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Hi folks 👋
I’m a GSoC ‘23 alum, and a lot of students have asked me: “How do I get into GSoC?”
Also fun fact — I later got hired by the same org on a contract for a different project during my final year of college. 👀
There are tons of videos out there, so I’ll keep this simple and honest.
I did my GSoC with Oppia Foundation in 2023 — in my 2nd year of college.
At that point, I had zero real production experience.
GSoC changed that for me.
If you want to know about my GSoC project, I wrote about it here:
@ash.me.cse/my-google-summer-of-code-2023-journey-with-oppia-ee93a6fc312d" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@ash.me.cse/my…
Now the part most people care about — “how do I do it?”
Here’s my take:
GSoC is NOT the only way into open source.
Open source is what actually changed my career — GSoC was just one part of it.
I know many amazing devs who never did GSoC.
Pick an org you genuinely like.
Could be the product, the community, or the tech stack — anything that keeps you interested.
Start contributing.
No overthinking. No “I’ll start when I’m ready.”
You learn by doing, not before.
Stay consistent.
And if a program like GSoC comes along, you’ll naturally be in a strong position to apply.
Use LLMs wisely.
They’re incredibly powerful — use them.
But don’t blindly rely on them.
When contributing to open source, it’s your responsibility to understand what you’re doing. You’re volunteering — make it count.
Learn, grow, and contribute meaningfully instead of just “shipping code”.
That’s it. No magic. Just consistency.
Happy to answer questions if you’re planning to start 🚀
#opensource
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