My First Hacktoberfest Experience

MANDLA HEMANTH — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 02:32:35 +0000

I’m Mandla Hemanth, a first-year AIML student from Anurag University. This was my first ever Hacktoberfest, and honestly, it’s been a rollercoaster of learning, excitement, and a few “why is this not working?” moments 😅.

At first, I didn’t really know much about open source or how GitHub contributions worked. I watched videos, read a few blogs, and started trying to make my first pull requests. I was so happy to finally contribute… but most of my PRs ended up getting rejected 💔.

It was a bit disappointing, but each rejection actually taught me something new — how to read contribution guidelines properly, how to make cleaner commits, and how to communicate better with maintainers. I even started understanding how open-source projects are managed, which felt amazing.

Even though I didn’t get many accepted PRs this time, I’m proud that I tried. I stepped out of my comfort zone, learned from my mistakes, and met some really helpful people in the community.

Next year, I want to come back stronger — with better coding skills, more confidence, and maybe even my own small project to contribute to.

Hacktoberfest 2025 might not have gone perfectly, but it definitely got me started on my open-source journey.

DEV Community: MANDLA HEMANTH

My First Hacktoberfest Experience