1. Start with GSoC archive.

2. Go through the organization’s page of GSoC 2023 and 2022 (if you have time then 2021 also).

3. Find out the organizations that are participating every year. Chances are they will participate again. So you already have an idea about the participating organizations before the “organization announced” period.

4. We did that to stay ahead of the timeline, so we have some extra time with us that we can use to explore.

5. Make a list of organizations that uses tools & technologies that you are familiar with.

6. Give at least a week or more to select 2–3 organizations and 2–3 projects that you find easier to contribute (with a lot of beginner level issues) or with active mentors.

7. You can target the organizations with inactive mentors in the end because if your pull requests are not getting reviews then you can’t discuss much with your mentor which might be depressing and reduces your chances of selection. But there are cases that for some students it worked, so keep an eye on them till the end (keep them as a backup).

8. Setup the project and spend a lot of time understanding what the project is about, how things are working in it. Note: Spend no time or less time on the code for now.

9. Start with “easy to fix”, “junior”, “good first issue”, “beginner” level issues. What if you can’t find any? In such a case, create some. Click every button or link that you can find in the application, maybe you will find some bug. Apply all possible combinations of actions that might help you find a bug.

10. What if the project has thousands of lines of code? Well, you are a
student who wants to contribute not create. The project took a lot of pull requests and a lot of time to be what it looks now. So instead of thinking that the project is too big, focus on issues. “change a line”, “add 2 lines”, “change 3 lines” etc. that’s how it works.

11. The best thing you will get once you start is your mentors. You can ask all your doubts from them, they are always there to help you. And trust me, they like doing it. (You can now follow your mentors and stop reading this article)

12. That’s it. Best of Luck.