Google Summer of Code

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program gives students and beginners in open source an unique opportunity to gain real world experience in open source projects with the newest technologies by working on a 12+ week coding project along with one of the ~200 open source organizations under the support and guidance of talented mentors.

This adventure started in 2005 and over the years, GSoC has brought more than 21,000 new contributors from 123 countries into open source software development.

Program Goals

• Inspire developers to begin participating in open source development.
• Help open source projects identify and bring in new developers into their communities.
• Get more open source code written and released for the benefit of all.
• Give newer developers more exposure to real-world software development.

Candidates must be:

• 18 years or older on date they register for program
• Not be a resident of an United States embargoed country
• Eligible to work in the country in which they reside for the duration of the program
• Student or beginner contributors to open source software development.
• Not being accepted as a GSoC Contributor in GSoC more than once

Applicants must:

• Register on the program site between March 24 - April 8
• Research which organization(s) they wish to apply to - Orgs announced February 27th at g.co/gsoc
• Submit a written proposal through the program site g.co/gsoc to the organization(s) between March 24 - April 8

Review the Program Rules and FAQ.

The general timing and steps of the 2025 program include:

• February 26: Google selects ~200 open source organizations to mentor students.
• Feb 26 - March 24: Proactive participants reach out to the selected orgs that interest them and discuss project ideas and learn more about the open source organization.
• March 24 - April 8: Participants register on program site (g.co/gsoc) and submit proposals to the open source organization
• May 8: Orgs announce their selected GSoC contributors.
• May 8 - June 1: Community Bonding Period, selected GSoC contributors spend 3 weeks bonding with the open source community to learn the codebase, best practices, and work on milestones and project schedules with their mentor. Some GSoC contributors and their mentors may decide to extend the program schedule from 12 weeks up to 22 weeks based on the contributor’s availability.
• June 2 - September 1: GSoC contributors spend 12+ weeks coding on their project, meeting milestones and receiving evaluations from mentors at the halfway point, and in their final week of the program. With each passed evaluation, GSoC contributors receive a stipend.
• September 8: All successful GSoC 2025 contributors doing the standard 12 week project are announced.
• By November 17: GSoC contributors with extended program timelines will wrap up their projects After the program ends, the code GSoC contributors wrote will be available for all to use, and will be easy for GSoC contributors to reference when applying for jobs and internships.

Reach out to organizations early!

• Review the GSoC Contributor/Student Guide. It has all the best tips on having a successful GSoC! It’s short and to the point.
• Once the open source organizations that will act as mentoring orgs have been announced (on February 27), it is time to do your research and find the 2 or 3 that interest you. You can also look now at the 2024 previous organizations as many of those orgs will be accepted again.
• Review the Projects Ideas list of the orgs and select 2-3 that matches your interests and skills.
• Communicate with the org to talk to them about the project idea and why you are interested in working with them. This is vital if you wish to be selected!
• Write your Project Proposal and share with the org to get feedback on your proposal, the earlier the better.
• March 24 - April 8: Register as a GSoC contributor on the GSoC program site and submit your proposal (you can submit up to 3).

We wish you the best of success!