Apple's Swift Student Challenge returns in 2026: Here's how you can participate

Apple has announced that submissions for the next Swift Student Challenge will open on February 6, 2026, running for three weeks. The annual event celebrates student developers from around the world who use Swift and Xcode to bring their ideas to life often tackling real-world problems within their own communities.

This year’s challenge continues to serve as a launchpad for the next wave of developers, designers, and problem-solvers. To help students prepare, Apple is introducing new Develop in Swift tutorials that dive into topics like SwiftUI, spatial computing, app design, and machine learning. There will also be Meet with Apple sessions where students can code along with experts, explore how to get started in app development, and learn how to approach the challenge itself.

The Swift Student Challenge has a strong track record of turning creative experiments into fully realized apps — and even careers. Past winners have gone on to publish on the App Store, with some building startups and products rooted in the same projects they began as students.

Take Brayden Gogis, for instance. A former winner who turned his love for games into a published app, Solisquare, he started coding after discovering that even a 14-year-old could build for the App Store. His later creation, Joybox, is a social app designed around gratitude and shared memories, built with SwiftUI and UIKit blending thoughtful design with emotional depth.

Or Adrit Rao and Sofia Sandoval, who similarly used their Swift Student Challenge projects as a springboard into creative, human-centered app development. Their stories reflect the broader spirit of the challenge that coding isn’t just about syntax and structure, but about imagination, empathy, and impact.

For aspiring participants, this year’s tutorials and coding sessions are a good starting point to explore that same spark. And whether it’s your first time opening Xcode or you’re already deep into SwiftUI layouts, Apple’s challenge remains one of the most approachable ways to turn curiosity into something tangible.

Full details, including insights from past winners and preparation resources, are available on Apple’s newsroom. Submissions open February 6, 2026 and for students with an idea worth building, this might just be the right time to start sketching it out.