Swift Student Challenge

We’re excited to continue our long-standing support of students around the world who love to code. Show us your passion for coding by submitting an incredible app playground on the topic of your choice. Winners will receive exclusive WWDC23 outerwear, AirPods Pro, a customized pin set, and one year of membership in the Apple Developer Program. In addition, we’ll hold a separate random selection process just for winners who opt in for the opportunity to attend the special event at Apple Park.

Thank you for applying to the Swift Student Challenge. The results are in and you can now check your status.

Applying

Build your app playground, answer a few written prompts, provide documentation, and submit.

To be eligible for the Challenge, you must:

  • Be 13 years of age or older in the United States, or the equivalent minimum age in the relevant jurisdiction (for example, 16 years of age in the European Union);
  • Be registered for free with Apple as an Apple developer or be a member of the Apple Developer Program;
  • Fulfill one of the following requirements:
    • Be enrolled in an accredited academic institution or official homeschool equivalent;
    • Be enrolled in a STEM organization’s educational curriculum;
    • Be enrolled in an Apple Developer Academy; 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;
  • And not be employed full time as a developer.

Please note: The Challenge is designed for student developers who are cultivating their software development skills. You can receive a Swift Student Challenge award or a WWDC Scholarship up to four times.

Building your app playground

Create an interactive scene in an app playground that can be experienced within three minutes. Be creative. If you need inspiration, use the provided templates for a head start on more advanced creations. Make them your own by adding graphics, audio, and more.

Requirements:

  • Your submission must be an app playground (.swiftpm) in a ZIP file.
  • Your creation should not rely on a network connection and any resources used in your app playground should be included locally in the ZIP file. Submissions will be judged offline.
  • Your ZIP file can be up to 25 MB.
  • Your submission must be created by you as an individual or a template modified by you as an individual. Group work will not be considered. You may include third-party open source licensed code and/or public domain images and sounds, with credit and an explanation of why it was used.
  • Your app playground must be built with and run on Swift Playgrounds 4.2.1 or later (requires iPadOS 16 or macOS 13) or Xcode 14 on macOS 13. You may incorporate the use of Apple Pencil.
  • All content should be in English.

You can ask questions and connect with other applicants on the Apple Developer Forums by using the Swift Student Challenge tag.

Completing your submission

  1. Sign in.
    Sign in to the application form with the Apple ID associated with your developer account. If you’re under 18 years old, you’ll also be asked to enter contact information for your parent or legal guardian.

  2. Provide enrollment information.
    Upload your most recent class schedule or other most recent proof of enrollment (PDF, PNG, or JPEG) and the contact information for your educational supervisor. Documentation is accepted in all languages. Your documentation must clearly show your name, the organization or school name, and the dates showing that it’s valid.

  3. Upload and describe your app playground.
    Upload the ZIP file (up to 25 MB) containing your app playground and related resources. Tell us about the features and technologies that you used in your creation, in 350 words or less.

  4. Provide optional information.
    If you’ve shared or considered sharing your coding knowledge and enthusiasm for computer science with others, let us know in 350 words or less.

    You’ll also have the option to tell us about any apps you have on the App Store created entirely by you as an individual, in 350 words or less. If you’re 18 years of age or older and wish to share your résumé or CV with other groups at Apple, upload a PDF.

    If you’d like to be included in the random selection process to attend the special event at Apple Park, select the checkbox to opt in.

Dates:

  • Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
  • Applicants can view their status by end of business day on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. Winners who opted in to the random selection process to attend the special event at Apple Park will also be notified of their attendance status.

Judging

Submissions must follow all requirements in the WWDC23 Swift Student Challenge Terms and Conditions. Submissions will be judged on:

  • Technical accomplishment;
  • Creativity of ideas; and
  • Content of written responses.

For full details, read the WWDC23 Swift Student Challenge Terms and Conditions.