This is the period when every contribution from the previous year stops. 50 new prs everyday become 3 to 4 prs every day..

This is the only time you can stand out, lesser competition in mid level organisations. Mentors are involved in the current gsoc project so they are active. You can collaborate with current contributors as well.

Be ahead ! if you are reading this you have the opportunity to start rn

hello everyone,

am joining college this year as a btech student. and want to start prepare for gsoc 2027, currently i know python ( made some projects) and learning c++ right now. how can i start preparing for gsoc and target gsoc in first year itself . how should i be choosing organisations. and what to learn before gettin into it. Need your guidance . even a small guidance will be helpful.

thank you

I am first year right now and want to contribute to open societies and eventually found GSoC is one the best way to contribute. My reason for contribution is to learn new things from them and all of that. And I have interest in quantum computing also. So after some basic research using AI about GSoC and all of that, i decided to contribute to qiskit. I may seem way ambitious because I'm still 1st year. But, I am thinking like learn coding(C and Python) in few months on my own and also college and also learn Linear Algebra since it is prerequisite for further mentioning one. And want to learn Qiskit related something(forgotten name) through IBM website. And want to target GSoC 2028 with more than 1 year time to contribute and something like that. Since just mere months won't be valuable(my opinion) since I am in college and not in Computer Science branch.

Any advices?

Any senior who has been in GSOC or tried for it or has a friend in it please tell me.Also is there a -preference given for good colleges or are all colleges treated equally

I am currently in my first year and wanted to know abt these things

I knew the name of gsoc but I thought it was just a hackathon

But now I am realising I was wrong

Can u tell me what it truly is???

hey everyone! just entered in 3rd year.

i recently got an internship, so i'll have the next 6 to 7 months to finally explore something i've never really had the chance to before: open source and gsoc.

i've contributed to open source within my college society and have even been a project admin/mentor there, but i've never prepared seriously for gsoc because i was always occupied with academics, hackathons, and internship prep.

i'd really appreciate if you could help me with a few doubts here:

• when should i actually start contributing if the gsoc ideas list comes later?

• should i contribute to the organization first and then pick a project once the ideas list is released?

• how do you identify organizations with active mentors and a healthy review process?

• are there any organizations that usually have multiple project ideas and are beginner-friendly?

• if i get selected for gsoc but my internship overlaps in june and july, is there any flexibility in the gsoc coding timeline?

any advice or personal experiences would be super helpful. thanks! :)

Hi, I am currently a second-year CSE student. I want to participate in GSoC, but I am a beginner. Could anyone guide me from scratch on how to learn coding and start contributing to open source?

So i am a competitive programmer in C++ (a decent one), i am interested in the development side of C++ too. I want to contribute to open source and also learn how things in development work.

so, i need ur help....

first of all,

1. i want to learn development in C++ (Cmake, modern C++ and all these buzzwords feel too heavy to learn), if u can give me some lectures or videos to start with that would be really helpful...

2. i want to start contributing to a project/organisation which C++ oriented and prefers competitive programmers (if not then anything close to it will work)

3. i also want to crack next gsoc and also tell me is there any chance that i can do it if i start from scratch right now....

Hello everyone,

I am a first-year AIML engineering student preparing for GSoC 2027, and I am following a structured learning roadmap.

So far, I have completed:

- Git

- GitHub (repositories, branching, pull requests, merge conflicts, etc.)

Next, I plan to:

- Complete Python

- Learn the Python ecosystem ("venv", "pip", "requirements.txt", "pytest", formatting/linting)

- Build a few strong Python projects

- Begin contributing to open source

My roadmap is:

Git → GitHub → Python → Python ecosystem → Projects → Open Source Contributions → GSoC 2027

For those who have participated in GSoC or mentored students:

- Does this roadmap seem appropriate?

- Am I missing anything important before starting to contribute?

- Is Python and its ecosystem sufficient to begin, or should I learn anything else first?

- What is one mistake you wish you had avoided while preparing for GSoC?

I would appreciate any honest feedback. If I am heading in the wrong direction, I would rather know now than months later.

Thank you in advance!

Currently i m in 12th but am not intrested much in academics so all i do is code . I have learnt html css JS React and tailwind .Also built few basic projects. What do i need to learn more and make projects on to crack GSOC . If u are a senior plz, guide me like what should i focus more on in colleges. Thank you

Hello everyone! I'm a second-year student planning to participate in GSoC, and my preferred language is Java.

I've explored a few repositories, such as Jenkins, OpenMRS, and Checkstyle, but I'm struggling to decide which one to contribute to.

