Who are you? In 200 words or less tell us the most important things to know about you!
I am Mostafa Aboalkasim, a Senior Computer Science student at Assiut University Egypt with a deep interest in systems programming, open source, and AI infrastructure. I spend most of my time writing C++ and diving deep into systems like rendering engines, browsers, and inference engines. I prefer learning by digging into the absolute internals of a project rather than stopping at the surface level.
Your hobbies? Inside or outside of tech what are the things you like to do in your free time?
Inside of tech, Competitive programming is probably my biggest hobby. I enjoy solving algorithmic problems and participating in contests. Outside of the terminal, I enjoy going down random technology rabbit holes, learning about cars and playing Chess.
What led you to a career in tech?
Competitive programming was my gateway, and I owe a huge thanks to Prof. Mustafa Saad Ibrahim for guiding me into it and, ultimately, Computer Science.
I really enjoyed competitive programming. I have solved more than 2,500 problems, but as I progressed, I became increasingly interested in what happens beyond solving individual problems. I wanted to understand how large, real-world systems are designed, built, and maintained.
Do you remember your first open source contribution?
I wanted to understand how a massive browser like Chromium worked under the hood, but I couldn’t initially build it on my machine. I started with PDFium, it was a great entry point into the Chromium ecosystem that required significantly less computing power. It gave me a practical way to learn the codebase, the C++ development workflow, and how to interact with the open-source community.
How did you get involved in Chromium?
The biggest step of moving from PDFium to Chromium itself was my hardware: an old laptop with a 2nd-gen Intel Core i5 and 8GB of RAM made compiling basically impossible. Thankfully, Chris Harrelson provided me with access to Remote Build Execution (RBE), which sped up my builds and entirely unblocked my ability to contribute. I’m incredibly grateful for his support.
From there, I started tackling bugs. The best part about Chromium is that there’s always another layer to uncover, you can start investigating a tiny bug and end up learning about IPC, sandboxing, rendering, or the build system itself.
Mostafa’s old i5 gen 2 laptop on the left, and the his new laptop on the right (which he purchased with the Bug Bounty reward!)
What is your favorite thing/project/tech to work on?
C++ and systems software are my sweet spot. I love working on code where memory management, performance, and API design are critical. Recently, I’ve been heavily invested in the systems underneath AI applications, specifically exploring how LLM inference engines are designed and how models execute efficiently across different hardware.
Tell us about the thing you’re most proud of and why?
I’m incredibly proud of becoming a Chromium contributor as an undergraduate student, especially starting out on hardware that actively fought against me. Going from feeling intimidated by massive open-source codebases to actually landing patches was a huge personal milestone.
I’m equally proud of my competitive programming journey. Competing at events like the ECPC and Meta Hacker Cup has been a masterclass in persistence and problem-solving.
What is the best connection you’ve made through open source?
The best part has been meeting fellow open source enthusiasts, both at university and at various events. Open source has allowed me to connect with and learn directly from brilliant developers and professors I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
What is your #1 top tip for getting involved in the community?
Start small and don’t wait until you feel “ready.” You don’t need to understand an entire architecture before making your first contribution. Pick a manageable issue, read the surrounding code, read the documentation, and don’t be afraid to ask questions when you’re stuck.
Where can people find you?
GitHub: github.com/MostafaAboalkasim
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mostafa-aboalkasim
X/Twitter: x.com/MoAboalkasim
Want to learn more about the Bug Bounty Program?
Check out the hotlists to find your first bug to fix here: https://socbb.org/developers/