October brings Hacktoberfest, the annual month-long celebration of open source run by DigitalOcean and GitHub. If you want the swag, or just a reason to start contributing, the steps below help you make the month work.
What is Hacktoberfest?
Every October, Hacktoberfest challenges participants to contribute to open source projects. Complete the qualifying contributions and you earn limited-edition digital rewards. In recent years the reward shifted toward digital, so do it for the contribution, not the swag.
How participation works
- Sign up at hacktoberfest.com with your GitHub account.
- Make qualifying pull requests during October.
- Track your progress on the Hacktoberfest dashboard.
- Meet the threshold to complete the challenge.
Always read the official site for the current year’s rules. They change.
The rules in practice
Qualifying PRs usually need to be opened between October 1 and October 31. They go to public repositories. And they can’t be spammy. That last part matters more than people think.
How to complete it
Pick repos tagged hacktoberfest. They opt in and usually welcome contributors. Look for good first issue labels, which exist precisely for this month. Fix docs, add tests, improve error messages. Those are small, valuable, low-risk contributions that maintainers appreciate.
Open your PR early in the month, not in the last weekend. Maintainers get flooded, and they need time to review. One quality PR at a time beats a pile of rushed ones.
The anti-spam reality
Hacktoberfest has a reputation problem. People dump hundreds of junk PRs, whitespace changes, typo factories, one-letter edits, all chasing swag. Maintainers can mark PRs as spam, and organizers crack down on it.
Don’t be that person. A single useful PR earns more respect than ten meaningless ones, and you’ll learn something real.
A realistic October plan
Start the first week by signing up and exploring repos tagged hacktoberfest. Claim a good first issue early. Open your first quality PR in week two and respond to review feedback. A second, slightly deeper PR in week three. Use the final week to decide whether you’ll keep contributing after the month ends.
Why this matters for DevSoc
DevSoc is built on learning by doing, and Hacktoberfest is a strong on-ramp. Contributing to real projects, getting your code reviewed, and merging into production codebases is one of the fastest ways to level up as a developer.
Daniel, our Open-Source and FSF Herald, will be running open-source clinics throughout October in the DevSoc Discord. Join us, bring your first issue, and let’s get your name in some changelogs.