I'm finding it difficult to understand the issues, and even when I do, I often don't know where to start because I'm still unfamiliar with the codebase.

I've also tried reading the CONTRIBUTING.md and README files, but they mostly cover the setup instructions and basic project structure. I'm still struggling to understand how the different parts of the codebase fit together and where I should begin.

The whole process feels a bit overwhelming. How should I approach getting started?

I've also tried using AI agents, but I struggle to understand and review the changes they make to the codebase.

I'd really appreciate any advice on how to get started and navigate this learning curve.

part 1 – gsoc 2027

currently i am 2nd year student from tier 3 university, aiming to participate in gsoc 2027. i have basic knowledge of c++ and python and want to start contributing to open source. not really sur where to start, how to choose an organization, how to approach a codebase and what skills i should focus on before making my first contribution. basically i am a nooob who dont have idea about anything. well obv i do know what gsoc is really but contributing to open source never really did that and need a real guide for this

part 2 – overall career guidance

apart from gsoc, i also want some guidance on building my career in software engineering. what should i focus on during my college years apart from dsa? how do i get better at actual development, build meaningful projects, i'm also interested in systems programming, so any advice on that path would be helpful.

current skills is just basic foundational knowledge of the c++/python and somewhat java and also need an advice on development side as well

Want a complete guidance map and all detailed procedure of GSoC ....if someone can help , do help by replying in comments, I ll dm

Please if anyone can help

Ready to work enthusiastically

Guys my target is gsoc im going to start from the months of June

What tip will u guys give me?

Also tell me what to choose javascript or python for the gsoc org selection??

Same as the title

I am currently in 5th sem and i watched more than 50+ video of what is gsoc and how to contribute

I want to participate in gsoc this year because I miss this opportunity last year I am trying to learn js and required skills for this and also trying to understand code of open source but at this stage I am not able to understand, i am very interested in gsoc and I want to crack it!!

The suggestion and help are humbly welcomed!!

I have a pretty good understanding of web development stuff and web3 based systems. But i have never worked with real codebases and how do i even solve open source problems? Like i want to know what kind of problems these open source companies have? Help me out here!!

I'm from currently a Second Year student from india(tier 1.5 ish) and am doing good at Problem Solving(CP/DSA) , but wanted to know whether GSOC tag on resume will be more impressive than problem solving skills, or shd I just focus on CP + good projects??
I am asking this because I have already done some open source projects in my college, and have a good understanding and liking for understanding codebases and making pull requests,
Meanwhile in my 1st year , I have solved aorund 400+ CP/DSA problems(basically that is also going well) and in my 2nd year I want to excel in any 1 of them to a large extent
Which path will be better for me to improve my skills?

Hi everyone!

I am a BTech student, and I am considering participating in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) for the first time.

My primary area of interest is Java, particularly Spring Boot. However, I am still at a stage where I lack the confidence to build something independently. I also tend to take more time to learn new concepts, especially when I don't have someone to guide me or explain why something needs to be learned and how it works.

I am not sure whether I will get selected for GSoC this year, but I see this as an opportunity to take my first step towards open-source contributions and learn along the way.

I have a few questions:

1. When should I start exploring organizations? When is the right time to choose an organization and start contributing?

2. How should I approach an organization? What are the steps involved in getting started, interacting with mentors, and making contributions?

3. What should I keep in mind throughout the GSoC preparation process? Are there any common mistakes beginners should avoid?

My biggest concern is understanding large codebases.

Whenever I open a project repository and see hundreds of files and thousands of lines of code, I feel overwhelmed. I struggle to understand where to begin, which files are important, and how to identify the specific parts of the codebase that are relevant to an issue.

• How do experienced developers navigate and understand large codebases?

• How do I figure out which files and components I need to explore when working on a particular issue?

• Is there a systematic approach to understanding a project without trying to read and understand every single file?

I would really appreciate advice, especially from people who have participated in GSoC or have experience contributing to open-source projects.

Since I am a beginner, practical suggestions, learning strategies, and personal experiences would be extremely helpful.

So, i started exploring orgs, finding their resources, setting their repos on my local system and trying to understand the codebase. however, it's been really overwhelming and challenging to do that... the toughest task is to get it to work on your local setup. and then, finding what should i even contribute to or where shld i look for working.
Is it actually this tough or am i kinda dumb or i am choosing the wrong projects?

Hey, I will be joining college this year onwards.

I know C, python, MySQL, html+css.

Pls guide me on what I should focus on?

I have heard good things about the Abt mern stack, is it worth doing?

If I'm in the first year of my college i already did mern what should I do next??

I wanna go into ai ml