Hacktoberfest
What it is
DigitalOcean's annual celebration of open source, supported by Major League Hacking: contribute four quality pull/merge requests to participating projects on GitHub or GitLab during October. Global, online-first, with in-person community events, and explicit low- and no-code contribution paths.
Not a classic hackathon — a month-long contribution sprint — but it's the single best on-ramp into open source AI projects, where a merged PR is worth more on a CV than most hackathon wins. Pick one AI repo you actually use and aim all four contributions at it; drive-by PRs across random repos teach you nothing.
// details sourced from the official listing linked above, verified 2026-07-17. Always confirm dates and eligibility on the organizer's page before committing.