Hackathon prize money keeps rising each year as organizations learn to take advantage of their value. Runner-up cash prizes are now in the thousands, and grand-prize payouts are as high as $1 million.

Seven strangers from different generations, cultures, jobs and even continents came together with a winning idea for Microsoft’s Global Hackathon when they discovered they’d all had the same ...

As the gospel of Silicon Valley-style disruption spreads to every sector in the economy, so too have the industry’s favorite competitive ritual, hackathons. The contests, where small teams of “hackers ...