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What Happens After You Win a DEV Challenge? A Complete Guide to Getting Paid

Dhruv Jani on August 29, 2026

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 par...
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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

Okay, now I want to hear from the other winners. 😂

I documented my entire post-win journey because before my first DEV Challenge win, I couldn't find anything explaining what actually happens after the “CONGRATULATIONS, YOU WON!” email.

Did your payout process look like this? Did you get stuck somewhere completely different?

Especially curious about international winners — the FEMA part was definitely not something I had on my bingo card. 💀

Drop your experience below. Let's make the guide better for whoever wins next. 🏆

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anik_sikder_313 profile image
Anik Sikder

Everyone talks about winning. Almost nobody documents what happens after.

This fills a surprisingly important gap.

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

Thanks!! It was the motive of this post, cause as I said earlier It tool me a whole week to figure out what to do to find the SWIFT/IBAN code, and there was no guide like this on DEV before.

Also, MLH payout seems to be new, so with a lot of new members joining DEV community every week. This will help everyone. And thanks for the kind words.

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fm profile image
Fayaz

Congrats on winning! 🎉

  • Most of it is probably the same for everyone, except the final Bank confirmation part, that differs from country to country.

  • I'm not sure, but usually Banks only require these sort of formalities for the first time. i.e. if you receive remittance from X for the first time in Y bank account, your bank will need some documentation. From the second time onward, that may no longer be necessary for the same X and Y. At least that's my experience, your country may have different rules.

  • Ramp payment delay (40 to 60 days) should get reduced from the second time onward as well (subject to the release of the payment from different sponsors of course).

  • Previously DEV used to pay directly to Bank, PayPal etc. The Ramp system is newly introduced. My first 2 payments completed within a week of the winner announcement post! The 3rd one went through Ramp and had around 40 days delay. Hope DEV will reduce the recent delays and bring back the good old days. 🥰

Thanks for the detailed write-up. It'll help many in the near future 👍️

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani • Edited

This is REALLY useful context, @fm! 🙌

Especially the part about the bank formalities potentially being a first-time thing, and the fact that your earlier Ramp-free payments were completed within a week. That makes it pretty clear that the timeline can vary a LOT depending on when/through whom the prize is processed.

Having experiences from multiple winners will make it much more useful than just my own timeline.

And yeah… 40–60 days through Ramp vs. your earlier one-week payments is quite a difference.😭😂

Thanks for adding your experience here! This is exactly the kind of information I hoped the post would collect for future winners. 🙌

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yug_vasava profile image
Yug Vasava

This was a helpful post. Congrats on win!
And the info about FEMA, I didn't know that, will help in future.

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

Glad, It helped. But I wanna add that, FEMA is for all kind of foreign remittances. So when you win one in future, you must add the winner's mail asking for details, the one present in post to be attached to the 3 DOCS required as a proof of win.

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yug_vasava profile image
Yug Vasava

Love, how you said when you win😂. Bro, got more confidence in me than myself. But one last question, is there like a tax?? Do you get all 300$??

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

Bro, I do wanna see you win(really❤️). Now for the question: Yes, they took Rs. 51 as foreign transfer tax.

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technogamerz profile image
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥

Aap hi pahle aise hoge jinhone is topic par baat ki hai.
Jeetne wale jeet hi lete hain, aaj ye bhi sabit ho gaya. Congratulations Dhruv !!

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

Thanks very much.
Actually, mujhe bohot time se iss topic par post karni thi. But How can you post before yourself getting the prize money😅.
Hope it helps someone new winning any dev challenge!!

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technogamerz profile image
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥

Great article! Awesome topic. Keep it up and keep moving forward! 🙌🏻

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

Thanks!!😊

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xulingfeng profile image
xulingfeng

Congratulations!🎉

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

Thanks!!👍️

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soumyadeepdey profile image
Soumyadeep Dey

My payment got stuck due to wrong purpose code bro 😭😭

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

What's the status now?? I mean you reached out and purpose code?? I know SWIFT code. Can ya elaborate and then we can find a solution 😅🙃

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soumyadeepdey profile image
Soumyadeep Dey • Edited

The money they sent via ramp they used wrong purpose code and its stucked been 10 days no reply from accounting team plesse @heyitsjem @jess help

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dj29 profile image
Dhruv Jani

That's a really bad issue. I've been there Mine had a US-based account in the first receivable I got and still The SWFIT code I had to figure out by myself. Nobody replies till atleast 2 weeks from MLH.

I'd suggest create a new mail thread. Add the Dev team and Mlh accounting mail in it. Tag the tag mods of your challenge and you can also reach out to [email protected] Just keep me updated after this, we got it.

And 1 thing to remember: It's MLH so the prize will for sure be paid but it takes frustrating amount of time. Mine was a week late past the expected arrival.

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soumyadeepdey profile image
Soumyadeep Dey

I feel the ramp is soo complimentary , I'll update

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heyitsjem profile image
Jem

@dj29 I would highly suggest not to create a new email thread. We deal with hundreds (if not thousands) of incoming emails every day. Trying to track down the status of a prize payment across multiple email threads will undoubtedly prolong any payment issues that are occurring.

@soumyadeepdey I'm so sorry this is happened. I will ping the accounting team today.