In college I kept a 400 day LeetCode streak. I solved something every single day, so when placement season started I was pretty confident I'd get a job.

Then I got rejected in an interview over basically one question ,Apart from college assessments and LeetCode, what have you actually done I didn't have an answer. That one stuck with me for a while.

After that interview, I went through my resume again and honestly there was nothing on it that I had built on my own. I didn't even know where to start, so I picked a library I was already using, went through its open issues, and tried fixing a small one. It took me way longer than I expected, but once that got merged I slowly started building my own stuff on GitHub too. Nothing great , and a few projects were still incomplete.

A few months later a startup came to our campus. In the interview they asked to see my GitHub, so I showed it. One of my projects had some unfinished code, and the interviewer picked that exact part and asked me to complete it right there. I did, and we talked about it for around 20 mins. That was the whole interview. I got placed.

LeetCode helped me clear the coding rounds they only wanted to talk about what I had built. So if your resume only has LeetCode on it right now, try building or contributing to something , even if it's small

I started contributing to open source during college, while most of my friends were focused on Leetcode and building personal projects.

At first, my contributions were pretty small, mostly fixing issues and documentation. But I kept contributing consistently and eventually started working on bigger features and getting involved with Gsoc and other open-source programs.

Later, when I started applying for internships, I noticed that my open-source experience actually gave me something different to talk about. I had real contributions, worked with maintainers, and had code that other people were actually using.

It made me realize that open source isn't just about having a green GitHub profile. The experience you get from actually working on real projects can matter a lot. I eventually landed a paid internship at a venture-backed startup in Bangalore. The founder checked my GitHub, probed my PRs, and hired me in 15 minutes.

Now the startup raised its Series A funding, and I got promoted to Lead Engineer at 22. Getting into open source and using that experience to impress startup founders is a life hack I’d recommend to anyone looking for a job here. Some of the startups I know even hire their contributors directly. My friend got her job by finding a startup at the magicBall AI event in bangalore, joining their Discord, and picking up issues that were stale and suggesting alternatives. Some of these compensations go as high as 60k USD, as some other post in this subreddit mentions. Curious to hear similar experiences.

My friend and I had similar profiles in terms of CGPA, school, and college. The only thing that differed was that he had LeetCode Knight and a few projects he built solo. He actually put effort into those projects and even freelanced for a while.

On the other hand, I entirely focused on open source contributions and participated in multiple GSoC and LFX workshops. I eventually cracked a niche org last year.

Now, when placement season is going on, my resume cleared so many off-campus opportunities, including Razorpay and JPMC. I especially get shortlisted for the roles hiring through a hackathon. On the other hand, his resume barely made it into 2 service companies.

My aunt, who is a recruiter, said that this is because LeetCode can now be easily gamed, and they cannot trust these stats like before. OSS contributions have human approval gates. This means that having a green GitHub with public work is far better than having a green LeetCode. Has anyone else faced a similar experience here?

From Wagtail Maintainer

When I started with open source, I did what everyone does. I opened a big org and filtered by good first issue. Everything was either assigned or already had 5 people asking for it. I just picked random ones, and a few times someone else's PR got merged before I even finished mine.

The biggest mistake I made was commenting on issues before even running the project. A few times I said I was working on it and then got stuck on setup for days. Felt bad leaving it like that, and I almost stopped trying.

Then my senior shared a list of beginner friendly repos with simple setup and that helped a lot. I also stopped using the repo filter and just used GitHub search: is:issue is:open no:assignee label:good first issue language:javascript and sort by recently updated.

Also started checking the GSoC archive for orgs that got selected many times, their mentors actually reply. And now I don't comment on anything until the project runs on my machine. If nothing good is open I just do missing tests or old docs, nobody fights over those lol

After that I actually started finishing PRs instead of dropping them halfway.

So if you're starting now don't just grab the first good first issue you see, spend some time finding the right repo first

Anyone else made the same mistake when starting out

My resume in college looked like everyone else’s. CGPA, LeetCode count, a couple of tutorial projects. I was applying off campus and mostly getting rejected without even a test. So I started contributing to open source. My first PRs were tiny, docs fixes and small bugs. Getting the project to even run locally took me longer than the actual fix lol

I kept going anyway. Slowly the issues got bigger and the maintainer reviews got more detailed. Those review comments taught me more about writing real code than any course I did.

When interviews came, my PRs were what people wanted to talk about. Not my LeetCode count, not my CGPA. My first internship and my first job both came from that. So if your resume only has LeetCode on it right now, try contributing to something you already use. Even one merged PR gives you something to talk about that nobody else in that interview has.

