Apple today highlighted four distinguished winners of this year’s Swift Student Challenge, ahead of the WWDC 2026 developer conference next month.
The annual Swift Student Challenge gives eligible student developers from around the world the opportunity to showcase their coding abilities using Swift Playground or Xcode apps to create an interactive “app playground.”
Apple said this year’s 350 winners represent 37 countries and regions, and each received a certificate, AirPods Max 2, and a one-year membership in the Apple Developer Program. A subset of 50 distinguished winners with “truly exceptional” submissions were also invited to visit Apple Park in Cupertino, California during WWDC 2026.
To learn more about four of the distinguished winners named below, visit the Apple press room.
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From left to right: Yoonjae Joung, Karen-Happuch Peprah Henneh, Anton Baranov and Gayatri Goundadkar“The depth of creativity we see in the Swift Student Challenge never ceases to amaze us,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “This year’s winners have found remarkable ways to harness the power of Apple platforms, Swift and AI tools to create application playgrounds that are as technically impressive as they are meaningful. We’re incredibly proud to support their journey and can’t wait to see what they create next.
WWDC 2026 will kick off with Apple’s keynote on Monday, June 8 at 10 a.m. PT, and the conference will continue through Friday, June 12. Apple is expected to unveil its latest software platforms, such as iOS 27 and macOS 27.
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