2 days ago
How this Karnataka boy's love for coding led him to Google's coding internship
At just 17, Sauhard Gupta has made his mark in the global developer community by earning a place in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2025—a highly selective open-source coding program that sees over 23,000 applicants every year. Only around 5% make it through, with just 150–200 students selected from India.'Selections are usually skewed toward final-year students or postgraduates because of how technically demanding the projects are,' he says. That's why his inclusion stands out—not just for his age, but for the complexity of the project he's been chosen to work will contribute to the Android Virtual Printer Application, a tool designed to simulate printer behaviour for developers working in environments without physical printers. 'It allows ChromeOS and Android teams, third-party developers, and QA engineers to reliably test printing functionalities,' he explains.
A first-year student at Scaler School of Technology, Gupta's acceptance into the programme is START IN OPEN-SOURCEHow high school tinkering led Sauhard Gupta to one of the world's most competitive coding open-source journey began while he was still in high school. 'I started exploring open-source projects during my high school years,' he recalls. Over time, he built a strong portfolio by contributing to various repositories, gradually honing the skills that would make his GSoC application stand GSoC programme, launched by Google in 2005, pairs selected contributors with experienced mentors from open-source organisations. Over a 12-week period, contributors work remotely on real-world projects and receive a stipend—Rs1.28 lakh in Gupta's case—based on project is mentored by Mrinal Bhattacharya, who praises his student's discipline and drive. 'Sauhard's clarity of thought and initiative at just 17 is beyond impressive,' Bhattacharya says. 'He approached a technically complex problem with the maturity of a seasoned developer.'REAL-WORLD IMPACT Sauhard's Android Virtual Printer tool aims to ease testing for developers working without physical GSoC project has earned him the chance to work with the Chromium team, something he describes as 'an incredible opportunity to contribute to a project that can make a real difference in the developer community.'He attributes much of his growth to collaborative learning. Gupta recalls late nights solving challenges with peers, reviewing code, and participating in group hackathons. 'Working with others helped me sharpen my code quality and problem-solving approach,' he the acclaim, Gupta remains focused on what lies ahead. 'This is a starting point. There's a lot more to build and learn,' he says, already looking forward to the next opportunity to turn code into something meaningful.
