Apple announces expanded Swift Student Challenge

Apple has announced that the Swift Student Challenge will begin in February 2024, introducing new Everyone Can Code resources designed to help teachers teach and inspire students in coding.

Students will be invited to submit their app playgrounds for the Swift Student Challenge during a three-week window in February 2024. Out of 350 overall winners, 50 Distinguished Winners will be invited to Apple’s Cupertino, California headquarters next summer, usually at WWDC. They’ll also get a one-year membership into the Apple Developer Program.

Where can I learn how to code?

Apple runs the challenge every year. Since its inception, thousands of students have taken part in the challenge, in which they learn code and build apps using Swift and Swift Playgrounds. The next challenge will include a new category recognizing 50 Distinguished Winners, who will be named for standout submissions.

Announcing the annual challenge, the company noted an independent survey of over 1,000 US students which determined that 92% of students think it is important to learn how to code, while 94% believe coding is an important skill for the future job market.

The survey also found that 85% of students would like to learn to code but haven’t yet begun to learn – while 48% of them don’t even know where to start. That last point is what the company is attempting to resolve. Apple’s Swift Playgrounds app was designed to take learners from their first line of code to building their first app in Swift.

What Apple said

“At Apple, we believe that everyone can learn to code and build apps, and we’re proud to support and recognize aspiring student developers with the Swift Student Challenge each year,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations and Education & Enterprise Marketing.

“We know that students are eager to learn coding skills to solve challenges they care about — whether it’s building an app to help peers identify mental health resources or supporting sustainability efforts on campus — and want to know how to get started. Apple is releasing new coding resources for students and educators, working with our community partners on dedicated Swift programming, and sharing advance notice of the Swift Student Challenge timeline for 2024. We can’t wait to see the app playgrounds students submit next year.”

Updated resources for teachers

To support teaching Swift Playgrounds for educators, the company has published four new Everyone Can Code Projects provide step-by-step resources to guide students in developing essential skills. These can be integrated into any subject area and are perfect for the classroom or coding clubs. They introduce students to SwiftUI and use the latest app-building technologies in Swift Playgrounds.

Apple supports educational partners in 99 countries and regions through its Community Education Initiative, such as the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3). NC3 provides hands-on professional development opportunities to prepare community and technical college and high school instructors to teach App Development with Swift.

New Everyone Can Code Projects include:

• Design a Simple App: Students build an app prototype in Keynote to learn the fundamentals of app design, practice rapid prototyping, and collect feedback, following the same steps as professional developers.

• Build with Stacks and Shapes: Students can take the first steps of building an app in Swift Playgrounds and code a self-portrait or a work of art using SwiftUI to learn the fundamentals of user interface design.

• Build Custom Shapes: Students can bring an app interface to the next level by designing a shape, learning how to plot the coordinates, and coding their custom shape using SwiftUI and the About Me sample app within Swift Playgrounds.

• Design an App Icon: Students can learn and apply app design principles to create a unique and memorable app icon that communicates an idea; practice rapid prototyping; collect feedback; and upload the icon to Swift Playgrounds to become part of an app.

New resources for teaching coding and app development with Swift Playgrounds, including four new Everyone Can Code Projects, are now available in the Apple Education Community.

Sign up at developer.apple.com to be notified when the challenge is open. Out

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