Game On: The European Cloud & AI Skills Hub Is Launching Its First AWS GameDay Hackathon for Students
A New Challenge for the Next Generation of Cloud Builders
The European Cloud & AI Skills Hub is about to take things up a notch. After offering over one thousand university students across Romania a structured path into cloud computing — from foundational courses through to associate certification — we're adding a new ingredient to the mix: a full-scale AWS GameDay hackathon, designed exclusively for students.
No more labs with guardrails. No more step-by-step tutorials. This time, students will face a live AWS environment, real-time incidents, and a ticking clock. Welcome to GameDay.
What Is AWS GameDay?
AWS GameDay is a gamified, team-based learning exercise where participants operate in a simulated AWS environment. Teams are dropped into a realistic scenario — a fictional company with real AWS infrastructure — and must diagnose issues, architect solutions, and keep systems running. Points are scored for uptime, cost optimization, and creative problem-solving.
Think of it as a flight simulator for cloud engineers. Everything feels real, the stakes feel high, and the lessons stick.
Why a Hackathon? Why Now?
The Cloud & AI Skills Hub has already helped students build strong theoretical foundations and earn certifications. But there's a gap between knowing how a service works and knowing what to do when that service fails at 2 AM on a Friday. GameDay bridges that gap.
By putting you, the students, in a high-pressure, team-based environment where your decisions have visible consequences, we're giving you something the classroom can't: operational instinct. The ability to troubleshoot, prioritize, communicate, and act — all at the same time.
And we think you are ready for it.
What to Expect
Before the Event — Getting Ready
We're not sending anyone in unprepared. In the weeks leading up to the hackathon, participants will have access to:
- Curated learning paths - focused on the core services they'll encounter during GameDay.
- A prep webinar walking through the GameDay interface and team dynamics
- Team formation — mixed teams will be created to encourage collaboration
On the Day
The hackathon will run for approximately 3-4 hours. Here's the planned format:
| Time Block | Activity |
|---|---|
| Opening ceremony (~30min) | Team formation, briefing, and environment walkthrough |
| Hands on work (~2h) | GameDay challenges |
| Closing ceremony (~30min) | Leaderboard review and prizes |
| Networking (~1h) | Peer and partners networking |
Each team will have access to a dedicated AWS account with a pre-deployed application stack. Challenges will range from resolving an outage on a microservices application to optimizing costs on an over-provisioned architecture — all while keeping a fictional company's customers happy.
Mentorship on the Ground and online
AWS Solutions Architects, AWS Community members, and Amazon Development Center engineers from Romania will be embedded as floating mentors throughout the event. They won't give answers — but they'll ask the right questions: "Have you checked the CloudWatch logs?", "What happens if that instance goes down — do you have redundancy?", "Is that the most cost-effective instance type for this workload?"
This coaching model means you won't just memorize commands — you'll start building the diagnostic instincts that separate a cloud practitioner from a cloud engineer.
What Will Students Walk Away With?
Beyond the competition itself, participants can expect to gain:
- Confidence with real infrastructure. This will be, for many, the first time they work in a live AWS environment where their decisions have visible, immediate consequences. Spinning up an EC2 instance in a lab is one thing; keeping a production workload running while costs climb is another.
- Teamwork under pressure. GameDay is inherently collaborative. Students who have only ever coded solo will discover that cloud operations is a team sport — and that communication is as important as technical skill.
- A clearer career direction. Whether it's DevOps, serverless, security, or data engineering — nothing clarifies your interests faster than a day spent deep in the trenches of a real-world scenario.
- Recognition. Top-performing teams will receive awards, and all participants will earn certificates for their involvement — a tangible addition to their professional profile.
Who Can Participate?
This hackathon is exclusively for students, enrolled or not in the European Cloud & AI Skills Hub. If you're a student at any Romanian university this is your chance to put your skills to the test.
💡Register for the event using this survey .
More details and exact dates will be shared through the program's official Builder Center Space
Building More Than Skills
The European Cloud & AI Skills Hub has always been about more than certifications and course completions. It's about building a community of young builders who are ready to shape what comes next in cloud and AI. This hackathon is a natural next step in that journey — a moment where learning meets doing, and where students get to see just how much they've grown.
We can't wait to see what you build. Game on. 🎮
The European Cloud & AI Skills Hub is a collaboration between Amazon Development Center Romania, AWS and partner universities in Romania, aimed at equipping the next generation of cloud professionals with hands-on skills, industry certifications, and mentorship from AWS practitioners. Stay tuned for registration details and event dates.
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