Large Open Source Java Project Seeks Contributors: What You Need to Know
The developers of a popular open source Java solution — a framework for building distributed systems — have announced a call for new contributors. The project, which has already gathered over 15,000 stars on GitHub, is actively used in production by companies such as Netflix, Alibaba, and LinkedIn. The team currently needs more hands to implement new features, perform refactoring, and fix bugs.
Why should you join? First, it's an excellent way to level up your skills in Java, multithreading, and asynchronous programming. Second, contributors get access to a private chat with core committers and can influence the product roadmap. Third, active participants receive merchandise and invitations to the project's annual meetup.
What Needs to Be Done?
The project uses the Java 17+ stack, Spring Boot, Hibernate, Kafka, and Docker. The main areas for contribution are:
- Bug fixes — there are over 200 issues labeled "good first issue" in the issue tracker.
- Documentation — translation into Russian, writing code examples and diagrams.
- Testing — writing unit tests (JUnit 5) and integration tests (Testcontainers).
- New features — implementing gRPC support, improving caching, and optimizing performance.
Conditions for Contributors
The project team offers several bonuses for those who make at least one accepted Pull Request:
- A certificate of participation in an open source project.
- Access to a private Slack channel with developers from FAANG.
- Priority in hiring at partner companies (the list is published on the project's website).
How to Get Started?
If you write Java at least at a Junior level, you can already make a contribution. Here is a step-by-step guide:
- Fork the repository on GitHub.
- Find a task labeled "help wanted" or "good first issue".
- Comment that you are taking the task to prevent others from working on it in parallel.
- Create a PR with a description of the changes and a link to the issue.
The project adheres to a Code of Conduct, so any contribution is welcome — from fixing typos to complex logic. The main thing is to follow the code style described in CONTRIBUTING.md.
Important: there is a mentorship program for beginners. An experienced maintainer will review your code and give advice. This is a great opportunity to learn how to write production-grade code.
Don't miss the chance to become part of open source history and add a line about contributing to a major Java project to your resume. Join us — you are welcome!