FAQ

Help out grandma is for highschoolers! You need to be 13-18 years old (under 19) to participate.

100% free* - all the prizes are donated to us or paid for by us!
*customs might occur outside of the US or you might simply get a HCB grant

Always. Grandma only decides how you build it, never what.

Ask again. The first three asks are free, and after that each ask costs a few cookies.

Use of AI must strictly be under 30% of total time.

No, the project must be created AFTER you have asked grandma.

All kinds of technical projects, as long as the code is public.

Yup. It's run with Hack Club, a nonprofit that has been running programs like this for years. Past rounds include Arcade, High Seas, Summer of Making and Flavortown. Teens build projects, and real prizes get sent out.

Join the Slack, set up Hackatime, then talk to Grandma. The start here page has all five steps.

You need to want to build something, dear. Beginners are welcome, and time spent learning counts, as long as it is real work on your project. Pick something small and finish it.

No. You work alone, and so does everyone else. Grandma has only one lap.

As many as you like. You can have only one project in the works at a time (talking to Grandma or building it), but the moment you hand it in you may start the next one. You can have several projects handed in and waiting for review at once. See the rules.

As long as it takes. Half an hour or ten days, nobody is timing you. The program as a whole will have an end, and Grandma will announce the date well before it.

Only to fix it after a reviewer asked for changes, and that is a new round, not a second helping. One ship per round, and only the approved round pays cookies. Polishing a project nobody asked you to change does not get you another ship. See the rules.

Yes. A project with changes requested does not count as the one in the works, so you can fix it whenever you like, even while you are building something new. Only a project you are talking to Grandma about or building counts as in the works.

A project usually gets at most 3 rounds, and the first hand-in is round one. Grandma tells you how many goes you have left. On the last round the reviewer can only say yes or no, so make it a good one.

Not the same work and hours. Time that another program already counted does not count here. Make something new for Grandma.

No. It has to be your own project, made in your own time.

For the hours you built and shipped. Spicier demands and a project Grandma loves make each hour worth more. The payouts page has a calculator.

Not word for word, dear. A reviewer may reduce your hours if they look inflated. Grandma can only prove what she can verify, and Hackatime is not proof of work.

Because they did not look like the project. The usual reasons are very few commits for a lot of hours, a small project with a big number on it, or a timer that kept running while you were away. When in doubt, the doubt goes against the number.

Yes, when it is real work on your project: reading, trying things, getting stuck and unstuck. Idle time does not count.

After a reviewer has checked your project and your hours. Grandma tells you each result herself and hands them over, one project at a time, the next time you visit. Projects are reviewed in the order they are handed in, and there is no fixed date.

No. AI may take under 30% of your total time, and you must be able to explain every part of what you hand in. A project from one prompt, with no debugging, no shaping and no learning, will not be approved.

Yes. The hand-in note has a box for it: what for, and roughly how much. Honesty is easier than being caught. How this site was made is on the AI disclosure page.

A page anyone can open and use, with no login, that stays awake. A reviewer opens it in a private window and expects to try it in under two minutes. If it needs a login, put demo details in your description.

Somewhere permanent. Not Streamlit, not a free tier that falls asleep, not a tunnel to your own laptop. The hand-in note refuses the hosts Grandma knows about.

A link to YouTube, Vimeo or a plain mp4 file. Not Google Drive.

No. A still PNG, JPEG or WebP of the real project, not a mock-up.

A public repository and a README that says what it is and how to run it, yes. A licence is a nice idea, not a must. Commit as you go: one giant commit for a big project makes a reviewer suspicious.

Usually the reviewer asks for changes and writes what to fix. Grandma reads it to you the next time you visit, no cookies are paid for that round, and you fix the project and hand it in again. Only a round that is approved pays. In rare cases, like cheating or spam, a project is turned down for good. You never have to wait: the moment you hand one in, you can start the next.

Money on a Hack Club Bank card for one specific thing, which you buy yourself. Grandma does not post parcels, she has a bad hip. How the Pantry works.

The link to the product and a screenshot of your whole cart, with tax and shipping in it.

Add upgrade grants until the grant covers it. Upgrades are never sold alone, only together with their base grant.

Press Sign in and sign in with Hack Club. Your account is made the first time you do. While the program is in beta you also have to be let in: ask in #grandma-help. There is no password to forget.

Everybody. Your display name, your projects, what you hand in, what a reviewer asked you to change and, once you have collected a result from Grandma, how many hours Hackatime tracked and how many hours the reviewer approved are public. Your Slack ID, region and time zone are not. Put nothing in a project that you would not put on a wall.

Anybody with the link to your project page, once you have collected the result from Grandma. Like everything else about a project, the note is public. Until you collect it, strangers only see that the project is in review.

In Slack. Ask for help in #grandma-help and chat in #grandma. Somebody there is less grumpy than Grandma.