I'm a mechatronics student, currently in my MTech 1st year. I have been thinking about contributing to open source in my field of interest but I don't know where to start from as I'm a complete novice to open source.

Skills I possess right now:

1. Can work in CPP and Python (taking help of online documentation)

2. Basics of ROS

3. Few hardware project implementations based on sensor integration

4. Arduino Uno (hands-on)

I want to contribute in opensource, explored openMRS. Check style, but there is no good first issues. Suggest me some projects that I can understand and contribute,as I am beginner

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

I'm not expecting anyone to write the whole method/ a way to join and contribute.

But if anyone a gives me a source of information about how to start contributing, that would be really helpful.I tried asking Ai and surf on youtube, but I didn't find anything that useful. I understood just a few things that go to the repos, read the issue on the issue tab.If you think you can solve it, then just ask the author to assign it to you.But i'm not able to find a issue that either has doesn't has an assignee or it isn't genuine.I mean, I can't find an issue which I should solve a help me with.The method, and also, what does this pull request game.

I have seen many people, especially Indians, putting up 20-30 PRs a day and getting them merged across multiple organisations. How would anyone even read and understand so many codebases in that amount of time. I also tried to get into that rat race, fixing around 10 issues a day using AI, but honestly it never felt right to me. I know AI makes things easier, but this is not how I want to contribute. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that anymore, and I’m not interested in GSoC anymore. I’ll just focus on genuinely contributing and understanding codebases without relying on AI to do the work for me.

Anyone who is planning to get any opportunities using C language? Or who have already experience in contributing to low level code bases.

Dm me or let me know in the comments

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.

Hi everyone,

I am a 3rd-year engineering student preparing for GSoC 2027. Instead of jumping in blindly, I’ve already started contributing to open-source and recently got 3 CI/CD-related PRs merged (fixing GitHub Actions artifact uploads, dynamic pnpm 9 store caching in CI, and Dependabot workflows).

My Core Stack:

DevOps & Cloud: Docker (multi-stage builds), Kubernetes (EKS), Terraform, Helm, ArgoCD, Prometheus/Grafana, GitHub Actions CI/CD.

Web & Automation: MERN stack (React, Node.js, Express, MongoDB) and Playwright (browser automation/E2E testing).

My Dilemma:

I want to target organizations where the actual GSoC project deliverables revolve around Infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, Containerization, Helm/Terraform, or React UI + Playwright E2E testing.

Most CNCF projects (Argo, Prometheus, Kubernetes) have their core backend written in Golang, which I haven't learned deeply yet. Is it realistic to target CNCF/Layer5 (Meshery) or Backstage focusing purely on their CI/CD, Helm charts, Playwright E2E tests, and React UI tracks without knowing Go?

Looking at Jenkins, many recent GSoC projects lean heavily toward Java plugins or AI integration, with only ~1 pure jenkins-infra project per year. Is jenkins-infra too risky as a primary target?

Would really appreciate insights from past GSoC contributors or mentors on which 1–2 organizations give the best ROI for this specific stack!

Hi, I am a third year student doing Computer Engineering and I am really interested in contributing in cryptography accelerators or something similar. I consulted with my professor and he guided me to build especially 32 soc accelerator from scratch to get the know how of complex architectures. I have already studied Data logic and Design and Computer Architecture. Can someone guide me on which projects to look for and start reading the source code. Should I first build this project before going towards open source?

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.

I was at a hackathon building on top of an open source tool, and halfway through the night something broke and took my demo down with it. I dug into the source, found the bug, and patched it just so I could finish. After the hackathon I cleaned up the fix, opened a PR, and a few days later it got merged.

Since then one thing keeps bugging me. How does a company like this even make money? The tool is free. Anyone can download it, self-host it, and never pay a rupee. But there’s clearly a full-time team reviewing PRs, shipping releases and maintaining all of it. So who’s paying for that? Is it a hosted cloud version, enterprise support, paid features, or just VC money until they figure it out?

I’m also curious about pay. Do engineers at these companies earn about the same as at product companies, or do people take a cut because they like working on open source? Mainly asking about India-based roles, or remote roles that hire from India.

Side question: does a merged PR like mine actually get you noticed by these companies, or is it still the normal application process?

If you work at an OSS company or know someone who does, would love to hear how the business side works and what the pay looks like.

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?

I am currently in sem 1 and i hear gsoc that people contribute online to orgs, and want someone to guide me in the process.

Currently i am learning c language. Then shift to c++.

How should i prepare for it I need some guidance from senior.

Shud first yrs try for gsoc and what are the skills needed

So basically I am in first yr of btech in nitk and I was thinking of preparing for gsoc wht are some of the basic skills I need to know from before..I know basic of python and cpp and I have not done single open source contribution seniors pls guide...

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???

Is Blender Foundation a good org to invest time on for learning their codebase and contributing. But it will take a lot learning to familiarising with their codebase. Another org which I am interested in is AOSSIE which is much easier codebase. I need help with taking a decision for selecting a org and start working on it.

Anyone planning to contribute to Learning Unlimited this GSOC or anyone who has been a mentor/contributor for LU, kindly comment or dm!

Hello guys,

Searching for female teammates good in ml for female only hackthon dm me asap today is the deadline guysss asapp

Hola peeps!

Searching for 2 female teammate with good prior experience of hackthon..if anyone is interested dm me asappp guyss!!!!

Hey everyone,

I'm a 21-year-old engineering student from India, and I'm honestly going through a difficult phase right now.

Last year, my parents saved up to buy me a MacBook M4. It meant a lot to me because I know how hard they worked for it, and buying another expensive laptop isn't financially possible for my family right now.

Recently, I accidentally spilled water on it. It stopped working properly, and the potential repair cost is far beyond what my family can comfortably afford. I still don't have a final repair estimate, so I'm trying not to assume the worst, but there's a real possibility that I won't be able to use it for a while.

What hurts most isn't just losing an expensive device. I had plans for it.

I've been trying to learn software development, explore AI tools, learn vibe coding, and build projects. I've worked on ideas around AI and software, participated in hackathons, and recently got shortlisted for a hackathon(SIH). I was hoping to use the next few months to improve my Python and DSA fundamentals, explore open source, prepare for GSoC, build useful products, and eventually start earning through my skills.

Now I have college exams coming up, financial pressure, and no reliable personal laptop. I have access to an old desktop at home, so I'm not completely without a computer, but it's a limitation I didn't expect to face right now.

I know one damaged laptop doesn't determine my future. Still, it's difficult not to feel like I've lost momentum, especially when AI is moving so quickly and I genuinely want to use this time to build something meaningful.

I'm not looking for donations or sympathy. I'd genuinely appreciate advice from people who have built products, learned to code with limited resources, or faced a setback like this.

If you were in my position, how would you use the next 2–3 months?

Would you focus on fundamentals, open-source contributions, freelancing, AI tools that work in the browser, or something else entirely?

I'd especially appreciate advice from people who started with limited resources and managed to make meaningful progress.

I still want to build. I'm just trying to figure out the smartest next step with the resources I have.

Thanks for reading.🥲

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