1. Pick a systems project
Anything close to the metal: a tiny HTTP server, a binary parser, a toy shell, a steganography tool. If you'd be excited to talk about it, it counts.
Syscall
Ship your first real systems project — and earn the hardware grant to build the next one.
Spend four weeks writing C or Zig.
Build something close to the metal — a tiny HTTP server, a binary parser, a toy shell, a steganography tool.
Ship it open-source.
Earn a hardware grant: a devboard, a debug probe, a multimeter, an oscilloscope. You pick what you build next.
Open to anyone 13 to 18, worldwide.
Track your hours in Hackatime.
How it works
2. Track your time in Hackatime
Connect your editor to Hackatime so reviewers can see the hours behind the repo, not just the final commit.
3. Build it in the open
Your project has to be open-source. Push it to a public repo on GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, or wherever you host code.
4. Make it runnable for a reviewer
Record a short demo video or write a README that walks someone through building and running it. If a reviewer can't try it, they can't approve it.
5. Spend the grant
Once you're approved, we send a hardware grant. Devboards, debug probes, multimeters, oscilloscopes — what you order is up to you.
Recent projects
Your project goes here
Approved Syscall projects show up in this feed with a link to the repo and the demo. Yours could be the first one this cohort.
What you'll learn
Memory and pointers
Allocate, free, and reason about raw memory without leaking it.
File I/O
Read and write bytes, manage file descriptors, handle real OS errors.
Networking
Open a TCP socket and send a request without a library doing it for you.
Binary formats
Parse a real file format byte by byte instead of relying on a wrapper.
Concurrency
Run work in parallel and learn what goes wrong when it shares state.
Hardware and devices
Talk to a board, read a sensor, drive a pin — get past the OS abstraction.
Debugging
Drop into a debugger, read a stack trace, follow a crash to its source.
C and Zig, fluently
Write idiomatic C or Zig — not transliterated Python.
man syscall
Get up to speed on Zig and the systems concepts you'll need.
Zig Resources
Systems Concepts
+--------------------+ | SYSCALL v0.1 | | RESOURCE DB | | | | > HOVER A LINK | | > TO EXPLORE | | | | [READY] | +--------------------+
FAQ
Who can join?
Anyone aged 13 to 18, from any country. Syscall is free to participate in.
Do I need systems programming experience?
No. You should be comfortable writing code in some language, but you don't need prior C or Zig — picking it up is the point.
Does it have to be C or Zig?
Yes. Pick whichever feels closer to what you want to build. Other languages aren't eligible for this program.
What exactly do I have to ship?
A working systems project, open-sourced on a public repo, with hours tracked in Hackatime and either a short demo video or a README that explains how to build and run it.
What if I don't finish in time?
Submit what you have. You still keep the code, the skills, and the feedback from reviewers, and you can come back next cohort.
Can the same project count for another YSWS?
No. Each Syscall project has to be new work — you can't reuse a project that's already been submitted to another Hack Club YSWS program.
Who's running this?
Syscall is a Hack Club YSWS program run with TerminalCraft, by teenage hackers in the community. Hack Club is a global nonprofit supporting high school coders.