WWDC21

Join the WWDC21 Swift Student Challenge!

The WWDC21 Swift Student Challenge is a chance for students from around the world to showcase their love of coding by creating a Swift playground on the topic of their choice.

Winners will receive exclusive WWDC21 outerwear, a customized pin set, and one year of membership in the Apple Developer Program.

The Swift Student Challenge is open to students around the world. To learn how to build and submit your Swift playground, follow the link below.

We spoke to three of last year’s winners about how they started coding and the apps they’ve created in their short but already prolific careers.

Lars Augustin
From: Germany

What inspired him: Sharing his love of coding with younger kids through an after-school programme he teaches.

In addition to making coding fun for everyone, Augustin hopes the knowledge he shares will eventually help others create their own tools. “Maybe they will make something I can use one day,” he says.

His creation: Augustin built Charcoal when he couldn’t find an easy way to sketch a concept for a new app he was working on.

Charcoal is all about simplicity – including its pared-down colour palettes.

“I wanted something without any distractions. You can just concentrate on what you want to make,” he says.

He’s now using Charcoal to draw new ideas for the app and applying his coding skills to help others create.

Maria Fernanda Azolin
From: Brazil

What inspired her: A high-school coding class that changed everything.

“I’m so grateful for that one class, because it led me to study other types of development,” Azolin says. “Mobile development is what I want to do with my life.”

Her creation: DressApp helps users save time when choosing what to wear by making it easy to catalogue favourite outfits.

Why ransack your wardrobe? Categorise your outfits with DressApp to find the right one for any occasion.

“I built DressApp because it was something I wanted, and a need my friends had as well,” she says. “I felt I really became a developer when I published this app.”

Ritesh Kanchi
From: United States

What inspired him: Building his first computer with his dad in fifth grade.

“That really marks the first time I got inspired to go down this route of computer science,” says Kanchi. “Since then I’ve been really invested in it.”

His creation: STEMpump, an educational tool for kids offering tutorials and virtual camps on technical topics – all led by student facilitators.

STEMpump has classes for students grades six to 12 on coding, robotics, design, game creation and more.

STEMpump began as an after-school programme (the in-person kind) that Kanchi started before stay-at-home orders began. Within two weeks of launching the app, 900 people signed up.

“I did not expect that,” he says. “But it’s really encouraging; I think we have an opportunity to make STEM education accessible to everyone.”

Do you want to learn to code? Check out Swift Playgrounds on your iPad or Mac to get started.