• Google Code-in Frequently Asked Questions
• Contest Overview
• 1. What is Google Code-in?
  2. What are the goals of this contest?
  3. How does it work?
  4. When does the contest begin?
  5. What are the eligibility requirements for the contest?
  6. What are the prizes?
  7. How are the participating open source projects chosen?
• Contest Details
  1. How do I decide what task to work on?
  2. How do I claim and complete a particular task?
  3. How are individual contest entries judged?
  4. How are the Grand Prize Winners chosen?
  5. I have already been working with one of the open source projects; am I allowed to work on their tasks for the contest?
• Tasks
  1. What kinds of tasks will I have to choose from?
  2. What do the values in the "Status" column of the task list mean?
  3. Can I work on more than one task at a time?
  4. Is there a limit to the number of tasks I can complete?
  5. Can I work on a task as part of a team?
  6. Can I get help from the open source project's community and still take credit for completing a task?
  7. I started working on a task and I've realized that I don't know enough to get the work done. What should I do?
• Timeline
  1. What is the contest timeline?
• Forms and Payments
  1. What forms will be required from winning student contestants?
  2. How will I receive my monetary prizes?
• Other Questions
  1. Is there anything else I should plan to do to as part of participating in the contest?
  2. How do I get help when I have a question?
  3. Where can I find the GCI logo?
  4. Where can I find a flyer to promote GCI?
  5. I have a question that is not answered in this FAQ. Where else can I find more information?

Contest Overview

1. What is Google Code-in?

Following on from the success of the Google Summer of Code™ program, Google is holding a contest for pre-university students (e.g., high school and secondary school students) with the aim of encouraging young people to participate in open source. We will work with open source organizations, each of whom will provide a list of tasks to be completed by student contestants. Tasks can be anything a project needs help with, from bug fixes to writing documentation to user experience research.

2. What are the goals of this contest?

Google Code-in (GCI) is intended to help students who may have wanted to get involved in open source but didn't know where to start. By working through the tasks suggested by organizations, contestants will be given the opportunity to engage with the open source community and get involved. The participating open source projects gain the benefit of additional contributions to their project, often in important areas that may get overlooked for whatever reason.

It is Google's not so secret hope that the student contestants of today will be long-term contributors to these and other open source projects in the future.

3. How does it work?

1. Participating open source projects create a list of tasks and other contest information pages on http://google-melange.com.
2. Students claim ownership of a particular task and submit their work for assessment according to the instructions for each task.
3. Representatives from the open source project evaluate the work submitted
   1. If the work is accepted, the task is closed.
   2. If the work needs polishing, the task remains open and the organization representative gives student guidance on improving the work.
   3. If the work does not meet expectations, the task can be reopened for claiming and work by another student participant.

4. When does the contest begin?

The contest begins at 12:00 AM Pacific Time (08:00 UTC) on November 22, 2010. Make sure that you take the time to read through the contest rules and familiarize yourself with the introductory information provided by a particular open source project before starting work on a task. Also, if you are under the age of 18, please have your parent or legal guardian read the official rules as well because they will need to provide their consent for you to participate.

Check out the full contest timeline, too.

5. What are the eligibility requirements for the contest?

The contest is open to all students who are thirteen (13) years of age and no older than eighteen (18) years of age on November 22, 2010. Students must be enrolled in a pre-university, e.g. high school, secondary school, or educational institution. All contestants will need to have their parent or guardian's consent to participate where applicable, and we will ask for proof of consent before you can claim any prizes. For full details, see the contest official rules. Remember, by participating in the contest you are agreeing to abide by these rules, so go ahead and take a few minutes now to carefully read through them.

6. What are the prizes?

At the conclusion of the contest, contestants will receive a t-shirt and certificate for completing at least one task (maximum of one shirt & certificate per contestant) and 100 USD for every three tasks completed (maximum 500 USD per contestant).

Additionally, there will be ten grand prize winners. They will receive a trip to Google's Mountain View, California, USA Headquarters for an award's ceremony for themselves and one parent or guardian.

For full details, see the contest official rules.

7. How are the participating open source projects chosen?

We will choose open source projects from a pool of applications. The participating projects will be announced on November 5, 2010.

Contest Details

1. How do I decide what task to work on?

Take a look at the participating open source projects on the Google Code-in contest page and decide which one(s) are doing work that is interesting to you. Click on the name of the open source project and you'll be taken to its individual contest page, which will give you even more information about the project and resources for learning more. You can then browse available tasks in the Issue Tracker session of the project's contest page.

Each task will be labeled with descriptors like "documentation" or "training," which will further help you narrow down your choices of what to task to choose. Take a look at the requirements for an individual task and, if you're up to that particular challenge, claim the task and start working on it.

