From Contributor to Collaborator: My Hacktoberfest Journey

#devchallenge #hacktoberfestchallenge #hacktoberfest #opensource

The best way to learn is to do; the best way to contribute is to share.

This year, I joined Hacktoberfest 2024 for the first time! Although I’ve contributed to open-source projects before, this was my first time joining Hacktoberfest, and my goal was not only to complete four PRs (Pull Requests) but to learn more in the process. I was excited to learn from the open-source community and make my own impact.

I started by looking for projects that matched my skills, especially something related to Spring Boot. After some searching, I found an interesting project and spent a day setting up my environment and exploring the code.

My First Contribution: Pagination and Sorting 🎯

Many issues were already taken by others, but I didn’t give up. Instead, I suggested my own feature: Pagination and Sorting for API endpoints. The project maintainers liked my idea and assigned the task to me! I worked hard on this and submitted my first PR, which was merged on the same day.

I can’t describe how happy I was when I got the email saying my PR was merged! The maintainers also gave positive feedback, which made me even more excited. We also worked together to improve the project documentation to include my changes.

Learning About Error Handling 🛠️

While I was working on the documentation, I saw some errors in the code. I thought I could improve the project by adding better error handling. So, I submitted another PR to fix that—and it was merged too! This taught me a lot about writing clean code and handling errors properly.

I also submitted a PR to another repository, where I added an algorithm, which helped me expand my contributions.

Overcoming Challenges: Fixing My Algorithm 🔧

Not everything was easy. One of my algorithm PRs had a check failure, but I didn’t panic. I quickly fixed it and submitted it again. While I was doing that, I also started exploring security issues in another project, which gave me a new challenge to work on.

Adding Security: SSL and HTTPS 🔐

Next, I decided to add HTTPS/SSL support to an application. This was difficult, especially since I was using self-signed certificates, but I didn’t give up. After facing some challenges, I managed to complete the task successfully. I updated the docstring to explain my changes and submitted a PR for review.

More Achievements and a Surprise 🚀

Remember? "Hard work always pays off in the end."

In the end, both my algorithm and SSL/HTTPS PRs were merged. But the best surprise came when I was offered to become a maintainer for one of the repositories! I was so excited and accepted the offer right away. This gave me even more motivation to push myself, and I ended up submitting a total of seven PRs during Hacktoberfest!

Helping Others: Reviewing PRs 🤝

After submitting my PRs, I started reviewing issues and PRs from other contributors. It felt great to help others, and when they told me that they learned a lot from my feedback, I was really happy. It made me want to keep contributing and helping others in the community.

My Hacktoberfest Journey ✨

Hacktoberfest 2024 was an amazing experience for me! I learned so much, not just about coding, but also about being part of the open-source community. I recommend Hacktoberfest to everyone—it’s a great way to improve your skills and connect with others who are passionate about coding.

Thank you for reading my Hacktoberfest story! I hope it inspires you to join the event and experience the joy of contributing to open source.