Introduction I’m Prajwal, and this is the story of my journey from a small village in Karnataka to being a Google Summer of Code contributor with the Apache Software Foundation. This is not a tale of overnight success, but one of struggle, perseverance, and the transformative power of open source. I hope my story can guide and inspire students who are on a similar path. Humble Beginnings and a Spark of Interest I come from a small village called Kuppinakeri in Karnataka. My parents are farmers, and I grew up in a humble environment. After scoring 86% in my 10th grade in 2020, I got into Morarji Desai PU college, a government institution that provided free education. This was my first time living in a hostel. My elder brother, Guru Prasanna, who works at Morgan Stanley, has been my guiding light. On his advice, I chose PCMCs (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science) over PCMB. It was here that my love for computer science, particularly C++, began to blossom, thanks to my supportive lecturer, Sanjay sir. ...

After I shared my journey to GSoC, many aspiring students reached out with the same questions: What exactly is open source? What is GSoC? And how can I get started? This post is for you. It’s the guide I wish I had when I was just starting out. What is Open Source? Imagine a chef has a secret recipe for a fantastic dish. In the normal world (called “closed source”), they keep that recipe locked away. You can buy the dish, but you can never see how it’s made. ...

The Swiggy Problem: Analytics at the Speed of Now Imagine you’re running Swiggy or Zomato. Every second, thousands of orders pour in from across the country. You need to answer critical business questions in real-time: How many unique customers ordered in Bangalore in the last 10 minutes? Which dish is trending right now? This is the world of real-time analytics. You need to process and understand data the instant it arrives. ...