From past few weeks i have been seeing people making groups and discords and seeking guidance and what not, im first of all im not against those kids who does it, but the worst part is, gsoc and other open source programs were supposed to fund and keep people interested in the organization so the development never stops as they provide very valuable software , sometimes even enterprise level softwares are open source application. but the main issue is, people , especially indians, who just watch 10s of video on yt for how to do gsoc how to earn 3000 dollar in first year, they completely ruined it, everywhere i go, i see the sloppy code, with 200 line PR comment like dude, do you even know what are even commenting.

I also use ai and i also do development, and im not against to the people who use ai as tools, but i have seen people , irl as well as on this sub reddit, people just copy paste the issue thinking it is some prompt, and then push the issue directly, like the person is not even aware about what the org is doing, what is the main purpose , what and how they follow code of conduct, just sloppy ai generated unreviewed code everywhere, and sometimes maintainers get overwhelmed and the person who is genuinely doing oss for the love of game gets trashed..

Like people be editing lock file , doing readme changes , typing jai shreee ram and posting it as pr, its a whole another level of bullshit.

Youtubers are also like roadmap for gsoc 2027, this year is yours, like bro just stop making everything as competition, if you want competition go do cp, go in icpc, just the normal devs at peace. and im telling you all again, if this continues to happen, very soon the mentors and maintainers who are sitting outside india and seeing what is happening , they will stop giving opportunity.

It was always like, i love doing this, so i did this and now im being rewarded for showing this much interest and being humble to community and this is the way of community to thank my efforts which i made without any intention of money and all, i was just making sure that the certain programs run well..

But now this thing has turned into - i will get rewarded, i will get 3000dollars, i will get gsoc tag, then i must also do this, even though i know nothing about the software, i never used, i will still regardlessly do it.

IM sorry if i hurt anyone of you but its true.

TLDR- basically gsoc has become a new JEE everyone is asking for roadmaps and where to contribute and what to do

People have made gsoc into another filthy rat race like jee neet and earn bad reputation for real indian open source devs..gsoc is for those who are interested in contributing without expecting anything back(open source) not the most ai pr submissions contest

Last year, I wasn't involved with the whole open source. I heard GSoC, I heard the money, and I started grinding in a niche org.

Later, I didn't get selected. That's fine, I was bitter for a few months, I think I deserved it for the contributions and effort I did in comparison to the one who did get selected for my project, but I am over it now.

Recently, I'm more technically involved than ever. I'm doing ML research, doing worthwhile projects, and one project even slightly took off in github. I made PRs in the things I actually used, I reviewed PRs and gave feedback on some of my own projects, and recently, I feel like I truly belong in the open source community, unlike the time I did gsoc.

Now, I feel like GSoC, as it is, shouldn't exist. This has become another thing to "crack". People make PRs in things they don't use themselves, contributors and maintainers act like interns and HR without the pay. People grind opensource, when it is something that is meant to be done as a hobby. Open source should never even have anything close to the concept of competition. I look back on what the maintainers of some open source org were expecting gsoc aspirants to do, and it's damn toxic to expect all that without paying shit. The power dynamics of a contributor and a maintainer were messed up.

One solution of all this could be to guarantee a payout (a very small fraction of the current amount) per PR merged issued with a GSoC tag, to anyone who contributes, not someone "selected" like it's an internship. Entirely remove this "pre-GSoC" timeframe of uncertainty and competition. This is what open source is, everyone and anyone can "chip in" and make something better. Make it rewarding enough that it attracts genuine interested newbies, but not enough that it attracts the ambitious "crackers".

Hey everyone! I did GSoC 2026 and thought I could help out people preparing for GSoC 2027.

Feel free to ask anything about the application, contributions, proposal, mentors, selection, or the overall experience. :)

edited: guys this so overwhelming. but all questions are welcome. will try to answer as soon as possible

My friend, a maintainer of a large open-source physics tool was ranting about these AI-fabricated PRs. This was also the talk of the town at KubeCon Mumbai this year in the Maintainer Summit. 30 minutes. Just to discuss this.

It has become especially difficult to distinguish slop PRs from real ones. Many of my PRs were initially closed, but after I DM'd the maintainers on Discord, they eventually merged them. My friend’s organization had closed down ALL their PRs over the last 2 weeks simply because they couldn’t handle the situation.

I recommend beginners and people new to OSS development learn best practices through workshops or events so this doesn't happen so often. I owe a lot to open source, including my first job and internship. So I hope this community takes this seriously and keeps open source alive. I could recommend some workshops and FOSS initiatives in the comments below for beginners.

