The Andela guide to Hacktoberfest 2021

Calling all coders!

From the first winter chill to the flowering buds of spring, October heralds a change in the seasons across the globe. But in the tech world, October can mean only one thing: Hacktoberfest is here. And this year those niggling little spam issues of old have finally been resolved!

What is Hacktoberfest?

Hacktoberfest 2021 is a month-long, annual event organized by DigitalOcean and their community partners to encourage software engineers, developers, and coding enthusiasts to contribute to open-source projects in a variety of ways:

1.     Prepare and share your own open-source project for collaboration

2.     Contribute to the betterment of an open-source project via pull requests

3.     Organize an event

4.     Mentor other engineers and tech enthusiasts

5.     Donate directly to open-source projects

Why should I participate?

At Andela, our engineers are specialists in their field 's — and Hacktoberfest offers the perfect opportunity for your talents to shine!

By giving back to open-source projects, you have the chance to learn new skills, practice techniques you don't currently use in your role, and meet new, like-minded people.

Over the past eight years, Hacktoberfest has grown from an initial group of 676 participants to over 150,000 open-source enthusiasts who show their support by contributing quality pull requests, participating in global events, and more.

Whether you have the kernel of an idea for a project, or you're midway through its development, Hacktoberfest can help inspire and invigorate your work. 

Developers get involved by completing pull requests, participating in events, and donating to open-source projects. You can support open source by contributing changes 's — and in return, earn some free limited-edition swag including stickers and t-shirts.

If, during your searches, you see a project that interests you, the developer will indicate if there is an opt-in to participate - so you'll be aware that they're hoping to meet new contributors.

GitLab addition

For their 8^th annual Hacktoberfest, DigitalOcean and their community partners have added GitLab support. This means that in addition to traditional pull requests submitted via GitHub, your quality merge requests submitted through GitLab will now also count towards your Hacktoberfest goals.

Spam-free zone

For 2021's Hacktoberfest, participants have been safeguarded from the dreaded spam issues that sparked criticism and debate during previous years. Now, only pull request contributions to repositories on GitLab that have "hacktoberfest" as a topic will count once they have been merged and approved by a maintainer. Entrants have to contribute four accepted pull requests to an opted-in repo in order to qualify for the free limited-edition swag.

Get involved

You can sign up anytime between now October 31, so you've got just over two weeks left to participate. 

If you're a software engineer looking to start or finesse an open-source project, sign up to the official Hacktoberfest website now and join in the fun!

Are you a developer interested in growing your software engineering career? Apply to join the Andela Talent Network today.