Written by a practitioner, not a tutorial.

This guide was built from real experience navigating GSoC 2026 with Apache Fineract — including every mistake, confusion, and hard-won lesson along the way. If you're a first-time applicant, this is the guide that didn't exist when it was needed.

Who This Guide Is For

Table of Contents

1. #
   What Is GSoC?
2. #
   Eligibility — Who Can Apply?
3. #
   Step 1 — Register on the GSoC Website
4. #
   Step 2 — Choose Your Organization
5. #
   Step 3 — Understand the Organization's Ideas
6. #
   Step 4 — Create Your JIRA Account (Apache Example)
7. #
   Step 5 — Choose the Right Ticket
8. #
   Step 6 — Set Up the Codebase Locally
9. #
   Step 7 — Your First Contribution (PR)
10. #
    Step 8 — Clean Code Rules Before Every PR
11. #
    Step 9 — Write Your Proposal
12. #
    Step 10 — Community Interaction
13. #
    The Timeline — Key Dates
14. #
    Common Mistakes to Avoid
15. #
    After Submission — What Happens Next

1. What Is GSoC?

2. Eligibility — Who Can Apply?

• Must be 18 years or older
• Must be a beginner to open source (less than 2 years of open source contribution experience)
• Must live in a non-embargoed country
• Can be a student OR a professional — GSoC is open to both

Important: Your years of professional experience do NOT disqualify you. Only your open source contribution history is evaluated. If you have 5 years of industry experience but zero open source commits — you are eligible.

3. Step 1 — Register on the GSoC Website

How to Register

1. #
   Go to the GSoC website
2. #
   Click Get Started or Register
3. #
   Sign in with a personal Gmail account (not a company or university email)
4. #
   Select your role: Contributor
5. #
   Fill in your profile: name, country, GitHub URL, bio

Common Issue: 403 Error

• Cause: You are logged into multiple Google accounts in the same browser
• Fix: Open an Incognito window → sign in with only your personal Gmail → try again
• The GSoC site does not support multi-account login

Finding Your Target Organization

• Apache Fineract is listed under The Apache Software Foundation — not as "Fineract"
• Search for the parent organization name, not the sub-project

4. Step 2 — Choose Your Organization

How to Choose

Where to Find Organizations

• summerofcode.withgoogle.com/programs/YEAR/organizations
• Filter by technology, category, or size
• Read their Contributor Guidance section on each org's page

The Honest Truth About Competition

5. Step 3 — Understand the Organization's Ideas

What to Look For in a Project Idea

• Mentor is confirmed — If no mentor is listed, the project may not happen
• Scope is clear — Vague projects are risky. Clear deliverables = safer bet.
• Matches your skills — Don't pick something you'd need 3 months of learning just to start
• Not marked as "draft" — Some ideas are placeholders. Draft = might be cancelled.

Apache-Specific: How Ideas Are Organized

1https://issues.apache.org/jira/issues/?jql=labels+=+gsoc2026+AND+labels+=+mentor

You Can Submit Up to 3 Proposals

6. Step 4 — Create Your JIRA Account (Apache Example)

How to Create an Apache JIRA Account

1. #
   Go to issues.apache.org/jira
2. #
   Click Sign Up or Create Account
3. #
   Use your real name — this is a public, permanent record
4. #
   Verify your email
5. #
   For some Apache projects, you may need to request access separately

What You Use JIRA For

• Reading project ideas (no account needed to read)
• Commenting on tickets to show interest
• Creating your own tickets for contributions you initiate
• Updating tickets when you raise a PR (link PRs to tickets)

JIRA Ticket Etiquette

• Do NOT comment on GSoC idea tickets saying "I want to work on this" unless the org explicitly asks for it
• DO create your own ticket for any work you initiate
• DO link every PR back to a JIRA ticket in the PR title and description
• Ticket title format: PROJECTNAME-XXXX: Short description
• PR title must match: FINERACT-2549: Migrate InstanceModeIntegrationTest to feign

7. Step 5 — Choose the Right Ticket for Your First Contribution

What Makes a Good First Ticket

How to Find Good Tickets (Apache Example)

