* [Overview](#overview)

* [Before Making Your Pull Request](#before-making-your-pull-request)

* [Contributing With Minimal Setup](#contributing-with-minimal-setup)

* [Getting Familiar With the Codebase](#getting-familiar-with-the-codebase)

* [The `exercises` Module](#the-exercises-module)

* [The Problem Submodules](#the-problem-submodules)

* [Advanced: Complete Local Setup](#advanced-complete-local-setup)

* [Tip: `gradle clean` before `exercism fetch`](#tip-gradle-clean-before-exercism-fetch)

* [Adding a New Exercise](#adding-a-new-exercise)

* [Updating the READMEs](#updating-the-readmes)

* [Checking tests are up to date](#checking-tests-are-up-to-date)

* [Checking tests are up to date and submit new issues](#checking-tests-are-up-to-date-and-submit-new-issues)

Also please only address one issue per pull request and reference the issue in your pull request. This makes it easier for us to review it, and it means that if we request changes to the fix for one issue, it won't prevent to a fix for another issue being merged.

One last thing to note before you get started. When you fork the repository and you want to [sync your fork](https://help.github.com/articles/syncing-a-fork/), you can perform a [`git rebase`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rebase). This is preferred over merging the changes because merging leads to a dirty commit history whereas performing a rebase adds in those changes without making extra commit messages. However, this is only preferred, so don't worry about it too much.

- **Setup a branch on a fork of [exercism/java](https://github.com/exercism/java) on your computer.**

The Git Basics doc has a section on [commit messages](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/master/contributing/git-basics.md#commit-messages) that provides practical advice on crafting meaningful commit messages.

- **Open the IDE and import the project** From the startup menu, select "Check out from Version Control". This will open a dialog where you can enter in the URL of the git repository and specify the directory that you would

- **Create a feature branch** The git tools in IDEA are located in the VCS menu. To createa a new branch, select VCS > Git > Branches and then click "New Branch". Give the branch a meaningful name and create.

- **Commit/Merge changes** Once all of the changes have been made, you can look at the diffs and commit from the "Commit File" window, which can be reached by selecting VCS > Git > Commit File from the top menu.

If all of the changes are acceptable, checkmark all of the files that are to be committed, enter a meaningful commit message, and then click "Commit and Push".

This is the top-level module, contained in the `exercises` directory. It is a container for the problem sub-modules.

The `exercises` subdirectory contains all of the problem submodules.

If you are going to make significant contribution(s) to the track, you might find it handy to have a complete local install of exercism on your computer. This way, you can run the full suite of tests without having to create/update a PR.

That means that you take an exercise that has already been implemented in another language and you implement it in this track.

There is a [general Exercism guide for porting an exercise to a new language](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/master/you-can-help/implement-an-exercise-from-specification.md).

Please review this before porting an exercise to the Java track.

* Please add an entry to the `exercises` array in `config.json`. You can find details about what should be in that entry [here](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/master/language-tracks/configuration/exercises.md).

Feel free to open an issue or post in the [Building Exercism](https://forum.exercism.org/c/exercism/building-exercism/125) category of the [Exercism forum](https://forum.exercism.org/) if you have any questions and we'll try and answer as soon as we can.