Dev Opportunity Radar #16: $15K AI Agent Hackathon, AI Education Fellowship, and AWS Student Rewards

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.

This week's edition features the AI for Education Fellowship, AWS Student Rewards, and the Multi-App AI Agent Hackathon, along with the Tech Interview Handbook as a resource worth checking out.

If you're new to the series, you can also browse previous editions, search past opportunities, and explore Community Finds, Reader Updates, and Resources Worth Checking Out on the Dev Opportunity Radar website. I've also written a short post about why I built it. You'll find links to both at the end of this article.

If you've discovered something through the radar, I'd love to hear about it. Whether you applied to an opportunity, joined a community, completed a program, or found a resource you hadn't seen before, I'd be happy to feature your experience in a future 💙 Reader Updates section (with your permission).

And if you've come across an opportunity, resource, community, program, or event that deserves more attention, feel free to share it in the comments.

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

Table of Contents

• ⚡ Quick Scan
• 🔄 Still Open From Previous Editions

• 📍 This Week's Opportunities

  • 📌 AI for Education Fellowship
  • 📌 AWS Student Rewards
  • 📌 Multi-App AI Agent Hackathon

• 📚 Resources Worth Checking Out

  • Tech Interview Handbook

• 🌟 Community Finds

• 💙 Reader Updates

• 👋 Until Next Friday

• 🌐 Dev Opportunity Radar Website

⚡ Quick Scan

Opportunities

Resource Highlight

📝 A quick note: I spend a lot of time researching and verifying every opportunity before featuring it in Dev Opportunity Radar. However, deadlines, eligibility, program details, and application requirements can change after publication. Before applying, please take a few minutes to 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.

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 full collection and use the filters to find something specific.

I've already covered the opportunities below 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.

📍 This Week's Opportunities

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

📌 AI for Education Fellowship

Who it's for: Builders, engineers, educators, researchers, and anyone interested in building something at the intersection of AI and education. No coding experience or other prerequisites are required.

What stands out: The AI for Education Fellowship from Worldwide Studios is a 100-day virtual fellowship where you pick projects to work on, build and test them, and share what you're working on through demos every two weeks.

I wanted to include this because I like that it is focused on actually building something, rather than just learning about AI or education. You can explore an idea, build a first version, test it, and keep improving it throughout the fellowship.

The fellowship is fully virtual and you can join from anywhere in the world. Fellows can also work in teams if they want, and the community includes people from different backgrounds, including engineers, researchers, educators, and school owners.

Another thing worth knowing is the time commitment. The fellowship expects around 8–10 hours a week, with weekly squad syncs and bi-weekly demos. So this is something to think about if you're considering applying alongside work or school.

There are also examples of past fellows building and testing real projects during the fellowship, including AI tutoring and education-focused products.

Format: Virtual | Duration: 100 days

Dates: September 15 – December 15, 2026

Time Commitment: 8–10 hours per week

Cost: Free for accepted fellows

Eligibility: Anyone interested in building solutions in AI and education | No prerequisites

Application: Applications are reviewed as they come in

🔗 Learn More & Apply

📌 AWS Student Rewards

Who it's for: University students who want to learn cloud and AI, build projects, and earn AWS learning and certification benefits along the way.

What stands out: AWS Student Rewards on AWS Builder Center gives verified higher education students 12 months of AWS Skill Builder Premium, along with opportunities to earn AWS Credits and an AWS Foundational Certification exam voucher.

I wanted to include this because 12 months of premium learning access is a pretty significant amount of time. The Skill Builder access includes 900+ courses, hands-on labs, certification preparation, and other learning resources, so students can actually use it throughout the year rather than having access for only a short period.

There is also a reward system built around participating in the AWS Builder Center community. After verifying your student status and completing your profile, you get the Skill Builder reward. You can then earn badges through things like publishing articles, commenting, and maintaining engagement.

At 7 badges, you unlock $10 in AWS Credits, at 14 badges you get another $20, and at 21 badges you can unlock an AWS Foundational Certification exam voucher worth $100.

Another thing I liked is that AWS also has Student Builder Groups at universities in 60+ countries, so there is a community side to this as well if there is a group at your university.

One thing to check before signing up is the eligibility. You need to be 18 or older and enrolled at an accredited higher education institution, and your student status needs to be verified.

Benefits: 12 months of Skill Builder Premium + up to $30 in AWS Credits + AWS Foundational Certification exam voucher

Eligibility: Students 18+ enrolled at accredited higher education institutions worldwide

Cost: Free

🔗 Learn More & Get Student Rewards

📌 Multi-App AI Agent Hackathon

Who it's for: Developers, AI builders, and anyone who wants to build an AI agent that can actually take actions across different applications. You can participate solo or in a team of up to four.

What it's about: The Multi-App AI Agent Hackathon, hosted by Lemma and Comma Capital, is a one-day virtual hackathon where you build a multi-step AI agent connected to at least three external apps.

