Prepare for Google Summer Of Code 2024: Tips and Takes

What is Google Summer of Code?

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a paid remote open-source program that provides individuals with the opportunity to contribute to open-source projects. On a 12+ week timeline, GSoC Contributors work with an open source organization on a programming project under the guidance of mentors. Participants receive a stipend during the course of the program.

Google Summer of Code initially started off as a type that only considered students or university undergraduates in 2005, not until 2022 when Google announced that it is going to open the program to contributors new to open-source software development and not just to students anymore.

Who is Eligible?

If you are someone who is starting out in tech, familiar with any programming language and want to gain more experience while being supervised by mentors; or you are the type with some experience but a beginner in the open source field and want the opportunity of contributing to a large project while gaining experience on real-world software development projects that will be used by thousands or millions of people? Then you are not far from home; you are welcome to participate.

• You are eligible if you have not been accepted into Google Summer of Code more than twice. 👀

• Must be at least 18 years old at the time of registration.

• You must not reside in a country that is not currently embargoed by the United States.

• You must be eligble to work in the country for which you reside in.

For more information on GSoC Contributor eligibility, click here

Aim And Objective Of Google Summer Of Code

According to the Google Open Source team, the aim of the program is to give people the opportunity to come on board open source organizations, especially bringing new contributors into open source communities that are centered around mentorship and collaboration.

The hope is that these GSoC Contributors will become passionate about the communities they are part of during the program and continue to actively contribute to these communities or even start their own open-source projects even after the GSoC program ends.

A favorite quote from Drupal:

”Let them come for the code and stay for the community” 😁

Now let’s get to the interesting part…

Choosing an Organization and Application Process

You have the choice to pick any organizations you want to contribute to.

You may choose an organization on the basis that the organization belongs to a niche that appeals to you, say it’s security, databases, etc, or you might choose an organization because you are familiar with one or more technologies they use, such as looking at organizations with JavaScript, PHP, or GO projects, etc. However, it does not mean that you must know all the technologies listed on an organization’s page.

Choosing an organization is very important as it decides the technologies you will be using, the project, and the people you will be working with. To add to what I mentioned earlier, you can form your decisions around the following:

• What are your professional interests or areas of focus?
• What open-source software have you used and for the love of the software, you want to contribute your own quota.

Once GSoC organizers announces organisations that will be participating in the 2024 cohort, you can simply filter the organizations you want based on the categories that interest you or use the search field to search organizations base on a programming language/framework of your choice.

If you are settled with an organization of your choice, the next thing you want to do is join the community platform the organization specifies. This can be a Discord server, Slack workspaces, Zulip, etc. So you want to identify with them upon joining like announcing your arrival or something like that 😅. You will be using this platform to communicate with other applicants and mentors or organization management.

Get Yourself Ready Ahead of Time

Now, this is very important…,
While you wait for organizations to be officially announced, you want to get yourself familiar with the organization’s community, pick up first issues on their respective GitHub repos and start working on them, create your first pull request starting with good first issues then you move on.

This proactive approach will give you an edge, increase your visibility and can earn you some points when you reference them in your proposal application.

Organization Announcement

Organization announced! What should you do next?

Each organization announced usually provides project ideas and detailed information about each project idea. Some organizations can have these project details in a document, GitHub readme, etc.

Project ideas come with some important details like difficulty level (medium, hard, etc),
Medium-size projects have an approximate duration of 175hrs while Large Size Project duration is about 350hrs.
One or more mentors will be assigned to each project idea. Project Ideas look like this:

Reference
The project ideas are specific tasks your organization is expecting you to do, most of which are code-related, and some may involve design.

Proposals:

Next thing you want to do is start working on your proposal for a selected project idea.
You will be writing a proposal per project idea that you select.

Generally, organizations allow you to select more than one project idea to work on but that is left for you to decide. You can also decide to apply to more than one organization (at most three) to spread your chances however, proposal preparation for multiple organizations require some extra commitment.

What are proposals: a proposal in GSoC context is a detailed explanation of what your selected project idea is all about. This includes detailed information on how you plan to execute that project idea, milestones and deliverables, plus, maybe, brief information about you and why you should be selected. Proposal formats differ with organizations but the information you will include in your proposals could follow this structure:

• Project idea title and Profile details.
• Project Idea description (In your own words. Showcasing how best you understand the project idea).
• Your solution and approach.
• Deliverables (sub-features/sub-tasks).
• Timeline: This is the speculated timeline for each deliverable for the GSoC period which is by default 12 weeks except your request for a deadline extension with the permission of your mentor.
• Your motivation: Understand “your motivation” more like “why you should be selected?”. Here you want to briefly highlight some of your other experiences in coding or design. If you have a portfolio, a blog or just anything at all, you can highlight them. You also want to mention why you choose that organization and how you want to be part of that community even after the program ends –borrow that tip from me 😉.

If you are selected, what do you do?

First of all, congrats 🎉. (Believe it !!! 🔥🤗 ) Post it on your WhatsApp statuses. Share it on LinkedIn and of course, X (formerly Twitter)!!! 🥂 🎊 😂

Selected participants are usually announced around May or so. However, going forward, you should have an understanding of what to expect. It is worth noting that you will need to pay attention to your emails as that will be the major means of communication between Google Summer of Code organizers and you. Through these emails, you will be guided properly on each next step you are to take.

There are about 3 weeks of community bonding before coding starts properly.
During this period, you get to meet with other selected participants. Your meeting dates will be communicated to you and any other organizations’ specific information. See the GSoC 2024 timeline for more information on dates and timelines.

Payment, Stipend?

Payment is made through Payoneer–The last time I checked though. I don’t know if the means of payment or platform might change this time. Just make sure you check your emails for guidance when you are selected. The Google open-source team will send you proper details on how to go about payment.

Stipend is based on the country you currently live in and depends on the duration of your project.

For example, for a 175hr duration project idea, usually, the payment is typically divided into two phases: $650 (45%) after the first evaluation and then $850 (55%) after the final evaluation. This payment structure spans across 3 months making it $1500 in total for a 175hr project. For more Info about payment, see full stipend breakdown

Certification

Will I be given a certificate?

After the program has ended, usually around September or so, you will be given a certificate of completion and a verification letter from the Google open-source team.

Post GSOC

Are there chances of getting hired after the program?

The answer is YES and NO. It depends on your organization’s decision and sometimes there are situations like that.

Conclusion

Key take-away here is that you should acquaint yourself early enough with any organization you intend to apply to. Start contributing to their codebase or simply familiarize yourself with the organization's projects. Work on your proposal and get along with their community.

Always keep an eye on Google Summer Of Code Official Website.

Before you go, here is a recent GSoC 2022 Introductory video you can watch to wet your appetite 😉.

Cheers to joining an open-source community of smart people, working on a great project and making some cash along the way. Congratulations in advance !

You can reachout to me on X (formerly twitter):
jovial_core
Also, you can checkout what-company-stack 1.0 , an open source project we just released.