1https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FINERACT-2489

1project = "Apache Fineract" AND labels IN 
2(beginner-friendly, beginner) 
3AND resolution = Unresolved 
4ORDER BY created DESC

Claiming a Ticket

1. #
   Open the ticket
2. #
   Leave a comment: "I am working on this. Will raise a PR by [date]."
3. #
   Assign it to yourself if you have permissions
4. #
   Don't sit on it — if you take a ticket, raise the PR within a week

8. Step 6 — Set Up the Codebase Locally

Generic Setup Steps

1. #
   Fork the repository on GitHub (your fork → github.com/YOURUSERNAME/project)
2. #
   Clone your fork locally
3. #
   Add upstream remote (critical for staying in sync)
4. #
   Check out the development branch (usually develop or main)
5. #
   Run the build to confirm it works locally
6. #
   Verify the server starts and health endpoint returns OK

For Apache Fineract Specifically

1# Start database (MariaDB via Docker)
2docker run --name mariadb -p 3306:3306 \
3  -e MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=mysql -d mariadb:11.5
4
5# Or use docker compose (starts everything)
6docker compose up
7
8# Build (skip tests for speed)
9./gradlew --no-daemon build -x test -x cucumber -x doc
10
11# Run
12./gradlew bootRun
13
14# Verify
15curl -k https://localhost:8443/fineract-provider/actuator/health

9. Step 7 — Your First Contribution (Raising a PR)

The PR Workflow

11. Sync your fork with upstream
2   git fetch upstream
3   git rebase upstream/develop
4
52. Create a feature branch
6   git checkout -b feature/TICKET-NUMBER-short-description
7
83. Make your changes
9
104. Run all quality checks (see Section 10)
11
125. Stage and commit
13   git add .
14   git commit -s -m "TICKET-NUMBER: What you changed and why"
15
166. Push to your fork
17   git push origin feature/TICKET-NUMBER-short-description
18
197. Open a PR from your fork to upstream/develop

PR Title Format

1FINERACT-2549: Migrate InstanceModeIntegrationTest from RestAssured to fineract-client-feign

PR Description Must Include

• Link to the JIRA ticket
• What you changed and why
• Checklist of quality checks passed
• Any behavioral changes (usually: none for migrations)

GPG Signing Your Commits

1git config --global user.signingkey YOUR_GPG_KEY_ID
2git config --global commit.gpgsign true

The gsoc-fineract-evidence Tag

10. Step 8 — Clean Code Rules Before Every PR

Universal Rules

• One logical change per commit — don't mix formatting fixes with feature changes
• Meaningful commit messages — "fix" is not a message. "FINERACT-2549: Replace requestSpec with feign client in InstanceModeIntegrationTest" is.
• No commented-out code — delete it or don't commit it
• No debug print statements — remove all System.out.println before PR
• No new warnings — your change should not increase the warning count

Apache Fineract Specific — Run Before Every PR

1# Step 1: Fix all formatting
2./gradlew spotlessApply
3
4# Step 2: Check for bugs
5./gradlew spotbugsMain spotbugsTest
6
7# Step 3: Check style
8./gradlew checkstyleMain checkstyleTest
9
10# Step 4: Full build (no tests)
11./gradlew --no-daemon build -x test -x cucumber -x doc

Commit Sign-Off

1git commit -s -m "FINERACT-2549: Your message"

One Commit Per Logical Unit

1commit 1: FINERACT-2549: Migrate InstanceModeIntegrationTest to feign
2commit 2: FINERACT-2550: Fix NPE in LoanTransactionHelper

11. Step 9 — Write Your Proposal

Proposal Structure (What Mentors Want)

The Single Most Important Rule

Show proof, not intention.

"I will implement X" is weak.

"I implemented X at [company] for [reason] and it produced [result]. I will apply the same pattern here because [specific connection]." is strong.

