Lightning Talk Beginner

Rejected Once, Merged Next

Approved

Session Description

In this talk, I’ll share my journey of making my first open-source contributions - one that got rejected and one that got merged. I’ll walk through how I started exploring projects, set up my first environment for Signal Android, what went wrong in my first PR, and how I improved in my next contribution to Forklore.

The session aims to show that rejection isn’t failure, but feedback that shapes your skills. It’s a beginner-friendly story to help more students overcome hesitation and confidently take their first step into the open-source world.

Key Takeaways

Rejection is part of learning, not the end of it.
How to find and approach beginner-friendly open-source projects.
The importance of reading contribution guidelines and communicating with maintainers.
Confidence to make your first pull request — even if it’s small.
Open source is about growth, not perfection.

References

https://source.android.com/

https://github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions

https://opensource.guide/how-to-contribute/

Session Categories

Contributing to FOSS

Speakers

Kavibhagya K Student

Kavibhagya K, a second year Computer Science student at Chennai Institute of Technology and an aspiring open-source contributor. Passionate about learning by doing, she made her first contributions to AOSP, Signal Android, and Forklore - a journey that taught her the true spirit of collaboration and persistence. She loves exploring how technology and community come together to create real impact.

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