To whoever is bothered enough to help (trust me, I get the feeling if you're not), I want to enter the swift student challenge either this year or next year, depending on how things play out. Anyway, I just wanted to know two things: 1) how long on average it takes to build a project which won distinguished winner and 2) whether any distinguished winners could send me the playgrounds they built. To be clear, I do not want the code, I just want to know what you did, what you called the playground, a list of some features it had, how long it took, just to help me prepare, because YouTube doesn't have much of that. Thanks :)

Hello Apple Developer community! While reading the SSC Full Terms and Conditions, I noticed that "Your app playground requires sign in" is a term for disqualification. If our app idea requires sign in for personalization and security, can we submit a prototype without the sign in feature and add it later before publishing the app? Or should we steer clear of app ideas that require sign in altogether?

My project requires the on-device apple intelligence models (FoundationModels) which are only available for iPad on iPad Pro M1 and later, iPad Air M1 and later, iPad mini A17 Pro. If they don't judge on one of these devices, my project might not work properly as FoundationModels is a pretty big part of my project. For this reason I really need to know what devices the Swift Student Challenge will be judged on.

Hi everyone, I am currently developing an app for my Swift Student Challenge submission. One of the key features of my app is visualizing user progress over time using SwiftData and Swift Charts. I have a concern regarding the first-time experience for the reviewer. Since the app relies on accumulated data to display meaningful trends, the dashboard/charts will appear empty on the very first launch, which might not fully showcase the visualization logic I’ve implemented. To ensure the reviewer can immediately grasp the app's potential within their limited review window, I am considering generating pre-populated sample data (mock data) only on the initial launch. Does Apple generally recommend including sample data in a challenge submission to better demonstrate UI/UX and data visualization capabilities? Or is it strictly preferred to present a "fresh" empty state, as a real first-time user would see it? I want to make sure I am following the best practices for the challenge while highlighting my technical implementation of the SwiftData and Charts frameworks. Thank you in advance for your advice!

Hello! I'm trying to upload images to Swift Playground on XCode, and it's not working. When I created my playground, there is no Resources folder or an assets file. If I simply drag an image file to the sidebar, the image is not showing up when used in the app. This may be a simple fix, but as a beginner, I am struggling to find the solution. Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

👋Hi, I want to ask what equipment the auditors in SSC will use to evaluate students' playground, whether it is iPad pro and mac with camera, or something else. And what system will they use, iPadOS/macOS 26 or something else? Looking forward to your reply. Thank you

Are we allowed to use AI-generated images for our Swift Student Challenge Project? The instructions say that we can use third party content but must cite/credit it and be transparent about it. Are we allowed to do the same for AI-generated images? Will this dock points on creativity?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I’m still a beginner. I created an Xcode Playground app with Microphone and Speech Recognition capabilities enabled, along with a backup Info.plist. However, when running the app on Mac Catalyst, a real device, or the iOS and iPadOS simulators, it crashes right after the Speech Recognition permission popup and again after the Microphone permission popup. For extra context, the app initially worked fine in the Swift Playgrounds app, but that environment uses an outdated SDK, so it no longer supports some of the features I’ve implemented. I’m also struggling to find clear, beginner-friendly documentation that explains how AVAudioEngine works, which is making it hard to understand what’s going wrong and how to debug it.

Hi everyone, I'm currently working on a Swift Playgrounds project where I need to incorporate a Metal shader file. However, when I tried to include my shader file (PincushionShader.metal), I encountered the following error: Is it possible to use Metal shader files within Swift Playgrounds, it is really important for my swift student challenge scene? If not, are there any workarounds or recommended approaches for testing Metal shaders in a similar environment? Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I'm preparing my submission for the Swift Student Challenge, and I have a couple of questions regarding the development environment. Is it allowed to use Xcode to program my scene, or do I have to use Swift Playgrounds? Can I use iPadOS 18 for development? I noticed that Swift Playgrounds currently only supports up to iPadOS 17.5, but I would like to use RealityView, which is only available starting from iPadOS 18. I appreciate any clarification on this. Thanks in advance!

