Every year, Apple’s Swift Student Challenge encourages student developers to use Swift and Xcode to address real-world problems. The 2026 challenge will open for submissions on February 6, lasting three weeks. To help students prepare, new Develop in Swift tutorials and Meet with Apple code-along sessions are being offered.
Former winners Brayden Gogis, Adrit Rao, and Sofia Sandoval shared their experiences with app development and how it has influenced their careers. They discussed the impact of technologies such as machine learning and spatial computing in building apps that are both functional and personal.
Brayden Gogis described his early interest in games and how discovering the App Store motivated him to learn coding. He recalled, “In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we wanted to be when we grew up, I dressed up like a game show host.” Inspired by a game created by a teenager, he began studying coding through online tutorials. Gogis won the 2019 Swift Student Challenge with Solisquare, a card game app. He explained, “SwiftUI is really helpful for making apps and games feel super interactive, because I can quickly prototype not only how something’s going to look, but how it’s going to feel.” His latest release is Joybox, a social media app designed for group sharing of photos, stories, and songs. The app uses SwiftUI and UIKit for its interface and integrates with Apple Music.
Gogis said about his motivation: “The reason I enjoy coding is because I love people, and I want to improve people’s lives in whatever way I can. It’s so good for your brain to take five minutes every day and focus on what you’re grateful for, and share that with other people.”
Adrit Rao learned block programming after moving to Palo Alto and taught himself coding during the pandemic. He noted the value of the App Store: “The App Store offers a straightforward way to share what I’ve built with people beyond my own community,” he said. “When you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to reach people, you can instead focus on the second step: What kind of problem are you going to target, and what kind of accessible solution are you going to build?” Now at the University of California, Berkeley as a premed student, Rao is developing EyeSee—an app simulating various eye conditions using iPhone algorithms—to foster empathy.
Previously, Rao developed Signer using Core ML to convert sign language gestures into speech after reading about communication challenges faced by Deaf individuals. The app aims to facilitate everyday interactions where learning sign language may not be possible immediately. Rao intends to collaborate with organizations supporting Deaf communities for further feedback: “It’s always really exciting when you receive feedback that lets you make your apps better,” he said. “I want to keep iterating on Signer to make sure it meets the needs of Deaf and hearing communities alike.”
Sofia Sandoval grew up between the U.S. and Mexico and maintained connections by making cards for family events. While studying computer science at Tecnológico de Monterrey she found it harder to continue this tradition but was inspired before last year’s challenge deadline. Her winning project Cariño digitizes handmade cards using templates she designed in Procreate on iPad with Apple Pencil.
Sandoval described her approach: “I wanted to make the user experience feel like writing on a paper card,” she said. “Using Swift and SwiftUI, I created boundaries for the card and made it so you can flip it over, just like the real thing, and added functions for erasing and exporting the final designs.” She is now exploring spatial computing by installing Cariño on Apple Vision Pro at her school’s innovation lab.
For those interested in coding Sandoval advised: “I know it can be really overwhelming, but the only way to actually learn is to get fully immersed in it — get uncomfortable,” she said. “The tools are all literally within reach; you have them all right here.”
This fall students preparing for the 2026 Swift Student Challenge can access new Develop in Swift tutorials covering topics such as SwiftUI, spatial computing, app design, and machine learning. Students or educators may also join Meet with Apple sessions focused on starting app development or experimenting with Xcode.
