Find Your First Open Source Issue
Answer three quick questions and get a personalized list of beginner-friendly GitHub issues matched to your language, experience, and interests.
Why is finding your first issue so difficult?
GitHub hosts millions of open source repositories, each with hundreds of issues. The signal-to-noise ratio is overwhelming for new contributors. Most issues assume deep context about the codebase, require specific expertise, or have already been claimed by someone else.
Pickssue solves this by filtering for issues explicitly labeled good first issue in well-maintained repositories, scoring them by maintainer responsiveness and issue quality, and matching them to your programming language and interests.
How the quiz works
- 1
Choose your language
Select the programming language you know best. We search GitHub for active repositories in that language with open beginner-friendly issues.
- 2
Tell us your experience level
Whether you have never contributed before or have a few pull requests under your belt, we calibrate recommendations to your comfort level.
- 3
Pick your area of interest
Documentation, bug fixes, new features, or UI improvements — each type requires different skills and rewards different strengths.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a good first open source contribution?
A good first contribution is well-scoped, clearly described, and in a project with responsive maintainers. Documentation fixes, small bug fixes with clear reproduction steps, and issues explicitly labeled good first issue are ideal starting points. The key is picking something achievable so you build momentum.
Do I need to be an expert to contribute to open source?
No. Many open source projects actively seek beginners. A first contribution does not need to be a complex new feature — fixing a typo, improving an error message, or adding a test case are all genuinely valuable.
How does Pickssue score issue quality?
Each issue is scored on body length and clarity, number of comments (indicating community activity), assignee status, and the presence of beginner-friendly labels. Maintainer responsiveness is scored separately based on how quickly the project team responds to and merges pull requests.
Can I share my quiz results with others?
Yes. After completing the quiz, use the Share button to copy a link that encodes your language, level, and interest as URL parameters. Anyone with the link will see the same set of recommended issues.
What is a “good first issue” label on GitHub?
The good first issue label is applied by project maintainers to flag issues suitable for new contributors. These issues are typically well-documented, relatively small in scope, and have a clear path to resolution.
Ready to Make Your First Contribution?
Browse the full recommended issues feed — personalized to your GitHub activity after you sign in.