OS Programmes
Paid, competitive, and open to beginners. Most students never apply because nobody told them these exist.
2 unpaid ones you can start today, 4 paid ones you get picked for. We can't get you in — but we can make you the contributor they pick.
Unpaid
No selection, no application. You can do these now.
No pay, little resume weight — but the best place to learn fork, branch, review, merge with zero stakes.
- What it is
- GirlScript Summer of Code: three months of open source with mentors and a points leaderboard. Made for beginners.
- Who gets in
- Beginners welcome, even first-years with zero merged work. You can start here today.
- Timeline
- Register at the start, then about three months of contributing.
- What you get
- No stipend. Certificates and swag — but the mentors are the real prize.
- Who from SST has done it
30+ students participated in GSSoC '26. Top contributor from SST: Bhumi N Deshpande.
- Start preparing
- Register when it opens, pick a project in a language you know, and learn the fork-to-merge loop before the paid ones.
- What it is
- Every October: get a handful of PRs merged and you get swag. No selection, no stipend.
- Who gets in
- Anyone. The lowest bar in open source, and the best month for a first PR — half the internet is reviewing.
- Timeline
- October, every year. Registration opens in late September.
- What you get
- Swag, or a tree planted in your name. That's it.
- Who from SST has done it
Many of us had our first PRs merged here.
- Start preparing
- Get a project built on your machine before 1 October. Come to a September session and we'll do it together.
One warning: the point isn't four merged PRs. Whitespace-change spam gave Hacktoberfest a bad name, and maintainers remember. Fix something actually broken, or skip the PR.
Paid
Somebody else runs the selection. Which is exactly why it counts.
4 programmes that pay students a stipend. No degree, CGPA or referral needed — just a few months of public contributions before the window opens.
- What it is
- Google pays you to code for an open-source org over the summer, with a mentor from that org.
- Who gets in
- Anyone 18+ who's new to the org. No student status or open-source experience needed.
- Timeline
- Orgs announced early in the year, applications weeks later, coding all summer.
- What it pays
- A stipend set by Google, by country and project size.
- Who from SST has done it
- Prateek Singh OWASP · 2026
- Ojas Maheshwari KDE · 2026
- Parth Dagia Sugar Labs · 2026
- Raj Prakash OpenMRS · 2026
- Shubham Kumar Mifos Initiative · 2026
- Shiva Gupta CDLI · 2026
- Kartik Jangid JdeRobot · 2026
- Vivek Singh Solanki Checkstyle · 2026
- Ujjawal Prabhat OpenMRS · 2026
- Piyush Goenka Ruby · 2026
- Kartik Deshpande NRNB · 2026
- Amrinder Singh Libreswan · 2026
- Vansh Dobhal STE||AR Group (HPX) · 2026
- Kumar Amityush OpenAstronomy · 2026
- Sauhard Gupta · 2025
- Start preparing
- We start six months early, so maintainers know your name before applications open.
- What it is
- The Linux Foundation's mentorship programme, across CNCF, Kubernetes, Node.js and more.
- Who gets in
- Built for beginners. Miss a term? The next is months away, not a year.
- Timeline
- Three terms a year — there's almost always one open.
- What it pays
- A stipend published by the Linux Foundation, scaled by region.
- Who from SST has done it
- Vivek Singh Solanki Besu · 2026
- Start preparing
- Help you pick a project that fits what you know, and land a merged PR there before applications close.
- What it is
- Code for GovTech: open source for the software Indian government services run on.
- Who gets in
- Indian students who want their code used at national scale, not just starred.
- Timeline
- An annual summer cohort plus year-round contribution windows.
- What it pays
- A stipend published by the programme.
- Who from SST has done it
- Nobody yet. The first spot is up for grabs.
- Start preparing
- Point you at projects with responsive maintainers, and help you read code built for scale.
- What it is
- Summer of Bitcoin: a paid summer on Bitcoin and Lightning projects.
- Who gets in
- Students — even ones who've never touched the codebase. The C++ is scary, and they know it.
- Timeline
- Applications early in the year, coding over the summer.
- What it pays
- A stipend published by the programme.
- Who from SST has done it
- Vivek Singh · 2026
- Start preparing
- Do the onboarding curriculum together. Almost nobody finishes it alone.
The reverse clock
Applications are decided months before they open. Which is why starting now is the whole trick.
Orgs pick people they already recognise — usually ones committing since autumn. Wait a year and you lose the whole cycle.
| Window | Programme | Opens | Start prepping | What you do first |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan – Apr | Google Summer of Code | Organisations announced late Feb, proposals due late Mar | Sep – Dec | Get one small patch merged in each of two orgs, so reviewers know your username by proposal time. |
| Rolling, three terms | LFX Mentorship | Terms start around Mar, Jun and Sep | 6–8 weeks before a term | The most forgiving one — a miss costs months, not a year. Pick a term that fits what you know. |
| Feb – Jun | Code for GovTech | Cohort announced early in the year | Nov – Jan | Read a public-infrastructure codebase properly. Built for national scale, not demos. |
| Jan – Aug | Summer of Bitcoin | Applications early in the year, then a multi-week bootcamp | Oct – Dec | Start the onboarding curriculum — with us. Almost nobody finishes it alone. |
Start now
The applications open in spring. The work that wins them starts in autumn.
Come to a session, pick something small in a repo you like, and be a name maintainers know by spring.