Some Interest in GSoC Project ALTQ Refactoring and NPF Integration

Hello, dear kernel developers in the mailing list!

I'm a student who wants to make some contributions under your guidance in this year's GSoC.

When I was in junior high school, I heard about legendary history about operating systems. The chapters about operating systems in Red Hat's voice blog "Command Line Heroes" really attracted me. In high school, I participated in competitive programming(a kind of intellectual game to design and implement fast algorithms), where I learned that operating systems use many magical algorithms, data structures and engineering techniques to build a wonderful abstract over the hardware. They form the foundation of today's splendid information world behind the scenes. At that time, operating systems seemed like magic to me.

Time passed, I entered the university, learned "Introduction to Computer System" course, and then begin my operating system course journey this semester. However, the teacher told me: There is no any magic in OS! You can also build the world like heroes in history, just read the book, read the manual, read blogs, and do it!". So, I come here, choose a project on the website, and try to get a chance to participate in.

I know that I need to answer the question listed on the website, but to be honest, I don't have any experience in system programming before. What I only have is the eager to challenge myself to learn more and do more, the ample time to try things I interested in, and some algorithms, data structures and C/C++ programming knowledge gained in the training of competitive programming. It seems the " ALTQ Refactoring and NPF Integration" projected fit my taste, where I can appreciate how algorithms and data structures are integrated in part of the kernel, and do some engineering work to contribute.

Maybe I should study hard for another year and try this project next year? Or perhaps I have the possibility to make some contributions while learning under your guidance? Can you give me some advice? I am willing to study more if I need to prepare before getting hands-on. I will also do my best to overcome difficulties if I have the opportunity to contribute now.

Apologies for disturbing you. Looking forward to your reply.