Winning is the part everyone posts about. The two months after — the part where a cash prize actually turns into money in your account — is the part nobody writes down anywhere. I looked for a guide before my first win and didn't find one, so this is me being the guide I needed.
For context, this is based on winning DEV's GitHub Finish-Up-A-Thon Challenge with ShelfTalk, a college project I revived using GitHub Copilot. Prize was $300 USD, a DEV++ membership, and an exclusive badge. If you want the receipts instead of just my word for it:
This is the full pipeline for a DEV Challenge win with an MLH-administered cash prize, from the announcement post to the money actually landing. If you're a first-time winner, bookmark this — you'll want it in about a week.
Table of Contents
- Step 1: The winner post goes up
- Step 2: DEV++ shows up
- Step 3: MLH and DEV need your details
- Step 4: The Ramp invite
- Step 5: Bank details
- Step 6: The invoice appears
- If you're in India: FEMA
- The actual timeline
Step 1: The winner post goes up — stop refreshing
You don't need to sit there hitting refresh. When results are in, you get two separate emails: one confirming you got the winner badge, and one saying you were mentioned in the actual results post, sent out by whoever tag-moderated the challenge.
Email #1 — the winner badge confirmation
Email #2 — you've been mentioned in the results post
Step 2: A day later, you're subscribed to DEV++
No action needed here — it just shows up as part of the prize.
The DEV++ membership confirmation, no action required
Step 3: If this is your first win, MLH and DEV need your details
About 1-2 days after the announcement, if this is your first DEV Challenge win, you'll get an email jointly from the DEV team and MLH's accounting team. They're setting up your Ramp account for the cash prize and need:
- Your legal first and last name
- Phone number
- Current country of residence
- State or province (if you're in the US or Canada)
The joint DEV + MLH accounting email kicking off the Ramp setup
One habit worth building right here, because you'll need it again in Step 5: reply-all on this thread for any question going forward. Multiple people from both teams are on it, and reply-all is what actually gets you an answer instead of a message sitting unread in one inbox.
Step 4: The Ramp invite
Once your details are in, you get an invite to Ramp. This is where you:
- Add your account details
- Add them to receivables
- Fill out a tax form — if you're not a US citizen, this is the W-8BEN
The Ramp invite that lands after your details are submitted
The W-8BEN — required if you're not a US citizen
Step 5: Bank details — the part that ate my week
This is the part nobody walks you through, and it's the one place I actually lost time. I asked the MLH team directly where to enter my SWIFT code — more than once — and never got a straight answer. The Ramp UI itself didn't have an obvious field labeled "SWIFT code" either, which made it worse: I wasn't missing an answer, I was missing where the question even went.
I'd also gone in assuming I couldn't receive the money in USD directly into my account, so I filled everything out around that assumption. It was wrong, and untangling it afterward cost me more time than the original problem did.
In the end I spent about an hour going back and forth with Ramp's own help bot, one question at a time, until I found where the SWIFT/BIC field actually lived and got the currency set correctly to USD.
Currency set to USD, with the SWIFT/BIC field finally in view
That hour with the help bot, start to finish:
Ramp help bot — 1 of 6
Ramp help bot — 2 of 6
Ramp help bot — 3 of 6
Ramp help bot — 4 of 6
Ramp help bot — 5 of 6
Ramp help bot — 6 of 6, the field turns up
Step 6: The invoice appears
Once everything's filled in correctly, an invoice gets generated on your end — the actual receivable, created against your bank details.
The invoice, generated automatically once your bank details are accepted
For Indian winners specifically, the remittance doesn't land directly — it first reaches the nodal/central branch of your bank in your city. You'll get an email from your bank saying they've received a foreign remittance from MLH, and at that point you need to act fast: your bank has the right to reject the remittance, and the next step is filling out a FEMA form with the details of the transaction, along with your Aadhaar card and PAN card, signed. The suggestion I got was to physically visit the central branch matching the SWIFT code's city and fill the form out there. That's fine if your schedule allows it — mine didn't. I got the bank's email on a Thursday, the following Saturday was a bank holiday, and as a college student I couldn't exactly walk into a branch on a weekday either. So instead, we asked the branch manager directly if they could email us the form and let us send the details back that way — and that worked. If you're in the same spot, don't assume an in-person visit is the only option. Ask. Don't sit on that email. The window to respond isn't long, and a rejected remittance means starting the transfer process over.If you're in India: FEMA enters the chat
The bank's notice of an incoming foreign remittance — this is your cue to move fast
The FEMA form your bank requires before releasing the remittance
The actual timeline
Start to finish, budget around two months from the winner post to money actually reaching your account. Nothing about that length means something's broken — it's just the real shape of the pipeline: DEV/MLH verification, Ramp setup, bank processing, and, for international winners, your own bank's compliance checks stacked on top.
If you're going through this right now
I'm not an accountant and this isn't tax or legal advice — I'm one winner describing exactly what happened to me, so your bank, country, or MLH's process could vary slightly. If you're stuck at any of these steps, drop it in the comments; I'll answer what I can. And if you're stuck on MLH or DEV's end specifically, reply-all really is the fastest way to get their actual attention.
Winning was the fun part. This was the part I wish someone had written down first.
