The Swift Student Challenge is an annual global competition hosted by Apple that invites students to showcase their coding creativity using Swift and Swift Playgrounds. Apple is proud to support and uplift the next generation of developers, creators, and entrepreneurs with the Swift Student Challenge.

Applications for the Swift Student Challenge 2026 and submissions are now open through February 28, 2026

Eligibility and requirements

The Swift Student Challenge is designed for students who are cultivating their software development skills. Make sure to review the current eligibility conditions to confirm that you’re qualified to participate. Please note that we can’t accept submissions from applicants who are employed as professional developers.

• Meet the minimum age for requirement for your country or region
  • 16 years of age or older in Singapore
• Be registered for free with Apple as an Apple developer or be a member of the Apple Developer Program; and
• Fulfill one of the following requirements:
  • Be enrolled in, or have graduated within the last 90 days from, an accredited academic institution or official homeschool equivalent, or an Apple Developer Academy;
  • Be enrolled in a STEM organization’s educational curriculum; or
  • Have graduated from high school or equivalent within the past 6 months and be awaiting acceptance or have received acceptance to an accredited academic institution.

You can receive a Swift Student Challenge award up to three times. You may be selected as a Distinguished Winner one time only.

Apple will recognize 350 Swift Student Challenge winners whose submissions demonstrate excellence in innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity. From this esteemed group, 50 Distinguished Winners will be honored and invited to Apple’s campus in Cupertino for three inspiring days. All Challenge winners will receive one year of membership in the Apple Developer Program and a special gift from Apple.

QUOTES FROM DISTINGUISHED WINNERS 2025

 What inspired our previous Distinguished Winners

“I want to help people, especially the elderly, to still feel close to their past, so that beautiful memories don’t just disappear” — Indri Ramadhanti, Distinguished Winner from Indonesia who created Memoire, inspired by her personal experience with her grandmother who has begun to experience memory loss

Tips for getting started with Swift in coding

“I feel that it’s important to keep an open mind and learn from people that are better than you in Swift. It’s okay to use AI so as long as you learn from what the AI teaches you. Even through the many bugs that you get from programming, have a calm mind and try debugging an hour later and always keep a positive attitude.” — Jatin Rakesh, Distinguished Winner from Singapore

Advice to aspiring Swift Student Challenge participants

“Go for it! Coding is something that I did not like at first but found it more interesting as I delved deeper into it. Even if you do not like it at the start or you want to take a break from coding, it’s important to remember that you can do it whenever you want to. Coding can be as fun as taking a photo at any time of the day or baking a recipe because you want to – it does not need to be hardcore at all.” — Jatin Rakesh, Distinguished Winner from Singapore

Thoughts on the Swift Student Challenge

“The Swift Student Challenge is great for students as if you win you’ll be motivated to code more and there’s a lot of huge prizes in store too if you win. I also feel younger programmers can take advantage of this competition to learn something new in Swift and be encouraged to learn other programming languages.” — Jatin Rakesh, Distinguished Winner from Singapore