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Dev.to
8/5/2026
The original title is "How a self-taught dev gets merged PRs into real open-source projects"

The original title is "How a self-taught dev gets merged PRs into real open-source projects"

Original: How a self-taught dev gets merged PRs into real open-source projects

Short summary

A 22-year-old self-taught developer shares a repeatable process for getting merged PRs into real open-source projects without a CS degree or referrals. The approach: search GitHub for unclaimed good-first-issues with bounded scope, reproduce the bug, make a minimal fix, write a regression test, and follow repo conventions exactly. Two clean PRs to reputable repos beat ten to toy projects—quality is the signal that matters.

  • •Search GitHub for unclaimed, well-scoped good-first-issues to avoid competition
  • •Minimal fix plus regression test turns trust into proof; follow CONTRIBUTING.md exactly
  • •Quality over volume: two clean PRs to reputable repos beat ten to toy projects

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.

#ai-tools#certification-education
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