Want to code with Apple? Swift Student Challenge 2026 applications open soon: Here’s How to Apply

Apple is once again calling on young minds to turn their ideas into reality. The Swift Student Challenge 2026 will open for submissions on February 6, giving students from around the world three weeks to showcase their creativity through coding. Using Swift and Xcode, Apple’s own development tools, students are invited to design app projects that solve real-world problems — whether in their local communities or on a global scale.

For many, this annual challenge has been a stepping stone to bigger dreams. Former winners Brayden Gogis, Adrit Rao, and Sofia Sandoval say it not only honed their technical skills but also sparked a lifelong passion for problem-solving.

Brayden Gogis, now a senior at Taylor University, first fell in love with gaming as a kid. His 2019 winning entry, Solisquare, reimagined a classic card game with an intuitive, gesture-based design built with SwiftUI. His latest app, Joybox, is a social platform that lets users create shared “memory boxes” filled with songs, photos, and stories that open at a set time. “I love coding because it helps me make people’s lives better,” he says. “It’s about spreading joy and gratitude through technology.”

For Adrit Rao, coding became a way to connect people. A three-time Swift Student Challenge winner and now a pre-med student at UC Berkeley, Rao is working on EyeSee — an app that uses iPhone’s on-device algorithms to simulate various eye conditions, building empathy by letting users experience how others see the world. His earlier app Signer, powered by Core ML, converts sign language into speech, helping bridge communication gaps for the Deaf community. “The App Store gives you a platform to reach people beyond your community,” he says. “That’s what makes it so powerful.”