Dev Opportunity Radar #20: $2M AI Reasoning Challenge, PayPal AI Hackathon, and Coinbase Analytics Challenge

TL;DR Welcome back to Dev Opportunity Radar. This is a weekly series where I share opportunities,...

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 PayPal AI Hackathon, ARC Prize 2026, and Coinbase's Strategy, Execution & Analytics Bounty Challenge, along with Build Your Own X as a resource for learning how different technologies work by building them from scratch.

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
  • 📌 PayPal AI Hackathon
  • 📌 ARC Prize 2026
  • 📌 Coinbase Strategy, Execution and Analytics Bounty Challenge
• 📚 Resources Worth Checking Out
  • Build Your Own X
• 🌟 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 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.

📌 PayPal AI Hackathon

Who it's for: Developers, designers, founders, students, and anyone interested in building with AI and payment technologies.

What it's about:

The PayPal AI Hackathon is a global online hackathon where participants build an application that meaningfully integrates PayPal's developer platform and an AI tool, model, or platform of their choice.

There are no fixed problem statements or required tracks. Projects can include AI agents, payment experiences, business tools, applications, or automations. Participants can work individually or in teams, and they can start a new project or make meaningful progress on an existing one during the hackathon.

A working prototype or proof of concept is required. Submissions must include a public code repository with a license, documentation, a functional demo, details of the AI tools used, and a demo video under three minutes. Static mockups and non-functional demos do not meet the requirements.

The total prize pool is listed as $67,500+, with awards for the overall winners and categories such as creativity, impact, agentic commerce, and the use of PayPal and sponsor tools. Some awards include cash, while others offer credits or subscriptions.

Format: Online, worldwide
Dates: Deadline November 13, 2026, at 1:30 AM IST
Team Size: Individual or team
Prize Pool: $67,500+ in cash and other prizes
Requirement: Meaningful use of both PayPal and AI

Explore the hackathon

📌 ARC Prize 2026

Who it's for: AI researchers, developers, and anyone interested in reasoning systems, AI agents, and open-source AI research.

What it's about:

ARC Prize 2026 is a competition focused on advancing AI reasoning, with $2 million in total prizes across three tracks. Participants can work on static reasoning tasks, interactive AI agents, or research papers exploring approaches to improving performance on the ARC-AGI benchmark.

There are three tracks:

• ARC-AGI-2: Build systems that solve static reasoning tasks by predicting the correct outputs for visual grid-based problems.
• ARC-AGI-3: Build AI agents that explore unfamiliar environments, learn how they work, set goals, and plan actions without being given explicit instructions.
• Paper Prize: Submit a research paper presenting an approach to improving ARC-AGI performance, supported by a corresponding Kaggle code submission.

The prize pools differ by track. ARC-AGI-2 has $700,000 available, ARC-AGI-3 has $850,000, and the Paper Prize has $450,000. Awards include prizes for high-scoring solutions, research contributions, and progress toward specific benchmarks.

One important requirement is that participants must open-source their solutions to be eligible for prizes. Submissions are made through the designated Kaggle competitions, and internet access is unavailable during evaluation, so API-based systems such as GPT or Claude cannot be used during that stage.

Format: Online, through Kaggle
Competition Start: March 25, 2026
Submission Deadline: November 2, 2026
Paper Deadline: November 8, 2026
Results: December 4, 2026
Total Prize Pool: $2 million across three tracks
Requirement: Reproducible, open-source solutions for prize eligibility

Explore the competition

Track details:

• ARC-AGI-2
• ARC-AGI-3
• Paper Prize

📌 Coinbase Strategy, Execution and Analytics Bounty Challenge

Who it's for: People interested in analytics engineering, data modeling, SQL, Python, and data quality.

What it's about:

Coinbase's Strategy, Execution & Analytics team is running a bounty challenge built around a fictional scenario involving an Analytics Engineer intern supporting the Growth team.

Participants must complete four exercises covering data modeling for an onboarding funnel, investigating inconsistencies across signup reports using Python, reviewing an inherited SQL pipeline, and communicating a metric discrepancy to a product manager.

The challenge focuses on technical skills as well as decision-making, data validation, and explaining data issues to stakeholders. No live dataset is provided, so participants are expected to explain their assumptions and describe their solutions using code, schemas, or written responses where appropriate.

Submissions must include a current resume in PDF format, responses to all four exercises within a combined limit of 1,500 words (excluding code blocks), and a brief disclosure explaining how AI tools were used, if applicable.

The top 20 participants are eligible to receive $250 in USDC and an exploratory call with a Coinbase Emerging Talent recruiter. Participation does not count as a job application or guarantee an interview or internship.

Format: Online bounty challenge
Challenge Window: September 25 to October 18, 2026
Deadline: October 18, 2026, at 11:59 PM Pacific Time
Prize: $250 in USDC per selected participant, plus a recruiter call
Number of Recipients: 20
Eligibility: Legal residents of the United States or Canada, excluding Quebec, aged 18 or older, with a verified Coinbase account

Challenge details and submission

📚 Resources Worth Checking Out

Not every useful find comes with an application deadline.

Here's one resource worth checking out this week.

Build Your Own X

Who it's for: Developers and learners who want to understand how programming concepts, tools, and technologies work by building them from scratch.

What it's about:

Build Your Own X is a GitHub repository maintained by CodeCrafters that collects step-by-step tutorials for recreating different technologies. Topics include databases, neural networks, programming languages, operating systems, web servers, Git, Docker, AI models, and more.

The repository links to tutorials in different programming languages, covering projects ranging from building a simple neural network to implementing a database or creating a programming language. Readers can browse the categories and choose a project based on what they want to learn.

It's a collection of external tutorials rather than a single structured course, so the languages, prerequisites, and difficulty levels vary between projects.

Format: Free, open-source collection of tutorials
Topics: Software Engineering, Systems Programming, AI/ML, Databases, Networking, and more
Languages: Varies by tutorial
Cost: Free

Explore the repository

🌟 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