Hello! I’m building my Swift Student Challenge project in Swift Playgrounds, and I’ve run into an issue with app orientation. Since this is a game, the layout and interactions only work correctly in landscape, but Playgrounds doesn’t offer the usual orientation settings you’d configure in Xcode. Is there a recommended way to force a landscape-only experience in Swift Playgrounds using SwiftUI? Any workarounds or guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I was wondering wether you have to create your full app as an Xcode app and then translate it into playgrounds? Because some of the submissions I have seen on YouTube are running on Xcode iPad emulators.

I’m having issues enrolling in the Apple Developer Program. My original Apple ID was unable to enroll due to an internal restriction, and after multiple calls with Support (including L2), I was advised to create a new Apple ID and use the same enrollment code I was awarded for being selected as a Swift Student Challenge 2025 winner. However, when I attempt to redeem the code with the new account, I receive an error stating that the code has already been redeemed. I have never successfully enrolled with the original account, so the code should not be marked as used. I’ve tried working through Support several times, but I’m still stuck. Could someone please review this issue or issue a new code so I can complete my enrollment? Thank you in advance for your help.

Hey everyone, I'm beyond excited to share that I've been selected as a Distinguished Winner in this year's Swift Student Challenge! 🎉 It all started last summer, in the middle of a Western Culture class. I was zoning out , and my attention drifted to the Apple Pencil in my hand. And then ,it hit me — this thing is literally a next-level game controller. Think about it: pixel-perfect precision, haptic feedback, multiple built-in sensors... Why aren't we using this for gaming? And that got me thinking — why have we spent the last 500 years treating the "pencil" as just a tool for creation, and not for play? Since graphite pencils were invented in 1564, we've had this incredibly natural way to interact with 2D and 3D space... and nobody's fully tapped into it for games. So, I did something about it. I built a game that's 100% controlled by the Apple Pencil yep, just the Pencil. I know what you're thinking: "How does that even work??" And honestly, I'd love to tell you... but I'm in the final stages of getting it onto the App Store, and it should be live within the next couple of weeks. So for now... 🤐😄 In the meantime, I've set up a Discord server for anyone who's curious about the gameplay, the design, or just wants to brainstorm ideas with me. If you're into creative controls, game design, or just want to hang — come join the conversation! [Join the Discord here!] https://discord.gg/5Rm8WKbekf Can't wait to share more soon!

Please help me! I don't know how to write this.I tried many times, and I think it's right, but it always wrong.PLEASE!!

Hi, I have a question related to eligibility. If we consider the eligibility rules and the submission window doesn't change for next year and if the challenge is still happening, would I be eligible in the following scenario - I graduated from an American University for my undergraduate in December 2025, and the submission is in February 2026, according to "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", am I eligible. I am not sure if it applies to university or just high school. If you don't want to answer the hypothetical answer for next year. Take this scanerio, would I have been eligible for this year's challenge if I had graduated from university in December 2024. Thank you

It's Thursday, March 27th 2025 and I'm living in the UK, I have completed my project and submitted it before February 23rd and got the confirmation email and on March 27th, it says results are out but even after I wait for a long time, I still get the same message: We’ve received your submission. We'll send you an email when results are posted. Even after I come back 16 hours into the day which is 4PM GMT, so I want to know where to see the results anywhere else or if it's just a delay.

Hello! i developed an app for the Swift Student Challenge and submitted it, can I publish it to the app store before it is judged.

Hello ! I submitted my project for the Swift Student Challenge at 22 of February, but I never received a confirmation email. I also checked my Apple Developer account, but there is no information about my submission. I used only one Apple ID to submit. I checked all folders on my Gmail.com and didn't find any message about confirmation. What should I do ?

Hi, is there any way to use front camera to do the motion capture? I want recognize if the user raised there hands up with the front camera on iPhone. I was able to do it with the back camera, not the front. Also, if there is any sample code, or document, I would be super happy. Waiting for your reply!!