You're Invited to the GKE Turns 10 Hackathon!
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is turning 10, and we're celebrating a decade of container orchestration with a global hackathon! We're calling on you—the builders, the creators, the coders of all levels—to join the party. This is your chance to build something amazing, win awesome prizes, and have your work showcased by Google.
We're diving deep into the world of AI agents on GKE. As generative AI transforms the tech landscape, we want to see how you can leverage the power and scalability of GKE to bring intelligent, agentic capabilities to life. This is your chance to show how GKE is the ultimate platform for running cutting-edge AI workloads.
Requirements
The Challenge: Give Microservices an AI Upgrade
Supercharge an existing microservice application with agentic AI. You'll start with one of our pre-built applications—either the Bank of Anthos or the Online Boutique—and build on top of it.
The twist? You won't touch the core application code. Instead, you'll build new, containerized components that interact with the application's existing APIs. Think of it as building a smart, external brain that adds a whole new layer of intelligence.
Here's the tech you'll be working with:
Key technologies to be leveraged include:
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Required:
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Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): The chosen platform for deploying your enhanced microservice application and any new agentic components.
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Google AI Models: Incorporate Google AI models, such as Gemini, to power your agentic functionalities.
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Optional:
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Agent Development Kit (ADK): A strongly recommended (but not strictly required) toolkit for building your agents.
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Model Context Protocol (MCP): Utilize MCP to connect and communicate with existing microservice APIs. You can deploy an MCP server on GKE alongside the application.
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Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol: Explore how A2A can facilitate orchestration and communication between different agent components, enabling complex workflows.
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Kubectl-ai: kubectl-ai acts as an intelligent interface, translating user intent into precise Kubernetes operations, making Kubernetes management more accessible and efficient.
- Gemini CLI: Gemini CLI is a command-line AI workflow tool that connects to your tools, understands your code and accelerates your workflows.
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What to Submit
- URL to the hosted Project (if available) for judging and testing, such as web UI, Chrome Extension, mobile app, etc. A hosted project is highly encouraged.
- Text description that summarizes the Project’s features, functionality, technologies used (GKE, ADK, MCP, A2A), information about any other data sources used, and your findings and learnings as you worked through the project
- URL to your public code repo to show how your project was built
- Architecture Diagram - show which technologies were used and how they interact with one another
- ~3-minute demo video
- Optional Developer Contributions:
- Publishing a piece of content (blog, podcast, video): Covering how the project was built using GKE on any public platform (e.g., medium.com, dev.to, Youtube, etc.). You must include language that says you created the piece of content for the purposes of entering this hackathon.
- Publishing a social media post: Highlighting or promoting your project on social media post on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. For any social media posts on platforms such as X or LinkedIn, include the hashtag #GKEHackathon or #GKETurns10.
Check out the rules tab for full details on submissions.
Prizes
Grand Prize - Winner TBA at Kube Con Nov 10-13th
• $15,000 in USD
• $3,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account
• A chance to win maximum of two (2) KubeCon North America conference passes in Atlanta, Georgia (November 10-13, 2025) (Value: $2278 USD each for up to two (2) team members)
• A chance to win a maximum of two (2) travel stipends for airfare and hotel to KubeCon North America in Atlanta, Georgia (maximum of $3,000 USD each for up to two (2) team members)
• Guest interview on the Kubernetes Podcast
• Video feature with the GKE team on a Google Cloud social media channel
• 1 year of Google Developer Program Premium subscriptions at no-cost (maximum up to four team members)
• Virtual Coffee with a Google Team Member
• Social Promo
Honorable Mentions
• $1000 in USD
• $500 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account
Regional Prize: North America
• $8,000 in USD
• $1,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account
• A chance to win a maximum of two (2) KubeCon North America conference passes in Atlanta, Georgia (November 10-13, 2025) (Value: $2278 USD each for up to two (2) team members)
• A chance to win a maximum of two (2) travel stipends for airfare and hotel to KubeCon North America in Atlanta, Georgia (maximum of $2,000 USD each for up to two (2) team members)
• Virtual Coffee with a Google Team Member
• Social Promo
Regional Prize: Europe, Middle East, Africa
• $8,000 in USD
• $1,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account
• Video feature with the GKE team on a Google Cloud social media channel
• Virtual Coffee with a Google Team Member
• Social Promo
Regional Prize: Latin America
• $8,000 in USD
• $1,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account
• Video feature with the GKE team on a Google Cloud social media channel
• Virtual Coffee with a Google Team Member
• Social Promo
Regional Prize: Asia Pacific
• $8,000 in USD
• $1,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account
• Video feature with the GKE team on a Google Cloud social media channel
• Virtual Coffee with a Google Team Member
• Social Promo
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Abdel Sghiouar
Google Cloud Advocate, Google Kubernetes Engine
Akanksha Maurya
Software Engineer
Akshay Ram
Group Product Manager
Alan Christophe
Outbound Product Manager
Alejandro Montenegro
Field Solutions Architect, Generative AI
Anisha Kaul
Field Solutions Architect, Generative AI
Ankita Chandak
Field Solutions Architect, Generative AI
Eddie Villalba
Outbound Product Manager
Gautami Nadkarni
Senior Customer Engineer
Kaslin Fields
DevRel Engineering Manager
Kuan Lu
Cloud Assist Core SWE
Mofi Rahman
Google Cloud Advocate, Google Kubernetes Engine
Olivier Bourgeois
Developer Relations
Pili Hu
Generative AI Blackbelt
Shruti Dhumak
Head of Customer Engineering
Shub Shrivastava
Cloud Architect, AI Infra & AppMod
Srini Atta
Technical Account Manager
Suraj Kath
Software Engineer
Dan Dobrin
Northam Platform Specialist
Rick (Rugui) Chen
AI Infrastructure
Murriel Perez McCab
Engineering Manager
Greg Bray
NorthAm Platform Specialist
Giovane Moura Jr
Northam Platform Specialist
Kent Hua
Google Cloud, Solutions Manager
Yanni Peng
NorthAm Platform Specialist
Len Henry
Lead Principal, VC Strategy & Startups
Rob Edwards
Northam Platform Specialist
Matt Day
Lead Developer Architect
Ishmeet Mehta
NorthAm Platform Specialist
Manasa Kandula
Application Modernization Practice Lead
Daniel Strebel
EMEA Solution Lead, Application Modernization
Richard Bannister
Technology Practice Lead, App Architecture
Julien Breux
Serverless specialist and Go engineer
Márcio Santos
Customer Engineer, Application Modernization
Sathya AG
Principal Architect, Retail
Shobit Gupta
Solutions Architect, Google Cloud
Alex Moore
Head of AI Infrastructure Customer Engineering
Debanshu Das
Software Engineer
Jay Smith
Laurent Grangeau
Solutions Architect, Cloud Natives, Google Cloud
Judging Criteria
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Technological Implementation (40%)
How well is the solution executed? Your code should be clean, efficient, and well-documented. How effectively does the project demonstrate proper deployment and interaction of your app and agents on GKE, and their communication via agent frameworks? -
Demo & Presentation (40%)
Is the problem clearly defined and is the solution effectively presented through a demo and documentation? Have you explained how you used GKE, agent frameworks, and relevant tools? -
Innovation & Creativity (20%)
How novel and original is the idea? Projects that address a significant problem or create a truly unique solution, going beyond basic AI implementations, will score higher.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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