What Mentors Actually Read First

1. #
   Your name
2. #
   Your GitHub — they will click it immediately
3. #
   Your contributions to their codebase
4. #
   Then — and only then — your proposal text

Proposal Size

GSoC Website Fields

• Title — Short, specific, includes the project name
• Abstract — 160+ characters, self-contained summary
• Proposal body — Full proposal (paste from your document)
• Project Technologies — Enter each as a SEPARATE tag, not a comma-separated list
• Project Topics — Same — separate tags
• JIRA link — Direct link to the ticket(s) your proposal addresses
• Project Size — Small / Medium / Large
• PDF attachment — Upload a formatted version

Save as Draft First

12. Step 10 — Community Interaction

The Communication Channels (Apache Example)

Your Introduction Email

• Under 300 words
• Specific about your background
• Specific about which project idea interests you and why
• Ending with 1-2 technical questions that prove you've read the codebase

How to Ask Good Questions

Things That Hurt You in a Community

• Asking the same question twice without trying to find the answer yourself first
• Pinging maintainers privately — keep everything public
• "Can you review my PR?" — let the PR speak for itself
• Raising PRs to tickets marked "No one should work on this unless assigned"
• Tagging wrong JIRA tickets in your PRs

How to Handle Feedback on Your PR

1. #
   Read it fully before responding
2. #
   Address every comment — even ones you disagree with
3. #
   If you disagree, explain why — don't just silently do it your way
4. #
   Reply with exactly what you changed: "Done — removed the helper method and replaced with direct feign call on line 47"
5. #
   Re-request review once all comments are addressed
6. #
   Never take reviewer feedback personally — it's about the code, not you

13. The Timeline — Key Dates (GSoC 2026)

Your Personal Timeline (Work Backwards)

1Week 1 (application opens):
2  → Subscribe to mailing list
3  → Join community chat
4  → Post introduction email
5  → Set up codebase locally
6
7Week 2:
8  → Raise first PR
9  → Fill Contributor Interest Form
10  → Draft proposal
11
12Week 3:
13  → Address PR feedback
14  → Get mentor response on mailing list
15  → Refine proposal with mentor input
16
17Week 4 (3 days before deadline):
18  → Submit final proposal
19  → Raise second or third PR if time allows

14. Common Mistakes to Avoid

Registration

• Registering with a university email that doesn't have Gmail access
• Not subscribing to the mailing list before emailing it (your email goes to spam)
• Applying without checking if the organization's ideas have confirmed mentors

Proposals

• Referencing a ticket number that doesn't exist — mentors check immediately
• Proposing to work on a ticket marked "don't work on unless assigned"
• Generic proposals with no specific technical design
• Copying another applicant's proposal structure word for word
• Submitting on the deadline day — site traffic spikes, submissions fail

Contributions

• Raising a PR that references the GSoC idea ticket — those are mentor-assigned
• Raising a PR without running the formatter first — instant CI failure
• Taking a ticket and not delivering for 2 weeks — bad signal
• Mixing multiple issues in one PR — makes review harder
• Not GPG-signing commits when required

Community

• Sending private DMs to mentors for technical help — keep it public
• Asking "how do I start?" without reading the documentation first
• Disappearing after submitting the proposal — stay active until March 30

15. After Submission — What Happens Next

Between Submission and March 30 (For this year 26’)

• Raise more PRs if you have time
• Respond immediately to any PR feedback
• Stay active in the community chat
• Update your proposal if mentor gives feedback

1. #
   Quality of contributions (merged > open)
2. #
   Responsiveness to feedback
3. #
   Community presence
4. #
   Evidence that you understand the codebase

If You're Selected

• Community bonding period: read the codebase deeply, set milestones with mentor
• Weekly progress updates on mailing list or chat
• Small PRs often — don't build for 3 weeks and drop a massive PR
• Ask early if you're stuck — mentors prefer early questions over late surprises

If You're Not Selected

• It's not permanent. Many contributors apply 2-3 times before acceptance.
• Your PRs don't disappear — merged contributions stay in the codebase forever
• You can continue contributing as a community member with no GSoC label
• Apply again next year with stronger contributions on the record

Quick Reference Checklist

A Note to the Reader