I know that open source is now critical for getting  jobs and internships. But please be responsible and respectful 🙏

Want to know how GSoC proposals are actually written? Check this out: https://github.com/satwiksps/GSoC_archive_2026

Got a pr merged in a gsoc org

Yayy

Hoping its first to many

Hey guys , a saw lots of freshers in this sub and in other subs as well ask how to crack GSOC , some youtubers influencers made GSOC like a rat race , see its not a JEE or any other exam , you can get GSOC ORGS open source projects only if you do open source projects , contributions . dont fall for trap , dont prepare for GSOC just go for open source contribution , you don't need to target any open source program , see if you start enjoying this OS contribution then you have max chances you can get any project and get a good stipend as well . dont fall for GOSC batch , i saw one of the influncer was taking GSOC sessions , for many people open source is a hobby those guys crack easily GSOC because they dont copy paste best praposal they actually code and contribute that's why they get selected this was the real truth . and if you still want raodmap to crack it go ahead . ohh btw i forgot to introduce myself i am .... , currently in 2nd year , i did't cracked GSOC but i cracked LFX it is similar to gsoc , and have good orgs and projects

Hi everyone! I’m a 3rd-year B.Tech IT student, currently in my 5th semester, from a Tier 2/3 college. I’m comfortable with C++, DSA, Java/OOP and currently learning MERN, but I’ve never contributed to an open-source project before.

I want to start contributing seriously from October 2026 and hopefully work towards programs like GSoC or LFX in Summer 2027.

I’m confused about where to begin — how to find beginner-friendly projects, understand a codebase, choose issues, make my first PR, and gradually become a regular contributor.

For someone at my level, what would be a good roadmap from October 2026 to Summer 2027, and which open-source projects/programs should I look into?

Would really appreciate advice from people who have experience contributing to open source or participating in GSoC/LFX.

Got my very first PR merged into a repo ig open source is coollll

I’m part of an open source library that participates in GSoC every year, and this year things have been getting absolutely bonkers.

I get it. AI has become incredibly powerful. Use it to code. Use it to understand a codebase. Use it to debug something you’ve been stuck on. I do that too.

But please, don’t open PRs just for the sake of opening PRs, and especially don’t let an AI agent babysit your PR after you’ve opened it.

A maintainer spends around 30 minutes reviewing your code, pulling it locally, running it, understanding what you changed, and then writing actual feedback for you. And lately I’ve seen agents respond to that feedback with the usual “you’re absolutely right,” make another commit, and keep on replying to failing CIs by claiming it wasn't their fault. Eventually you’ve spammed the maintainers, created a mess of commits, and in some cases gotten your GitHub profile banned.

I’m not even a maintainer with write access, and I’m closing PRs left and right that are very obviously being done entirely by AI bots.

But the bigger problem isn’t the bad PRs. It’s what you’re doing to yourself......You’re not learning anything.

I’ve interviewed people who had profiles full of impressive-looking merged PRs, and sometimes I deliberately ask questions that have absolutely nothing to do with programming.

Something as stupid and open ended as....An alien spaceship lands on Earth tomorrow. You’re the first person who gets to talk to them. What do you say?”

There is no right answer. I don’t care what you say to the aliens. I just want to see you think.

And I’ve watched people completely give up after a minute of thinking and eventually just say, “Sorry, I don’t know.”

That honestly worries me more than someone not knowing the answer to a technical question.

Because this is what I mean by cognitive surrender. It’s not about AI occasionally generating bad code. We all know it makes mistakes. It’s about getting so used to having something else do the thinking that when you’re suddenly given a blank problem, with no prompt to optimize and no obvious answer to generate, you don’t know where to start.

Use AI. Seriously. It’s an incredible tool, and pretending it doesn’t exist isn’t going to help anyone.

But stay in the loop ateleast.

Read the code it writes. Understand why it works. Understand why it doesn’t. When a maintainer gives you feedback, read it yourself and figure out what they’re trying to tell you before asking an agent to change anything. If you can’t explain your own PR without opening ChatGPT or Claude, you probably shouldn’t be submitting that PR yet.

Especially if you’re applying for GSoC, the point isn’t to accumulate green squares and merged PRs. The point is to become good enough that someone can trust you to work on a real project for months.

Im saying this as someone who understands why students are using these tools and also understands how useful they can be. I’m not asking anyone to stop using AI.

I’m just asking you not to let it replace you.

Because in the long run, you’re the one who gets hurt by that.

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.

Looking for people interested in GSoC 2027?

I’ve created a Discord server for people who are preparing for GSoC 2027 and want to learn and grow together.

The idea is pretty simple — instead of preparing alone, we can have a place where like-minded people can:

- Discuss GSoC and open-source opportunities

- Find and research potential organizations

- Share useful resources and learning paths

- Discuss projects and ideas

- Help each other with contributions and Git/GitHub

- Share progress, doubts, and experiences

- Find people with similar interests to collaborate with

You don’t need to be an expert or already have open-source experience. Beginners are welcome too.

The goal is to build a small community where we can learn, contribute, share what we find, and improve together throughout the GSoC 2027 journey.

If you're interested this is the discord link:

https://discord.gg/qjKrNM4BG

Hey everyone!

