I will soon get my Master's degree in CS, but it is via the path of least resistence. Therefore GPA is not shiny. I decided that spending my finite time and energy can be better, so I concentrated on coding (my own projects) and socializing, sports and games etc.
When I studied for exams, at point where I knew that I was going to pass, I shifted to other projects.
Next year when I join the workforce and start looking for jobs, will low GPA bite me?
My advice: whatever you do, don't make any excuses about why your GPA is low. If asked, I'd just stick with the side-projects comment, but don't treat it as a good thing (i.e., you probably should have spent less time on side-project and more time focusing on studies, etc.). I would also make sure those side-projects are extremely impressive.
The types I've met (companies/recruiters alike):
1) Don't care, look at what you think you can do and your motivation for that assessment. They usually also give some form of shorter first contract or traineeship with reduced pay while in training but at least you will get a chance. On the other end, they hire you simply because you have the relevant skill set and show good work ethics (e.g. can work on your own, which is somewhat deducible from your curriculum).
2) Select solely on bachelors/masters grades and don't care about GPA/High school. In my experience this dies out as soon as you have +3 years of work experience. There are so many levels in this category from only looking at relevant fields or looking at all even non relevant.
3) Look at GPA/High/middle/etc school grades and everything else to 'properly select' their employees. They pay good though and usually wear suits, most of them to hide their incompetence in the field they should excel in (I'm not claiming they aren't any good, but usually not in what they are supposed to do).
Really? There is a possibility that this is my lack of industry experience talking, but I find the idea that a company looks at high school grades very difficult to believe. As for middle school... I would seriously wonder about the basic competence (and sanity) of someone who asked me about middle school grades.
This is in the US. From OP's comment history they are somewhere in Europe.
Some companies value GPA a lot, others do not value it so much at all. See https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-GPA-matter-when-applying...