Apple's WWDC 2025 Swift Student Challenge Now Live

Apple's 2025 Swift Student Challenge kicked off today, which means that students from around the world can showcase their coding skills and creativity by developing app concepts using Swift Playground or Xcode.

2025 Swift Student Challenge
Students have had time to prepare because Apple announced that the challenge would be held in February 2025 way back in October 2024, plus Apple gave an exact date in January. Apple also hosted an online session to provide students with info on participating in the challenge, with tips from former Challenge winners and Apple engineers.

Apple holds the Swift Student Challenge each year. In past years, it has been timed with the Worldwide Developers Conference, but in 2024, Apple began holding it earlier in the year. Students are tasked with creating an app concept, with Apple providing Develop in Swift tutorials to help students learn the foundations of coding.

Apple plans to select 350 winners based on "innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity." 50 of the winners will be invited to spend three days at Apple Park in Cupertino, California this summer. The trip is expected to coincide with the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Submissions are open as of today, and will remain open for a three-week period before judging begins. Students can learn more through Apple's developer website.

Popular Stories

2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

iPhones Could Cost Up to $2,300 in the U.S. Due to Tariffs, Analyst Says

Friday April 4, 2025 9:30 am PDT by
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that steep tariffs will be applied to imports from many countries, starting April 9. The tariffs could have a significant impact on Apple, as the company assembles the majority of iPhones in China, and products imported to the U.S. from China will be subject to a 54% tariff. iPhone prices could increase by up to 43% in the U.S. due to the...
iphone 16 pro colors 1

Is Now the Time to Upgrade Apple Devices Before Tariffs Lead to Price Increases?

Friday April 4, 2025 3:41 pm PDT by
If you have an older Apple device that you've been considering upgrading, you're probably wondering how the newly announced tariffs might impact prices going forward, and whether it's worth buying now before there's a price hike. Given analyst and economist responses to the tariffs, market panic, and Trump's stance on the current financial chaos, the answer is that making a purchase...
iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro: New 48MP Telephoto Lens May Change How Zoom Works

Thursday April 3, 2025 5:11 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly planning a major upgrade to the Telephoto camera in the iPhone 17 Pro, and while it may seem like a step back on paper, the change could actually improve real-world usability, if one leaker's claims are anything to go by. According to Majin Bu, the iPhone 17 Pro will feature a new Telephoto lens with a 48MP sensor, up from the current 12MP sensor found in the iPhone 16...
iOS 18

12 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.4

Tuesday April 1, 2025 4:06 am PDT by
Apple has released iOS 18.4, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a neat new capability to iPhone 15 Pro devices, new emoji, and more. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.4 still introduces enhancements that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've listed 12 new things your ‌iPhone‌ ...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...

Top Rated Comments

macduke Avatar
9 weeks ago
I lost my job as a web developer a few weeks ago before Christmas. A couple weeks ago I decided to learn Swift and started building a simple game for fun and to do something productive to take my mind off of the bad situation I'm in. Since then the game has taken on a life of its own with deeper complexity, multiple modes advanced features, and I have been doing playtesting with my kids and their friends and taking notes to balance everything.

This is some of the most fun that I've ever had as a developer, and I feel like I may have found a new calling. The game is actually pretty fun, and my kids are becoming addicted to it, lol, and they're just playing the iPhone build on their iPad. I still need to add iPad support. And the game has such simple controls that I think I may also add Apple TV support, although latency may become an issue with the remote since it requires such fast reflexes. It's a great little mobile time killer that is a lot of fun too, with simple satisfying graphics and sound, and a gameplay loop that keeps you wanting to come back to beat your high score over and over again.

Swift is an amazing language. It's fairly easy to work with and understand, and Xcode is a great IDE that does a really good job with giving feedback about different issues. I hardly have issues that make it through to the build and crash the game. The SpriteKit/GameKit/GameplayKit stuff is really great. I love that it can just handle physics interactions simply and easily. The code is very cleanly structured and concise as well. Xcode itself can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm still very early, and part of me kinda hopes I have a bit longer before one of these places decides to hire me because I'm having so much fun learning this.

My goal is to get this thing onto the App Store by the end of next month! I'm just concerned about how crowded the store is nowadays—my app will probably get lost in the sea of apps. I'll probably give out a bunch of codes for it here when it launches, maybe even do some beta testing in the forums with people. Wish I was eligible to submit to this contest! But I'm just somebody's dad.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
emmab2006 Avatar
9 weeks ago
Cant wait to see all those Vision Pro Apps ! ...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
usersince86 Avatar
9 weeks ago
Sure wish this existed back in the 80's when I was a kid... glad it exists now!

(Also, cool logo.) :cool:
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)