I wanted to include this one because the challenge is pretty clear: you're not just building a chatbot or showing what an AI agent could do. The idea is to build something that can actually take actions across multiple apps, and then show that it works.

The hackathon takes place on September 13, 2026, from 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Time. You'll have most of the day to build, with judging and awards happening toward the end.

For the submission, you'll need a working project or repository, a two-minute demo, and a short system and reliability brief. The project is judged on technical execution, reliability and evaluation, usefulness, originality, and how clearly you can explain what you built.

There is also $15,000 in cash prizes, with $10,000 for first place, $4,000 for second, and $1,000 for third.

And probably the part many developers will care about: all three winning teams get a guaranteed interview with either Arga Labs or Lemma AI. Of course, that is an interview opportunity and not a job offer, but I think it makes the hackathon a little more interesting if you're also looking for opportunities to get your work in front of companies.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is a single-day hackathon, so you'll need to be comfortable building and making decisions fairly quickly. The challenge also has a specific requirement of connecting your agent to at least three external apps, so it's worth thinking about what you could build before the event starts.

Prize Pool: $15,000

Format: Virtual | Duration: 1 day

Date: September 13, 2026 | Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Pacific Time

Team Size: Solo or 2–4 people

What you need to build: A useful, multi-step AI agent connected to at least 3 external apps

Submission: Working project/repository + 2-minute demo + system and reliability brief

Judging: Technical execution, reliability & evaluation, usefulness, originality, and demo clarity

Hiring: Top 3 teams receive guaranteed interviews with Arga Labs or Lemma AI

🔗 Learn More & Register

📚 Resources Worth Checking Out

Not every useful find comes with an application deadline.

Here's one resource worth checking out this week.

Tech Interview Handbook

If you're preparing for a software engineering interview and not sure what you should actually focus on, the Tech Interview Handbook is a free resource that puts a lot of the preparation material in one place.

It covers the whole interview process, starting from resume preparation and applying for jobs, then moving into coding and algorithms, system design, behavioral interviews, and finally offer negotiation.

I think the useful part here is that you don't have to use it only for coding practice. There are sections on things like how to prepare for coding interviews, common algorithm patterns, system design, behavioral questions, interview best practices, and questions you can ask the interviewer.

It also includes curated coding questions through the Blind 75 and Grind 75, along with explanations and tips for different algorithm topics. So if you don't want to randomly pick hundreds of problems to practice, you can use those lists as a starting point.

There are also sections on company interview formats, engineering levels, compensation, and choosing between offers, which can be useful once you get further into the process.

I wouldn't say you need to go through every section. Depending on where you are in your interview preparation, you can just pick the parts that are relevant to you. For example, if your coding preparation is already good, you could spend more time on system design or behavioral interviews.

So if you're preparing for interviews and looking for one place to get an idea of what to prepare and in what order, this is a resource I think is worth going through.

Format: Free online resource

Covers: Resume preparation, coding & algorithms, system design, behavioral interviews, interview best practices, offer negotiation, and more.

Also includes: Blind 75, Grind 75, curated practice questions, interview cheatsheets, and company interview information.

🔗 Explore the Tech Interview Handbook

🌟 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.

We've had some really wonderful community finds over the last few weeks, and I honestly can't thank everyone enough for taking the time to find these opportunities, look through them, and send them my way. I know that takes time, and I appreciate every person who thinks of the Radar when they come across something they feel others might find useful 💙

This week, we weren't able to include a community find, but that's completely okay. Hopefully we'll have more wonderful finds from the community as we keep going.

So if you come across an opportunity, fellowship, grant, hackathon, conference, community, resource, or anything else you think more people should know about, please do send it my way. I love seeing what you find, and it helps make this series better for everyone.

If I feature something you shared 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.

👋 Until Next Friday

Before I go, I just want to say thank you.

Every week, I spend time searching for opportunities, resources, and communities that I think deserve a little more attention. But one of my favorite parts of this series isn't the research. It's seeing what happens after an edition is published.

Seeing someone discover an opportunity, apply to a program, share a resource, suggest a Community Find, or come back to tell us what they learned reminds me why I started Dev Opportunity Radar in the first place.

The goal has always been simple:

Help people discover opportunities they otherwise might have missed.

Thanks to all of you, it feels like we're doing exactly that.

Whether you've been reading since the very first edition or this is your first time here, thank you for being part of the journey. Every comment, suggestion, and shared opportunity helps make this series better than I could build on my own.

If you ever come across an opportunity, resource, event, community, or anything else you think deserves more attention, I'd love for you to share it in the comments. And if Dev Opportunity Radar helped you discover something exciting, I'd love to hear that too.

Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for helping make this our radar, not just mine.

I'll be back next Friday with more opportunities, resources, and Community Finds.

Until then, take care, 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