2. How do I claim and complete a particular task?

1. Sign in to your Google Account. If you do not have a Google Account, you can create one free of charge. If you already have a GMail address, you can just sign in to your GMail account.
2. You'll need to sign up for a Melange profile as well. You can sign in with your Google Account and edit your Melange profile on the site.
3. All the actions on the task henceforth happens on the task public page. The following happens only after the Task is published, i.e. in the Open state.

   1. A student submits the action "Request to claim" the task along with an optional comment and waits for approval. The task moves to ClaimRequested state.
   2. This locks down both the task and the student to the task, meaning:
      1. No other student can request to the claim the same task.
      2. The student cannot request to claim another task. This also implies that if a student is already working on a task, he cannot request to claim any other task.
   3. OA or any Mentor of the organization(irrespective of being a mentor of that task) can do one of the following with an optional comment:
      1. Approve the request if it is valid and the student deserves it. The task moves to Claimed state.
      2. Reject the request if the request is invalid, irrelevant or a spam. The task moves to Reopened state.
4. If the claim request is accepted the deadline is set as specified by the time to complete field and the clock starts to tick. The student begins his/her work on the task.

   1. If the student completes the work set out by the task before the deadline, he/she can submit the work by posting an comment along with the URL to the work. Note that one of the comment or the URL field is mandatory. The task changes the state to NeedsReview.
   2. If the deadline passes with the student submitting no work, the deadline is automatically extended for another 24 hours. The task changes the state to ActionNeeded and the notification is sent to all the subscribers including the student if he has subscribed. For more about subscriptions read the section on subscriptions above.
   3. If the student fails to submit the work even after the extended deadline, the task will be automatically re-opened and the task status will be set to Reopened.
   4. If the student submits the work before this deadline passes, the same rule as the previous work submission rule applies.
   5. One of the Mentors of the task reviews the submitted work. The mentor can take one of the following actions:
      1. If the mentor is satisfied by the student's work he chooses the action to "Close the task" along with an optional comment thereby marking the task as closed. The task moves to one of AwaitingRegistration or Closed. More about it below.
      2. If the mentor is not satisfied with the work but thinks that it requires rework and student can do it, he/she will choose the action "Needs More Work" with an optional comment. At this juncture the mentor has the option to extend the deadline for the student. The task status moves to NeedsWork. The cycle goes back to the point where student has to submit his/her work again.
      3. If the Mentor is completely unsatisfied with the student's work he/she will re-open the task. The task changes the state to Reopened. The new cycle with the same/another student requesting to claim the task begins.
   6. The student can withdraw from the task at any point in this entire workflow after he requests to claim the task. In such a case the task returns to Reopened state.

3. How are individual contest entries judged?

Each entry is judged by contest administrators from the participating open source projects. Entries must meet the requirements for completion specified in each task write up. Google's contest administrators will make the final judgment on all entries.

4. How are the Grand Prize Winners chosen?

Grand Prize Winners will be determined by the points accumulated during the contest .For full details, see the contest official rules.

5. I have already been working with one of the open source projects; am I allowed to work on their tasks for the contest?

As long as you or a family member do not hold an official position in the open source project, such as core developer or documentation working group member, you are welcome to participate in the contest. If you are not sure, please contact Google's contest administrators for help in deciding whether your participation violates the contest rules.

Tasks

1. What kinds of tasks will I have to choose from?

Tasks will typically fall into the following categories:

1. Code: Tasks related to writing or refactoring code
2. Documentation: Tasks related to creating/editing documents
3. Outreach: Tasks related to community management and outreach/marketing
4. Quality Assurance: Tasks related to testing and ensuring code is of high quality
5. Research: Tasks related to studying a problem and recommending solutions
6. Training: Tasks related to helping others learn more
7. Translation: Tasks related to localization
8. User Interface: Tasks related to user experience research or user interface design and interaction

Each task will be labeled in the Issue Tracker with at least one of these categories to help you choose which tasks to complete.

2. What do the values in the "Status" column of the task list mean?

1. Open: This task has not yet been claimed.
2. ClaimRequested: Someone has requested to claim this task.
3. Claimed: This task has been claimed and someone is working on it.
4. Action Needed: Work on this task must be submitted for review within 24 hours.
5. NeedsWork: This work on this Tasks needs a bit more brushing up. This state is followed by a Mentor review.
6. NeedsReview: Student has submitted work for this task and it should be reviewed by a Mentor.
7. Unapproved: When the task has been suggested by the mentor but not approved by the organization administrator.
8. Unpublished: When the task had been suggested by the mentor and approved by the organization administrator, but not published.
9. Reopened: If the task has been rejected by the mentor or organization administrator because it is invalid, irrelevant, or spam.
10. ActionNeeded: When the task has not been worked on and the deadline to complete the task has been extended for 24 hours.
11. AwaitingRegistration: If a student has completed a task but has not registered.
12. Invalid: If the task is marked as invalid, irrelevant, or spam.
13. Closed: Work on this task has been successfully completed.