# Hacktoberfest 2025 Comes to a Close

DevFeed: [Hacktoberfest 2025 Comes to a Close](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/hacktoberfest-2025-comes-to-a-close-19885.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/hacktoberfest-2025-wrapup>)

Author: Bedabrata Bagchi

Published: 2025-11-21T15:45:11Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [DigitalOcean](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/digitalocean.md>)

Topics: [Hacktoberfest](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hacktoberfest.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [Maintainers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/maintainers.md>)

Tags: [2025](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/2025.md>), [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [contributions](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/contributions.md>), [contributors](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/contributors.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [hacktoberfest](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hacktoberfest.md>), [maintainers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/maintainers.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>)

## AI overview

A retrospective on Hacktoberfest 2025 describes participation by developers, maintainers, and first-time contributors, highlights community growth and collaboration, and reports that the pull request requirement increased from four to six.

## Source excerpt

October rolled around again, and with it came Hacktoberfest for its 12th year where contributors and open-source communities across the globe came together to build, contribute, and make tech more accessible for everyone. This year saw--as it does every year--developers, maintainers, and first-time contributors working side by side, creating solutions that matter to open source. A huge thank you to everyone who participated and made this Hacktoberfest special. We saw a lot of new faces join the celebration this year, and it's exciting to see the community grow! What really stood out this year? The genuine enthusiasm. People were here to contribute, collaborate, and make a tangible impact on open source projects. That's what Hacktoberfest is all about: getting more people involved in open source and working together to improve the software that powers our world. It's fulfilling to see how Hacktoberfest continues to inspire developers and successfully achieves what we set out to do. Here's what Mike Swift, Co-founder and CEO of MLH has to say about Hacktoberfest this year: "What I enjoyed most about this year's Hacktoberfest was seeing next-gen developers step into open source with genuine curiosity and realize they could make meaningful contributions. They approached issues, learned from maintainers, and connected those experiences to the AI tools shaping their work. Being part of moments like that is incredibly rewarding and exactly why the MLH community exists." A change for Hacktoberfest This year we increased the number of PRs from 4 to 6. As the program has matured and participants have access to better onboarding resources, we increased the requirement to encourage deeper project engagement and more substantial contributions. The additional PRs allow participants to move beyond initial contributions and tackle more complex issues, leading to higher-quality work and more meaningful impact on the projects they contribute to. This change was embraced by all contribu