Google Code-in

For those teenagers who were motivated by the Hour of Code and want to do more, Google is offering a challenge working on real open source software projects.  Through Google Code-in, teens from around the world will have the chance to learn and develop new CS skills by working on real software projects—with help from mentors along the way.

During the seven weeks of Google Code-in, pre-university students (ages 13-17) can browse hundreds of tasks created by 14 open source organizations. Students then get to choose the tasks they find most intriguing. A wide variety of skills and interests are required to make any software project work, so the tasks in Google Code-in are designed to reflect that diversity. Students can choose to work on projects across documentation, coding, training, research, quality assurance, user interface and outreach tasks.

Google has partnered with 14 organizations from a diverse array of fields: health care for developing countries, learning activities for elementary students, desktop and portable computing, the encouragement of young women in computer science, game development, to operating systems used in satellites and robots. Students can choose which project they are most interested in.

Each task has at least one mentor assigned to it to review the student’s work and also help answer questions along the way. Each organization also offers beginner tasks that give students who are newer to open source development an easy and clear place to get started. One of the stated goals of the contest is to encourage students to find a coding community that they enjoy working with and hopefully become an active contributor for years to come.

Over the last 5 years, over 2,200 students from 87 countries have successfully completed tasks by participating in Google Code-in. To celebrate CS Ed Week this year, please help us introduce even more young minds to open source software development through Google Code-in. To learn more about Google Code-in— including rules and FAQs—please visit the site and the Getting Started Guide.

This post was modified from the Google Code in Blog found at http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/