"Can you feel the vibes?" An exploration of novice programmer engagement with vibe coding

Abstract

Emerging alongside generative AI and the broader trend of AI-assisted coding, the term “vibe coding” refers to creating software
via natural language prompts rather than direct code authorship. This approach promises to democratize software development, but its educational implications remain underexplored. This paper reports on a one-day educational hackathon at a Brazilian public university – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE) – with undergraduate participants from computing and non-computing disciplines. Through observations, an exit survey, and semi-structured interviews, we examined creative processes, tool usage, collaboration dynamics, and learning. Findings reveal that vibe coding enabled rapid prototyping and collaboration, with participants developing prompt engineering skills and delivering functional demonstrations. However, we also observed premature convergence in ideation, uneven code quality requiring rework, and limited engagement with core software engineering practices. Teams combined multiple AI tools , with human judgment remaining essential for refinement. The short format (9 hours) proved effective for confidence-building among newcomers while accommodating participants with limited availability. We conclude that vibe coding hackathons can serve as valuable low-stakes learning environments when coupled with explicit scaffolds for divergent thinking, critical evaluation of AI outputs, and realistic expectations about production quality.

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ORCID for Victoria Jackson: orcid.org/0000-0002-6326-931X

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