Pick a project, open pull requests, climb a live leaderboard. Every merge is scored by difficulty — green circle, blue square, black diamond — and two merges earns your verified certificate.
300+ projects · 5,000+ mentors · 50,000+ developers
Social Winter of Code pairs developers with maintained open-source projects and the people who run them. You pick a project, open pull requests, and every merge earns points on a public leaderboard. New to open source? There's a green-circle run for every first-timer.
Pick a role — Contributor, Mentor, or Project Admin — and register with your GitHub handle.
Browse the curated directory by tech stack and difficulty, then claim an issue to work on.
Ship real changes. Maintainers review and merge — with mentors on hand when you're stuck.
Every merge scores by trail difficulty and updates the live leaderboard in real time.
Land two merged pull requests during the coding period and your verified certificate unlocks when the season ends.
Write code, fix bugs, ship features. Every merged pull request earns points and moves you up the leaderboard.
Register as Contributor →Guide contributors, review pull requests, and share what you know. Shape the next wave of open-source developers.
Register as Mentor →List your open-source project, welcome contributors, and grow your community over the winter.
Register as Project Admin →Watch your rank update as your PRs get merged.
Shareable proof of everything you shipped.
Guidance from maintainers who actually ship.
Thousands of developers, one winter.
Anyone — students, working developers, and first-time contributors. If you can open a pull request, you can join.
No. Projects are graded by difficulty, so you can start on a green-circle issue and work up to black diamonds. Mentors are there to help.
Completely free to join, contribute, and earn a certificate.
Get at least two pull requests merged into participating projects during the coding period. Your certificate unlocks when the season ends.
Winter 2026–27. Registrations are open now; the coding-period dates are shared with you on registration.
Sign up once. Contribute all season. Leave with a certificate and a stronger GitHub.
Register for SWoC 2026–27 →