Keep Alive '26
Organized by GDG on Campus
An alert just fired. Checkout is failing. Can your team find out why before the clock runs out? KEEP ALIVE '26 is a national incident response championship for students who have been learning DevOps. You've practised Linux, Docker and Kubernetes — now test it in the field: read the alerts, dashboards, logs and traces of a live microservices system, find what broke and why, and explain how you would fix it. It runs on the same incident platform as Panic at the Pod, the live Kubernetes incident challenge by CNCG Noida, our Community Partner, hosted by GDG on Campus IIIT Nagpur at TantraFiesta 2026.
₹250 per participant (team leader pays for all members)
Total prize pool: ₹25,000
- 1st place: ₹12,000
- 2nd place: ₹7,000
- 3rd place: ₹4,000
- 4th place: ₹2,000
Stages & Timeline
Round 1 — The Night Shift
11 Oct, 9:00 AM – 18 Oct 2026, 11:59 PM
One 30-minute assessment per team, taken once from the team leader's account: multiple-choice questions on DevOps and observability, one incident to investigate from screenshots of dashboards, logs and traces, and two short written answers. Proctored and taken in full screen — no AI tools, no search and no second device. The top 15 teams reach the finale; the next 10 form the waitlist.
Finalists and waitlist announced
19 Oct 2026, 6:00 AM
Finalists confirm their seats
By 20 Oct 2026, 11:59 PM
Finale — KEEP ALIVE Live
26 Oct 2026
On campus at IIIT Nagpur. A hands-on session on the platform, Grafana and the report form, with one practice incident. Phase 1, First Responder: 6 incidents in 90 minutes. Phase 2, Deep Dive: 3 intermediate incidents and 1 critical, cascading incident in 90 minutes. You never change the system — you read its signals and submit a short solution report for each incident covering the root cause, the evidence and the fix. Each team then presents its findings to the judges in a 10-minute slot.
Rules & Regulations
- Round 1 is one 30-minute assessment per team, taken once from the team leader's account.
- Round 1 is proctored and taken in full screen: no AI tools, no search and no second device.
- In the finale you never change the system — you read its signals and submit a short solution report per incident: root cause, evidence and fix.
- AI tools, search and documentation are allowed in the finale, but every team must be able to explain what it submits.
- Travel and stay for the finale are arranged by each team.
- Every team brings at least 2 laptops.
Contact Organizers
Khushal Badaya
+91 98280 98997bt25csh041@iiitn.ac.inGDGoC IIITN
+91 89038 92943gdg@iiitn.ac.in
