI-assisted development means features that used to take days can be built in hours. Not because we're cutting corners — because the AI handles the repetitive, boilerplate code while our engineers focus on the complex, creative, business-specific logic.

When we say we build MVPs in 2-4 weeks, AI is a big part of how we deliver on that promise.

Better Code Quality

Claude doesn't get tired. It doesn't skip tests because it's Friday afternoon. It reviews every line of code with the same attention whether it's the first file or the hundredth. Our code quality has measurably improved since integrating AI into our review process.

Lower Costs

More efficient development means we can keep our prices at $149-$299/month while delivering custom software that would traditionally cost tens of thousands upfront. AI doesn't replace our engineers — it amplifies them, letting a small team deliver what used to require a large one.

AI-Powered Features

For clients on our Pro and Premium plans, we build AI features directly into their products — chatbots, recommendation engines, document processing, automated workflows. Having deep experience with Anthropic's most powerful model means we can build more sophisticated AI features for our clients.

The Broader Picture: AI Is Reshaping Software Development

The Claude Code hackathon is part of a larger shift happening across the software industry. Here's what the data shows:

• GitHub reports that developers using AI assistants complete tasks 55% faster than those without
• McKinsey estimates that generative AI could automate 60-70% of employee tasks in software engineering
• Stack Overflow's 2025 survey found that 76% of developers are using or planning to use AI coding tools

This isn't a fad. It's a fundamental change in how software gets built. Companies that adopt AI-assisted development now will have a structural advantage over those that wait.

At AskQuala, we're not waiting. We're competing at the highest level — selected from 13,000+ applicants to push the boundaries of AI-assisted development alongside Anthropic's own team.

From Arlington to Anthropic

There's something worth noting about the journey. AskQuala is a small team in Arlington, Virginia. We work with local businesses in the DMV — restaurants, gyms, salons, clinics. We're not a Silicon Valley AI startup with millions in funding.

And yet, when Anthropic — one of the most important AI companies in the world — opened applications for their flagship hackathon, our work stood out from over 13,000 applicants.

That's because the quality of what you build matters more than the size of your team or the amount of money behind you. We've shipped real products — PiAds, TheLuxScents, Vishion.ai, GymReel — and we've integrated AI into our development process in ways that demonstrably improve outcomes.

The hackathon is a milestone, but it's also a confirmation: AskQuala is building at a level that gets noticed by the companies defining the future of AI.

What's Next

The hackathon runs through February 16, 2026. We'll share what we built and what we learned in a follow-up post.

In the meantime, if you're a business owner thinking about how AI could improve your operations, your customer experience, or your product — we're the team that just got selected by Anthropic to push the boundaries of what's possible.

That's not marketing. That's a fact you can verify.

#1a1a1a]">[Book a call — let's talk about what AI can do for your business. We'll give you an honest assessment of where AI creates real value and where it's just hype.

*Follow Yohanes on LinkedIn for updates on the hackathon and AskQuala's AI work.*