From Contributor to Collaborator: My Hacktoberfest Journey

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 PRs related to an algorithm faced a check failure due to clang-format issues. After analyzing the situation, I quickly installed clang-format and formatted the code to adhere to the project’s style guidelines. After ensuring that my changes met the required formatting, I committed the updates and submitted the PR again. This experience taught me the importance of attention to detail and the necessity of understanding the tools in my development environment. While I was doing that, I also started exploring security issues in another project, which gave me a new challenge to work on.

Facing My Fears 🚀

Next, I decided to add HTTPS/SSL support to a custom server. At first, I was scared to work on this project because it seemed complicated. However, I broke it down and took the time to understand the code step by step. In the end, I successfully added HTTPS support and included security headers in the response. This was challenging, especially since I was using self-signed certificates. After overcoming these obstacles, 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 nine PRs during Hacktoberfest!

Helping Others: Reviewing PRs 🤝

After submitting my PRs, I started reviewing issues and PRs from other contributors. It felt wonderful to help others, and when one of them said, “Thank you for teaching me something new about security; this will elevate my skill,” I was truly happy. This experience motivated me to continue contributing and supporting others in the community. It’s amazing to see how we can all learn from each other in the open-source world.

Lessons Learned 🌱

Reflecting on this journey, here are some key takeaways:

• Effective Communication: Contributing features like pagination taught me the importance of clear communication with maintainers to ensure alignment on project goals.

• Code Quality Matters: Enhancing error handling reinforced that clean, well-documented code reduces errors and benefits other contributors.

• Attention to Detail: The clang-format issue reminded me to adhere to project style guidelines and utilize tools that help maintain consistency.

• Community Strength: Reviewing PRs and helping others demonstrated the value of collaboration in the open-source community, inspiring me to continue growing alongside my peers.

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.