Posted in Competitions, Programming

Helpful Advice to Google Code-In Future Participants

Google Code-in was in it’s 10th year in 2019 and had been epic in every regard, no doubt about that. It was unlike any other GCI competition I had before for the reasons that, first, I finally won as a Grand Prize Winner! Yay! . . . Second, it was the first GCI where Google had cancelled the US Trip for winners. Yay again! ( You can read about this here from my previous post )

Despite of that, I still want to encourage teenagers ages 13-17 to participate in Google Code-in. It could be a fun and wonderful experience where you will not just be introduce to the world of Open Source but you will also get to talk to fellow developers and most importantly will be able to contribute to something that could help people.

It took me 3 years to finally become one of the Google Code-in Grand Prize Winners. Although the winning moment was not what I had in mind, I did enjoy my GCI experience and learned a lot of new things.

So, for future GCI participants, here are some helpful advice that I can give which helped me in winning the GCI 2019:

  1. Do your advance research about GCI. Know what GCI’s purpose is, and what is it all about. Moreover, research on its guidelines and contest rules, to make sure you are playing fair. You don’t want to get kicked out in the middle of the competition. By researching, you will get to know what you will be dealing with, as well as gain additional tips from previous winners
  2. Focus on one organization. Each participating organization chooses the students that greatly contributed to them. Jumping from one organization to another lessens the chance of winning. It is also a plus to choose the organization you want to contribute to before the competition starts, as you get to have some time to familiarize yourself with how your chosen organization operates, as well as with their guidelines for contributors, programming languages used, etc.
  3. Balance “Difficult” Tasks & “Easy” Tasks. Google stated in the contest rules that quality > quantity. It’s true, but you also need to get enough completed tasks to be able to proceed to the top 20 participants with the most tasks completed, as the organization will review the works from those who have made it to the leaderboard in choosing the winners, finalists and runner-ups. A good balance between doing easy and difficult tasks is helpful, as easy tasks add more count on your tasks list while difficult tasks are mostly quality contributions to the organizations.
  4. Show that you are genuinely interested to learn. The whole point of this contest is for teenagers to learn more about contributing to Open Source technologies. It is good to ask mentors relevant questions when you need help, or to clarify things that you don’t understand. Keep in mind, however, that mentors are human beings that have lives outside GCI, so don’t bug them when they don’t answer instantly.
  5. Be active in the community. Organizations have their own IRC or chat group. I encourage you to join in it, as this is the place where you can ask questions and talk to fellow participants and mentors. Being active in the community could also be the way to help other students when they get stuck or by answering their questions.
  6. Bonus: Do Beyond What is Required of You. A week before the competition ended, where most participants were cramming to get additional tasks and finishing them, I decided to stop taking anymore tasks after I reached my own task count quota, and just solve open and unfinished issues on my chosen organization for honest and real contibuting.  Doing this shows that you are interested, and really want to help in the open source even beyond the competition.

I hope you find the above tips useful. Google Code-In is a great competition and a good way to get acquainted to fellow developers and students. Good luck to all future GCI participants!

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