GitHub is the largest and most popular platform for hosting and collaborating on open source projects. It has more than 300 million repositories and over 100 million developers from around the world. GitHub is also a great source of learning resources, tools, frameworks, libraries, and inspiration for developers of all levels and backgrounds.

But with so many projects available on GitHub, how do you find the best ones for your needs? How do you discover new and trending repositories that can help you improve your skills, solve your problems, or spark your creativity?

To help you with that, we have compiled a list of 10 most popular GitHub repositories that every developer should know. These repositories have the most stars, forks, and contributors on GitHub, indicating their popularity and quality. They cover a wide range of topics, from web development to machine learning, from coding interview preparation to awesome lists. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, you will surely find something useful and interesting in these repositories.

1. freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp

Stars: 362,000
Forks: 31,200

freeCodeCamp is the most starred repository on GitHub. It is the backend for the main freeCodeCamp website that offers numerous free computer science learning materials. These include over 9,000 tutorials and 11 core certifications, ranging from responsive web design to machine learning with Python.

freeCodeCamp is a charitable organization that runs on donor and community support, enabling users to contribute to the site’s codebase. You can also join their online community of millions of learners and mentors, where you can ask questions, share your projects, and get feedback.

2. EbookFoundation/free-programming-books

Stars: 269,000
Forks: 54,100

Run by the Free Ebook Foundation, this popular repository has become one of the top GitHub projects. It provides a comprehensive list of free learning resources in numerous languages. In addition to books, this project maintains a list of other educational materials like free online courses, cheat sheets, podcasts, screencasts, problem sets, and code playgrounds.

This repository is a great place to find high-quality and up-to-date resources on various topics related to programming and computer science. You can also contribute to this project by adding new resources or fixing broken links.

3. jwasham/coding-interview-university

Stars: 250,000
Forks: 66,200

The Coding Interview University repository by jwasham is a computer science study plan for those interested in pursuing a career as a software engineer. The plan contains carefully curated study materials like books, practice websites, and video tutorials. It also includes tips and tricks on updating your resume, finding a software engineering job, and preparing for a technical interview.

This repository is based on the author's personal experience of studying for Google's coding interview. It covers topics like data structures, algorithms, system design, operating systems, databases, networking, security, and more.

4. sindresorhus/awesome

Stars: 241,000
Forks: 25,000

The Awesome repository is a community of knowledgeable or passionate people that curate lists on various topics, from programming to entertainment, to help others learn. These lists contain links to awesome resources like books, articles, websites, podcasts, videos, tools, frameworks, libraries, and more.

The Awesome repository is a great way to discover new and exciting things related to your interests or hobbies. You can also contribute to this project by creating your own awesome list or improving an existing one.

5. kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap

Stars: 187k
Forks: 45k

The Developer Roadmap repository by kamranahmedse is a collection of charts that show the paths and skills required for different roles in web development. These roles include front-end developer, back-end developer, full-stack developer, and devops engineer.

The charts are updated regularly with the latest trends and technologies in the web development industry. They are also available in multiple languages thanks to the contributions from the community.

The Developer Roadmap repository is a useful guide for anyone who wants to learn web development or advance their career in this field.

6. public-apis/public-apis

Stars: 250k
Forks: 28k

The Public APIs repository by public-apis is a collective list of free APIs for use in software and web development. APIs are application programming interfaces that allow different applications to communicate with each other and exchange data.

The Public APIs repository contains APIs from various categories like animals, business, entertainment, finance, health, sports, weather, and more. You can use these APIs to enhance your projects, learn new skills, or create something fun and interesting.

7. donnemartin/system-design-primer

Stars: 143k
Forks: 28k

The System Design Primer repository by donnemartin is a resource for learning how to design large-scale systems. It covers topics like scalability, availability, reliability, consistency, latency, performance, data structures, algorithms, and more.

The repository also provides links to real-world examples of system design from companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and more. You can also find practice questions and solutions for system design interviews.

The System Design Primer repository is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to improve their system design skills or prepare for system design interviews.

8. facebook/react

Stars: 183k
Forks: 35k

React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It is developed and maintained by Facebook and a large community of developers. React is one of the most popular and widely used front-end frameworks in the web development industry.

React allows you to create reusable components that can render dynamic data and handle user interactions. React also supports server-side rendering, which can improve the performance and SEO of your web applications.

React is used by many companies and websites like Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Airbnb, Reddit, and more.

9. codecrafters-io/build-your-own-x

Stars: 32k
Forks: 2k

The Build Your Own X repository by codecrafters-io is a collection of tutorials that teach you how to build your own versions of popular tools and technologies from scratch. These include things like compilers, databases, blockchains, operating systems, web servers, and more.

The tutorials are written in various programming languages and difficulty levels. They are also accompanied by tests that you can use to verify your implementations.

The Build Your Own X repository is a fun and challenging way to learn how different tools and technologies work under the hood.

10. tensorflow/tensorflow

Stars: 161k
Forks: 88k

TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. It is developed by Google and a large community of researchers and developers. TensorFlow is one of the most popular and widely used frameworks for creating and deploying machine learning models.

TensorFlow supports multiple programming languages like Python, C++, Java, Go, and more. It also provides various tools and libraries for data processing, model training, evaluation, visualization, deployment, and more.

TensorFlow is used by many companies and organizations like Google, Airbnb, Uber, NASA, IBM, and more.

Conclusion

GitHub is a treasure trove of open source projects that can help you learn new skills, solve problems, or create something amazing. In this article, we have listed 10 of the most popular GitHub repositories that every developer should know. These repositories cover a wide range of topics, from web development to machine learning, from coding interview preparation to awesome lists. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, you will surely find something useful and interesting in these repositories. We encourage you to explore them, star them, fork them, and contribute to them. Happy coding!