An illustration of a monster looming over a computer control room. There are people sitting in front of monitors that are glowing green. The monster is holding a fake nose and mustache disguise, a camera, a map, and a kettlebell. It's wearing a bowtie.

Illustration: Carly A-F

The prompt: monsters have arrived — build an app to help out in this new world!

What kind of monster is up to you! Maybe kaiju have emerged from the ocean. Maybe Pokémon are actually real. Maybe gremlins were discovered. Maybe cryptids finally got caught on camera. Make ‘em cute, make ‘em scary, make ‘em fun — your call!

And “help” is also up for interpretation. Maybe this is an exciting scientific opportunity and your app supports that exploration. Maybe you’re helping people survive monster attacks. Or maybe you’re building an app to remote operate a monster-hunting robot to save humanity (if you can build that in 4 hours, you’re my hero).

Apps must use Convex, Clerk, and/or Raycast as part of the build.

Make new connections and get expert guidance

We’ve set up a dedicated channel in the Learn With Jason Discord called #builder-chat for brainstorming, sharing ideas, and keeping each other accountable.

We’ll have devs from the Algolia team available to provide technical guidance as you’re building.

Find an accountabilibuddy, get expert guidance from the Clerk, Convex, and Raycast teams, run your idea past Jason and other community members, and listen in to what the rest of the community is cooking up in this open call to kick off the hackathon.

RSVP to add it to your calendar:

The first 5 devs to submit a qualifying app get their choice of gear

The first 5 qualifying apps submitted will receive an item of their choice, up to $150 value, from one of the following sites:

Watch the episode for inspiration

See how Annie, Shruti, Zrybea, and Jason tackled the challenge in the latest episode of Web Dev Challenge to jumpstart your own creativity.

The rules and how to submit

If you want to play along, here’s how:

  1. Build a web app that meets the challenge
  2. Spend 30 minutes¹ planning your app
  3. Spend 4 hours¹ building your app
  4. Use Convex, Clerk, and/or Raycast to build your web app
  5. Publish the source code as a public GitHub repo
  6. Publish the web app to a public URL
  7. Submit your web app by 11:59 pm Pacific on Monday, September 9, 2024

Submit your web app

Happy building! Let’s have some fun.