My Experience With Google Code-In 2017
I came to know of Google Code In from a past winner on Quora. At first, the contest didn’t seem like anything more than a hackathon, albeit a lengthier version of it. Nevertheless, I was pretty chuffed about it, and was quite eager to participate. What drew me to the contest was the holy grail — a Google sponsored trip to the Googleplex.
I waited for the night of November 28, my face glued to my laptop’s screen. And there it was, the contest was open! Unaware of the rules, I casually looked around for a few tasks, and claimed a design task for CloudCV. I proceeded to claim other tasks, but I couldn’t! It was only after a while it hit me that I could claim only one task at a time. I tried my best to finish the task, but wasn’t sure of the requirements. A day later, I ended up abandoning the task.
My next stint was with JBoss Community. I found the mentors supportive and the tasks interesting. It was there that I completed the most number of tasks: 19. But by the end of December, things began going downhill. The competition grew beyond my ability to keep up, and most tasks were not of my liking.
It was then that I stumbled on LibreHealth, the organisation I most enjoyed working with. The chat and community had a positive vibe to it which drove me to put my best foot forward. Unlike others, LibreHealth had a mission I could relate to. This helped me work qualitatively and code to my heart’s content.
Most of my work was related to UI and design, and the mentors always responded with positive and constructive feedback. I did try a few challenging tasks, and managed to complete them after a few days of backbreaking effort. In the process, I learnt about cURL, Polymer, some PHP, and GitHub pages. That’s a lot of learning in just two months!
Aside from my work, Google Code-In has opened the doors to a new group of friends and peers. Jake Du was the first I was acquainted with, and he helped me get an idea of LibreHealth’s work. As the competition progressed, I met more amazing people like Adrien Zier, Mateusz Grzonka, Anunay, MigDinny and Abhishek. The mentors were amazing too, mostly Robby O’Connor and Judy Gichoya who helped me along every step on the way.
Google Code-In has surely been more than a hackathon. Now I realise how wrong I was to think of it as such. There could have been no experience more exhilarating, enjoyable, and involving than GCI 2017; to such an extent that winning the golden ticket seems unimportant now.