Apple's Swift Student Challenge goes live ahead of WWDC 2026

As promised, Apple has kicked off the annual 2026 edition of the Swift Student Challenge programme worldwide, including in India.

Apple has opened the window for young student developers to submit their ideas to the contest for the Swift Student Challenge from February 6 onwards for three weeks.

Interested children can prepare for the challenge with new Develop in Swift tutorials on the official Apple website (here). It offers expansive details on topics such as Swift UI, spatial computing, app design, and machine learning models.

Students with the most innovative app idea that can solve real-world problems in society with practical solutions and have a social impact will be selected by Apple.

This year, Apple will pick 350 Swift Student Challenge winners. Among them, 50 distinguished winners will be honoured and invited to Apple’s campus in Cupertino for three days during the annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2026 later this year, around June.

Also, all Swift Challenge winners will receive one year of membership in the Apple Developer Program and a special gift from Apple.

Last year, 20-year-old Indian Arihant Marwaha won honours at Apple's 2025 Swift Student Challenge. He was in his third year in a Noida-based college pursuing a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering with honours specialisation in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from 2022 to 2026.

Inspired by his pet dog GuGu, Marwaha developed a wellness companion iOS app with the same name and submitted it to Apple's Swift Student Challenge. It promises to help students develop good habits and maintain a positive mindset.

As noted earlier, the Swift Students Challenge is now open and will close on February 28. Interested youngsters can register at Apple's official website (here).

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