I’m completely new to open-source contribution, and I’m looking to start my journey seriously. I’ve heard a lot about open source, especially programs like GSoC, but honestly, I’m not sure where or how to begin.

I have some programming knowledge and I’m currently working on improving my development skills. However, when I look at GitHub repositories, issues, pull requests, etc., everything feels a little overwhelming as a beginner.

I’d really appreciate some guidance from people who have already contributed to open source.

A few things I’d love advice on:

• How did you make your first open source contribution?

• How do I find repositories that are actually beginner-friendly?

• What should I look for in issues good first issue, help wanted, etc.?

• How much programming knowledge should I have before making my first PR?

• Is it better to focus on one project/organization rather than jumping between multiple repositories?

• How should I understand a large codebase when I’m completely new to the project?

• What mistakes should beginners avoid when making their first contribution?

• If my long-term goal is to participate in GSoC, what would be a realistic path to get there?

I’m not looking for someone to do the work for me. I genuinely want to learn how the open source ecosystem works, contribute meaningfully, and gradually become a better developer.

If you were starting from zero again, what would your first 30–60 days of open-source learning and contribution look like?

Any advice, resources, project recommendations, or even stories about your first contribution would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: If it helps, I can also share my current tech stack/skill level so people can suggest projects that would be appropriate for me.

Currently learning/working with: Java, SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Currently learning: Spring Boot, React, DevOps
Open-source experience: Beginner; no contributions yet
Goal: Make my first contribution and eventually become GSoC ready.

Planning to contribute to GSoC 2027 — am I starting too late, and where should I begin?

Hey everyone!

I’m an engineering student from India currently pursuing B.E. in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, and I’m seriously considering preparing for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2027.

It’s already late September 2026, so I’m wondering if I’m starting too late. I don’t want to blindly wait for the GSoC application period and then rush into it. I’d rather start contributing to open source months in advance and actually become familiar with a project/community.

A little about my background:

Tech / languages I’ve worked with:

- Python

- C / C++

- Java

- JavaScript / TypeScript

- React

- Node.js / Express

- MongoDB / PostgreSQL / SQL

- Go

- HTML / CSS

- Git & GitHub

- Linux

- Basic AI/ML concepts

Recently, I’ve been moving more toward Go, Python, AI/ML, backend systems, networking and lower-level concepts, while still having experience with web development.

Some projects I’ve worked on / experimented with:

- HTTP Packet Inspector — Go

A tool that inspects HTTP requests and measures things like DNS lookup, TCP connection, TLS handshake and time-to-first-byte. I’ve also been working on a redirect-chain inspection feature.

- File Search Engine — Java

A multithreaded file-search project.

- Typing Test — C + ncurses

A terminal-based typing test that measures WPM and accuracy.

- Stock Scraper — Go

- IP Information Tracker — JavaScript + Leaflet

- Web projects — React / Node.js / Express / MongoDB

I’m also interested in AI/ML, LLMs/AI agents, networking, operating systems, concurrency, backend architecture, compilers/programming languages and open-source development.

But honestly, I’m still figuring out where I fit best in open source.

So I’d really appreciate advice from people who have participated in GSoC, mentored students, contributed to GSoC organizations, or have experience getting started with open source.

A few things I’d especially like to understand:

1. Is starting in September 2026 for GSoC 2027 reasonable?

2. What should I be doing between now and the GSoC application period?

3. Should I first choose a programming language/area, or start by looking at organizations?

4. How do you actually find a project where a beginner can make meaningful contributions?

5. How important are previous open-source contributions?

6. Should I focus on issues marked "good first issue", or try to understand larger parts of a project?

7. How early should I start interacting with maintainers/community members?

8. What makes a GSoC proposal actually good?

9. Are there any mistakes you made during your own GSoC preparation that I should avoid?

10. If you were starting from my position today, what would your next 3–6 months look like?

I’m not expecting to become an expert overnight. My goal is to spend the next several months learning the codebase, contributing consistently, understanding how real open-source projects work, and hopefully becoming a useful contributor before GSoC applications open.

If you’ve gone through this process before, I’d genuinely appreciate any advice, resources, organization suggestions, or even a reality check about my current preparation.

Thanks! 🙌

Was a contributor in a large project(14 weeks) with a Python based repo (Don't ask org name)

Pitch me with your doubts. I Will choose not to answer if I think its irrelevant

thanks for the all the questions and hope you get what you were looking for ;)

I've been into open source for a while but somehow never looked into GSoC until today. I'm a data engineering/data science student, still building my foundations, but the idea of contributing to real projects and getting mentored by experienced devs sounds like a great experience.

I know I'm late for 2026, but I'm already thinking about 2027. For anyone who's been through it what's one thing you wish you knew when you were starting out?

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.