A genuine client scenario.
Candidates receive what a marketer inherits on day one of an account — background documents, a recorded sales call, and the client’s live website. Nothing is simplified for the exercise.
An aFactor event · Annual
Markathon.
aFactor’s marketing hackathon — a real client scenario, live evaluation, and a panel with the standing to act on what it sees. Held every year.
What Markathon is
A serious professional test — not a quiz.
Markathon measures the parts of the job a résumé cannot: judgment under ambiguity, live reasoning, and the ability to defend a plan when it is questioned.
Mostly evaluated in conversation.
A written submission opens the event. Everything after it is live: a pitch, a discovery call with the client character, and a defence before the panel. Thinking is tested where it is hardest to fake — out loud.
Individual participation.
No teams, no shared submissions, no group defence. The work is yours, and so is the judgment behind it. This is the structural difference between Markathon and other hackathons.
Why aFactor runs it
The institution’s method, run in the open.
Markathon is a public demonstration of how aFactor thinks about capability assessment. The same conviction that shapes every aFactor programme shapes the event: capability is proven, not claimed — and it is proven under realistic conditions, against real materials, in front of people qualified to judge it.
Agency partners gain visibility into a curated cohort of serious candidates. Top performers are invited to aFactor cohort programmes with priority. Strong work is seen by people with the standing to act on what they see.
12 days · 3 rounds · solo · online.
Each edition runs across twelve days and three rounds — written submission, live pitch, discovery call with revision, and a final defence. Recorded grooming sessions precede every live round. AI use is permitted, encouraged, and disclosed.
Editions
Markathon, year by year.
Markathon is an annual event. Each edition has its own scenario, panel, and cohort.
Markathon 2026
A performance-marketing hackathon for serious professionals. 1–12 July 2026 · online · all times IST. Prize pool of ₹1,75,000 across the top three, alongside recognition that goes further than cash.