10 Tech-Inspired Last Minute Halloween Costumes

Between work, trying to hit those sweet candy sales, and getting your family—or your adult self—organized for a night of tricking and treating, I bet you haven’t had a lot of time to think about your outfit. Right? Please step into my virtual office.

I asked Skillcrushers to pitch their favorite code-themed tech nerd costume ideas, and they seriously came through. Each costume is super are cheap to make, require minimal effort, and one will even give you a guaranteed cone of silence at whatever spooky event you plan on attending this year (hello, introverts!). Break out the crafting glue and felt-tipped markers, and prepare to sacrifice one of your old t-shirts to the last-minute costume gods. It’s Halloween, nerds. Let’s party.

1. Alt Text

Throw on your finest flannel, don your best boots, and embrace the truly scene side of alt text. For a bit of authenticity, I suggest drawing some Xs on your hands for a Yeah-I-went-to-a-show-last-night-and-it’s-probably-a-band-you-haven’t-heard-of vibe. This is also a great costume for those of us stuck on the trick-or-treating route—a backpack is easily included.

Supplies:

• A flannel
• Jeans
• A marker
• Backpack (optional)
• Bonus points: black Doc Martens

2. A Strong Password

With this super easy costume, you can remind trick-or-treaters and party-goers of the importance of locking down your information. The most complicated item to secure here is probably the strong-person suit, but you could alternatively use a muscle tee, or just draw abs on a t-shirt for a DIY look.

Supplies:

• Paper sign that says COMPLEX PHRASE
• Large cut out of a number
• Large cutout of a special character ( @, ! , %, $, #)
• Some kind of muscle suit (or drawn-on swoleness)

3. The White Screen of Death

Simple costumes are truly the best. If you have friends in the coding community you plan on seeing on All-Hallows, be warned—this costume might be a bit too scary for them to handle. Celebrate your embodiment of one of coding’s greatest hurdles with a custom gif from our one-of-a-kind victory gif pack.

Supplies:

• A white sheet
• A scythe (optional)

4. A Snapchat Filter

This outfit concept would especially be perfect for people really into face paint or makeup. Simply wear all black to highlight your face, carry around a poster board phone screen outline to hold around your face, and then paint yourself as whatever filter most speaks to your soul. Go for the dog ears.

Supplies:

• A headband of some kind (dog ears!)
• Makeup up the wazoo

5. A Browser with A Million Tabs Open

Tab hunting: It happens to the best of us. You can embody the frustrating modern phenomenon of having way too many tabs open on your computer to ever find anything by covering yourself in Post-It notes. Bonus points if you take the time to draw out logos or the actual tabs you currently have open on your real setup.

Supplies:

• Post-It notes
• Gray clothing (or whatever matches your browser of choice)

6. 404 Costume Not Found

Not into the whole costume thing? The 404 Costume Not Found shirt is a crowd pleaser that requires almost no effort and can be made mere moments before exiting your home on Halloween. In preparation for the inevitable tech-related conversations this shirt will spark throughout the night, we have some suggested reading material.

Supplies:

• A t-shirt
• A permanent marker
• (Alternatively, if you don’t want to ruin a shirt and show that you really DGAF, write “404 Costume not found” on a piece of paper and safety pin/duct tape it on.)

7. Scrum Master

Along the same vein as the 404 t-shirt, overachievers can throw any outfit and label themselves Scrum Master using the old paper-taped-on-body tricks. Bonus points for writing To Do, In Progress, Review, and Done on your arms. Not sure what the heck Scrum is? I’ve got you covered.

Supplies:

• Hat with “Scrum Master” or “Scrum Lyfe/Life” emblazoned on it (or taped to it)
• Sharpie for writing out task progress (optional)
• A love of organization (required)

8. Graveyard of Social Media Platforms

Vine, Xanga, Yammer, WeChat, Friendster, MySpace—I could go on. All you need is a gray t-shirt and print outs of these failed platforms’ logos, with an additional RIP up top. Ello, we barely knew you.

Supplies:

• Printouts of logos/RIP
• A gray t-shirt
• A flair for the macabre

9. App Not Responding

Remember that costume I said would guarantee a cone of silence around you? Introverts who are dragged out every year—this one is for you. And by you, I mean us. Two key elements to this costume: the pinwheel and the t-shirt. When someone starts trying to engage in conversation with you, just set that pinwheel flying and freeze. Remain like this until they give up and walk away. Let’s face it, you spend enough time responding to clients on the day-to-day. You deserve a break!

Supplies:

• Shirt
• Marker
• Pinwheel
• A strong dislike of socializing

10. A Stock Photo

There’s a real soft place in my heart for this costume—maybe because stock photos are simultaneously so bizarre and yet necessary to my job making digital content. The Content Team’s favorite? Women laughing while eating salads or yogurt.

Supplies:

• A salad or a yogurt
• A fork or spoon
• Looking deeply carefree despite ugh…salad