So I’d just decided to participate in Google Code-In…

…and ended up winning. Or being one of the winners. Eh, whatever.

Wait, Google Code — what, exactly?

Code-In. Let’s just say it’s a really, really, really, really (I think you get the idea) awesome and more importantly, fun, contest through which you can win stuff like a t-shirt, a hoodie and even a trip to Google HQ in California. ;)

But the best part isn’t any of this…

Whaaat? Tell me!

…it’s getting to know about something called Open Source.

’Kay. What’s that now?

Open Source software is software where the source code is, well, “open”. Or rather, made available to “study, change and distribute”. Not only is contributing to Open Source fun — you also get to meet new people and see your code work in a “real” project — which is actually being used by perhaps millions!

So, what do you have to do when you participate?

Tasks. They usually have an alloted time of 3 days, and are based around one or more of the 5 areas — Code, User-Interface, Documentation/Training, Quality Assurance, Outreach/Research. So even if you haven’t written a line of code in your life or are just starting out, then Code-In is the best place to learn!

There are a lot of different organizations whose tasks you can pick and work on.

I mostly worked with Liquid Galaxy, an organisation that works on software for devices like this —

Pretty great, right?

Here’s some of the cool stuff I did —

• Make a Docker Container Image of Liquid Galaxy
• Externalize the creation of external projects launching tasks on the Android Controller
• Control the Liquid Galaxy through Android Controller in a similar way of the 3d controller: move around, zoom, etc
• Improve the installation script to install all the nodes in only one script execution (at the same time)
• Install the basic Liquid Galaxy and recreate the original video setup
• Bluetooth Communication

And best of all — it was a lot of fun, especially since I’d seriously took to coding just since about a year. The most I spent on a task was like 10 days and another was maybe 6 days ( The average time alloted to a task is usually 3 days — I had to keep asking for extensions. *cough* Android Controller and Installation Script *cough*).

Those 50 days were pretty rough. My schedule was something like this — get up at 6 am, go to school, return by 3 pm, lunch, sleep for 2 hours, try-to-act-like-I’m-doing-school-work-when-I-was-actually-trying-to-figure-out-yet-another-way-to-implement-that-feature for a couple of hours and then get down to the awaited part — work on tasks for upto 3am and then go to sleep. Or fall asleep while sudo apt-get update.

I loved every bit of it.

And I am sure you’ll too — so wrapping up, if you are 13–17 years old , go for Google Code-In! And try to get started on contributing to Open Source! (More on that in another post).