r/gsoc2025

Point Blank has produced a double digit number of acceptances to #GSoC (Google Summer of Code) 2026. 13 contributors and 3 mentors. It’s more than double of what we did last year. We’re worried about the JEE style discourse that this will create.

So I’m not here to talk about numbers.

Instead I want to talk a little bit about our process, and the difference between enthusiastically participating in GSoC versus crossing the line into unethical territory.

- Educating the participants is extremely important. Every year at Point Blank starts with a Primer on FOSS development. What is open source, how it came to be, the four freedoms of free software, the story of the Linux kernel and GNU, licensing and how it shapes the landscape. The idea of giving back via contributions and volunteering.

- Volunteering is important. You’ll find Point Blank members at various FOSS conferences around the city - IndiaFOSS, RustIndia, IICT and more. You’ll find them at the GSoC booth at FOSSASIA. They do everything from managing the recording equipment to taking out the trash. They interact with maintainers and learn about their challenges, and sensitise themselves to the challenges that maintainers face everyday.

- Every year, we have a sizeable number of mentors who contribute back to their communities long after having completed GSoC themselves.

- No tolerance for bad behaviour. We have suspended and removed people from the club over a single small incident of unethical conduct. Something as simple as assigning yourself an issue that was already taken. We have zero tolerance for sloppy work and bad behaviour. All juniors start by working on internal projects first to learn basic git workflows and etiquette.

- It takes time to build excellence. We have been doing this for 7 years now. We started with 1 GSoC contributor in 2020, then 2 in 2021, 4 in 2022 to 7 last year. We’ve had the fortune of meeting several org mentors and admins, and refine our strategy over the years. We’ve had 20 GSoCers in last 5 years and increased that number to 36 this year.

That’s how we got the results we did. Just by sticking to the rules, giving it our best shot and contributing. Unfortunately this is not the case with many other institutions that use underhanded tactics to get selections, and we hope that we can serve as an example that sometimes to be the best all you need to do is do the right thing!

Remember:

1. the frontend bug or whatsoever was last year as well and no doubt it is an indicator of selection but doesn't guarantee. In my org also there were people who saw that but got rejected
2. Just because your mentor praised your proposal and work, doesn't mean you or the project is on the top in their priority list. Could be possible you might be the top contributor in your PROJECT but the project has low priority and didn't even get a slot. (also mentors rarely demotivate, unless u are all AI bs)
3. There could be 2-3 "top contributors" in a project, mentors tend to choose 1-2 depending on their expectations on number of slots! So just because u are top, doesn't mean u don't have a competitor!! (even one competitor could doom you)

I wanna get into gsoc 2027

My language will be javascript

Any tips u can give me

As I'm going start this early some tips might work for me 😅

I tried for GSoC 2026, but didn’t get selected. It honestly stung a bit, but it also made me realize what I was missing.

This time I’m doing things differently. I’ll be contributing regularly, making consistent PRs, staying in touch with mentors, and actually being part of the community instead of just showing up during applications.

I’m writing this so I can come back to this exact post one year from now, no matter what happens.

If I get selected, I’ll share it here.
If I don’t, I’ll still come back and talk about what I learned and how I improved.

Either way, I’m committing to the process from today.

I submitted the proposal for the ArtExtract project this year GSoC 26.

I've completed the task way before the proposal deadline and mailed them about the completion --- no reply

I made a draft proposal and mailed the organization and the mentors to have a check and suggest any changes --- no reply.

For once I thought they were dead. But every year a lot of projects are selected in HumanAI organization so I kept making my proposal and submitted the final draft on GSoC.

This time I mailed the mentors Emanuel Usai and Sergei Gleyzer through their university mail --- still no reply.

When the GSoC results came out, there was no project ArtExtract and the mentors (i listed above), were the mentors lf almost every project the previous year but this time neither the mentors are there nor the project. I think the mentors have dropped out.

Now i'm running into a dilemma:

Was my proposal not great enough? (Which I don't think is true because I proposed a complete new architecture that tackled all the problems from the past 2 years project)

Or if I selected the wrong organisation because many of my friends got selected (and the number is huge) and all of them were in contact with the mentors. In my case there were only one sided efforts, no one was there to guide me.

What could have gone possibly wrong here? Is it all my fault ??

date 28th
guy1- damn i have this in the bag i have more than 20 pr and the person below me has 4 and apache will obv select this project because it just graduated to TLP(Top level project) . I M SET

guy2 - m the guy with highest prs in my org 35+ and the conversatation with maintainers go well also , they liked my proposal alot , and ontop of that ive completed all the internal tasks even made a prototype !!. ill get it for suree

guy3- in my org there is no one and i have 3 prs and maintainers took my interview and i gave all the ans's i am for sure getting selected this year

all three with more than 5 months of hard work

date 30th 9:21AM

we cant see the programs field populated and the withdraw from application thing nvr happened .....
guy4- dmn i nvr did any prs ill apply to c2si ... i just did a 45 mins interview .. lol easiest gsoc ( can see programs arrray filled also the withdraw from applicaion )

"But you see, the winner takes it all
The winner takes it all
So the winner takes it all
And the loser has to fall
Throw a dice, cold as ice
Way down here, someone dear
Takes it all, has to fall."
— ABBA - The Winner Takes It All 

I want to hear from past contributors about the actual experience. What were your biggest takeaways, and how much did having GSoC on your resume actually help you land interviews or jobs later on?

I have not received any updates from CERN-HSF. What about you?

Hey everyone, first off, congratulations & same pinch to everyone who got accepted into Google Summer of Code this year!

When I was writing my own proposal, one of the most helpful things I did was read through past accepted (and rejected) proposals to get a feel for the expected structure, timeline, and level of detail. To keep paying this forward, I have set up a central repository to archive GSoC 2026 proposals:

https://github.com/satwiksps/GSoC_archive_2026

If you applied this year, whether you were accepted or rejected, it would be a huge help to the open-source community if you could contribute your proposal.

There are also links in the README to the 2025 and 2024 archives if you are a future applicant looking for inspiration right now.

If you are planning to apply next year, feel free to star the repo so you have it bookmarked for when you need it. Let me know if you run into any issues with the PR process!

Hey,

Are there any GSOC alumni from India and can help me understand the tax implications for the GSOC stipend.Did you receive the entire $3000? Or is there a TDS

same as title

same as the title, and also i lost complete hope after seeing the empty programs [] and also the people who are competing here have mostly more than 5 PR's whereas I got only one PR merged and a 3 page proposal. Guess, I need to work hard next and year perform good. Congo for the people who got in.

https://preview.redd.it/mgv8dc0ggcyg1.png?width=1196&format=png&auto=webp&s=e4e806c640cfa6ed0e7852ade9353f2f0a952f5f

https://preview.redd.it/0o5x07subdyg1.png?width=1874&format=png&auto=webp&s=d9481eb8aae56531515211e77f35bbc5080f0329

ig it is what it is eh??
well had a good time trying to learn the workspace and its environment and it was my first time contributing to these repo.
will try again next time :p

well im thinking of making my proposals public idk if anyone experience could give few tips here and there. le me know if i should.