Complete Hacktoberfest22 in these 13 steps and get a Free T-shirt!
Hello friend!
Long time no see.
I am back again with another tech tutorial which would enable you to participate in the HacktoberFest22 like a pro and get a T-shirt for free!
The target audience for this article are people who are either relatively new to Github or OpenSource.
This tutorial would also cater competently to someone participating in their first HacktoberFest!
So, without wasting any more time, let’s dive in 🤿
Step 1 : The Github Setup
Ideally, the first step should be to have an account on Github.
Step 2 : Enlist yourself as a Hacktober!
Go to https://hacktoberfest.com/ and click on the Start Hacking button
Step 3 : Github vs Gitlab
After clicking on Start hacking, it would ask you to either login using Github or Gitlab.
For this tutorial, we are going the Github way 🚀
Let the games begin :
Step 4 : What’s your type?
Click on the Edit Info and fill in your prefrences :
In case you are completely new, you can choose the newbie option as well.
There are no consequences which would affect your final results even if you choose newbie, so you can be completely honest and choose what describes you best.
The Hacktoberfest site setup is now complete.
Now, lets move to Github and start hacking there 🤓
Step 5 : Searching for your mission 👾
After logging into Github, you can directly search for HacktoberFest22. You will see something like this :
You can go ahead and check if any previously approved pull requests had the hacktoberfest-accepted label or not in the repo that you are considering.
If they do, then there would be a readme in that repo, explaining how you can contribute to the repo.
You can also check out any open issues and try to fix them up by rasing a Pull Request ( for the rest of the article, I will be addressing a Pull Request as a PR ).
Step 6: The Monster called Leetcode 👺
This year, I am serving as a maintainer on a Github Repo for Hacktoberfest22.
So in case you do not find any other beginner friendly repository to contribute, you can contribute to mine.
https://github.com/Keerat666/LeetCode-HacktoberFest22
Every developer has heard of the deadly Leetcode 😂
To defeat this monster, I decided to compile a public funded repository of Leetcode submissions.
Step 7 : So many issues!?
There are a lot of existing issues open for Leetcode problems ( All problems in life are minor compared to a Hard Leetcode Problem 🥶😂 )
You can pick up any existing issue or create a new one as well, if you do not find what you are looking for.
If you choose an existing one, then you can drop a comment and I will assign it to you.
Step 8 : Just Fork It ✅
Once assigned, you can fork the repo and then start working on the issue on your local machine.
It’s finally time to code 🚀
Step 9 : The PR Stunt.
The moment you feel confident, you can commit your code to your forked repo and then raise a PR from your forked repository into the actual repository.
Step 10 : hacktoberfest-accepted 😈
If you raise a valid PR, I will merge it with the hacktoberfest-accepted label and you would have made a valid contribution to HacktoberFest22 🚀
Step 11 : Tick Tock, Tick Tock ⏳
In the next half hour or so, this contribution would turn up on your HacktoberFest dashboard and a timer would start running for 7 days. If your PR stays in the repo for the next 7 days, this PR would be then officially counted as a submission.
The whole point of Hacktoberfest is to promote collboration. So in case, you feel lost at any step, do not hesitate to drop a comment on an issue. Someone or the other would for sure, help you out!
Step 12 : The 4 Headshots 🔫
Once you do 4 valid PR’s, then you would be eligible for a free Hacktoberfest T-shirt and some swags which would be shipped to you once the fest ends 🤓
Step 13 : The most difficult part 😂
Now we just gotta wait, until all of our T-shirt’s get delivered 🥳
Mission End!
One quick disclaimer, only the first 40,000 people are eligible for the T-shirt, so I would recommend you to start at the earliest!
HacktoberFest is a delightful way to get into contributing to OpenSource and also an excellent starting point to start navigating your way around Github.
These skills of raising a PR (which are not taught in any college that I know of) and collaborating with people would surely be an edge for you, once you start working full time!
Have fun while participating and enjoy the whole process!
Today someone else might be merging your PR’s but by the next year, you might become the one merging other people’s Pull Request’s 😈
Share this article with your friends so that all of you can get matching T-shirt’s ✨
Concluding with a picture of the 2020 fest T-shirt that was sent across to all the eligible participants!
My sister
(who writes cool stuff too), had completed the challenge in 2020 and had got this swag pack and this cool T-Shirt as a reward!
Happy Coding ⭐️
May the code be with you!
Connect with me on LinkedIn for any other queries : LinkedIn