hut101

Q1: How difficult should the tasks be?

A1: The issues can range in difficulty and size, depending on the appetite of the coach, but should generally be considered ‘small’ for a professional software engineer and solvable within an hour or two’s work.

We consider that tasks should be divided into three categories of easy / medium / difficult, each requiring more knowledge of programming in general. Participants are able to work through the ‘hut101 - Am I ready?’ flowchart to determine if they are ready to undertake a hut101 project and then refer to the ‘hut101 - how difficult?’ matrix to work out which difficulty level is most suitable for their current ability/availability.

Note: Tasks should not cause blockers for other aspects of the repository.

Q2: What is the expected amount of synchronous contact time?

A2: This can’t be too large as otherwise it may not be a viable commitment for either the student or the coach. It is probably always good to have a chat at the beginning to set the ground rules. Apart from that it may also make sense to have extra contact time just before a PR is ready for review; or at the end of the project as a way to discuss the lessons learnt and where to go from here.

Q3: What background should the participants have?

A3: Participants should have some level of experience working on code, but do not need to have worked collaboratively on a codebase or contributed to open-source software before. The ‘hut101 - Am I ready?’ flowchart can be used to determine if participants have the right skill level to work on a hut101 project and the ‘hut101 - how difficult?’ matrix can help determine how difficult their project can be.

Q4: Who should I contact if I want to ask more questions?

The main contact points for the hut101 scheme are Penny Yong and Rosie Wood. Feel free to reach out (e.g. via Slack) if you have any questions 🤗 .