My Experience with Online Hackathon Teams Has Been a Total Wake-Up Call

Hey guys, what’s up! It’s been a few days since my last post, but I’m back and need to get something off my chest. Honestly, it is incredibly frustrating when your expectations get completely shattered by reality, but let me break down what happened.
As you might know, I recently joined the PayPal AI Hackathon. Naturally, I started looking for teammates. After searching everywhere, the team I ended up with was a massive disappointment. It wasn't just that they were inactive or barely knew how to code or manage a project—I can handle a learning curve. The real issue was their attitude. They didn't care about learning, growing, or the actual process; they only cared about the end result.
I know many of you might say, "You shouldn't have teamed up with them in the first place." True, but how can you accurately judge someone you don't know? LinkedIn is full of inflated, fake experiences, making it impossible to know who is genuine.
Because that first group was completely MIA, I decided to switch teams. I thought, "Okay, fresh start, this will be better." I quickly regretted it. They were essentially the same, though slightly more responsive, so I decided to just push through with them.
I took the time to teach them about specific AI tools that would make our project simple and easy to complete. The response? Complete silence. It made me realize how messed up the situation was: Why am I carrying the burden of an entire project by myself? I didn’t join a team just to do 100% of the work, sacrifice my own study time, and give others a free ride to the credits without a single contribution. It’s awful.
If there is one takeaway from this nightmare, it’s this: Finding random teams for online hackathons is a trap. Never again. I was looking for passionate, interested participants to experience real, enjoyable teamwork. Instead, it was a total bust.
Choose your teams wisely, or better yet, just go solo if you want it done right.
what yours thoughts on this and experience kindly do share!.