24 Pull Requests

Guide to 24 Pull Requests — give back to open source every day in December

TL;DR — 24 Pull Requests challenges you to make one open-source contribution per day from December 1–24. It’s free, open to everyone, and a fun way to build your contribution habit during the holiday season.

What is 24 Pull Requests?

24 Pull Requests is a community initiative inspired by the advent calendar concept. The idea is simple: from December 1st to December 24th, make one meaningful contribution to an open-source project every day.

It’s not a formal program with stipends — it’s a challenge and community event that helps you:

• Build a consistent contribution habit
• Discover new projects to contribute to
• Grow your GitHub profile with real contributions
• Connect with the global open-source community

How It Works

1. Sign up at 24pullrequests.com (connect your GitHub account)
2. From December 1–24, submit at least one pull request per day to any open-source project
3. Your contributions are tracked on the platform
4. Project maintainers can list their projects as seeking contributions

What Counts as a Contribution?

Any meaningful open-source contribution counts:

• Bug fixes
• New features
• Documentation improvements
• Translation work
• Test additions
• Code refactoring
• Accessibility improvements

Spam PRs (meaningless whitespace changes, auto-generated content) violate the spirit of the event and may get you flagged.

Tips for Success

1. Prepare a list of projects before December starts — Scout 30+ issues across different repos in November so you never scramble. Bookmark them in a spreadsheet with the repo URL, issue link, estimated difficulty, and language.
2. Mix difficulty levels strategically — Plan lighter contributions (doc fixes, typo corrections) for busy weekdays and save more involved features or bug fixes for weekends when you have uninterrupted time.
3. Use “good first issue” labels — Many projects label beginner-friendly issues. GitHub’s advanced search (is:issue label:"good first issue" is:open) is your best friend here. Filter by language to stay in your comfort zone.
4. Focus on quality over quantity — One thoughtful contribution that fixes a real bug or improves documentation meaningfully will impress maintainers far more than three whitespace changes. Reviewers remember contributors who write clean, tested code.
5. Share your progress publicly — Write short blog posts or tweet about what you learned each day. This builds your personal brand, creates accountability, and connects you with other participants. Several past contributors have landed jobs through visibility gained during the event.
6. Read contribution guidelines first — Every repo has different conventions for commit messages, branch naming, and PR descriptions. Skipping this step is the fastest way to get your PR rejected or ignored.

Why Participate?

Benefit	Description
Portfolio building	24 real contributions to your GitHub profile
Skill development	Exposure to different codebases and technologies
Networking	Connect with maintainers and other contributors
Job hunting	Active GitHub profiles impress recruiters
Preparation	Great warm-up for applying to GSoC, LFX, or Outreachy

Resources

Resource	Link
Official Website	24pullrequests.com
About Page	24pullrequests.com/about
GitHub	github.com/24pullrequests

Even if you don’t hit all 24 days, any contributions you make during December count. The goal is to build the habit, not stress about perfection. Many successful open-source contributors started with this exact event — completing even 10 days puts you ahead of most developers who never contribute at all. Use the momentum from December to keep contributing in January and beyond.