cracked GSOC in First-try, it's not Just a Luck, consistency also matters.

Hello, Dear fellows! I’m beyond excited to share that I cracked Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2025 on my first try with the Greek Free/Open Source Software Society (GFOSS)! 🎉 As a second-year computer application student immersed in the Full stack, getting selected for GSoC feels surreal. But let me be clear: it wasn’t just luck. Consistency, hard work, and a strategy played a massive role.

How I’ve started ? Open-Source Journey.

I remember the day I saw a tweet on X, about Hacktoberfest. it was my first Day when I got a point about Open-Source. so started to searching about it on YouTube, and I’ve participated in it, in some random repositories, not professionally but was excited to learn more. in same event I got a news about oss.gg which was also part of Hacktoberfest.
they had a hot lottery prize. so started contributing in their repo. but I was a new newbie in open-source, so can’t setup any codebase locally for code-contributing, so I’ve started non-code contribution. and secured #22 rank from #482.

Discovered GSoC on the Final Day of Contributors Application.

After contributing to Hacktoberfest, I paused my open-source journey. One day, I came across a video on YouTube. ‘ How to make open source contributions ‘, so again started my journey in open-source, decided to grab opportunity next year (2025), so got a lot help from this YouTube playlist.

filtered Out Organizations and Finally Got GFOSS.

After gaining some skills in open-source, like how to contribute, understanding the codebase, learning the organization's mindset and rules, and connecting with mentors, I filtered out some organizations that mostly align with my skills. These include AOSSIE, NRNB, CHROMIUM, and GFOSS. then I started visiting their codebases and tried to contribute. I’ve used this site to filtered Out organizations.

Created a proposal that strictly followed the provided template.

many organizations provide a template for contributors, so GFOSS also provide a template to contributors, so I just followed a template structure, and according it I crafted mine.

resources I’ve used for Building my proposal,

as we know that proposal is a key to get selection and rejection, so I’ve used Three resources for building my proposal.

• self contribution

  • I also worked hard to build the proposal myself.

• senior help

  • I got a lot help from my senior, who guide me how to setup proposal, and way of structuring things,

• AI

  • I’ve used Ai, too. but not generating a proposal, for comparing my proposal with provided template.

Here is mine proposal.

My foot-print which landed me in GSOC.

Many of my fellows asking me for tips and help that how to walkout in these period. I recommends them please follow a guide line of GSOC officials, then follow any one who guide you from Zero to Hero, in my case I’ve followed this Man.

after that

• follow all guide-lines which provided by organization, and mentor.

• be consistent and humble.

• don’t tease mentor, they are busy guys.

Conclusion and Final words.

Cracking GSoC on the first try is a remarkable achievement that never lose the memory. This experience taught me the significance of following guidelines, maintaining humility, and respecting mentors' time. I hope my story inspires others to embark on their open-source journey with determination and a clear strategy. and finally I’ll post further through-out my GSoC journey. let’s get connected.

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#GSoC #googlesummerofcode #gfoss #opensource