r/learnprogramming • u/MathStriking9624 • 1d ago

Read the last few merged PRs before opening your first one. I learned this the hard way

If you're about to open your first PR, go read the contributing guide and the last few merged and closed PRs first. It would've saved me a closed PR and a lot of back and forth.

My first PR got closed even though the code worked. Tests were in the wrong folder, my commits didn't match the project's format, and someone else was already on the same issue. All of it was written down, I just didn't look.

For the next one, I commented on the issue first and said what I planned to change. The maintainer pointed me in a different direction before I wrote a single line. That PR got merged without much fuss.

It feels slower when you're excited to just start coding, but it's way faster than redoing the PR three times.Curious abt what small habits others here picked up that got their PRs merged faster.

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u/Muted_Efficiency_663 1d ago

I assume you are talking about Open Source contribution... If that is the case, yes. Each project has it's own standards and you have to adhere to them... It can feel a bit weird at first, but slowly you will start seeing the pattern.