For many, the concept of coding can be overwhelming. All the numbers and symbols can be confusing and for the most part, mean nothing to those unfamiliar with it. But now, thanks to Apple‘s WWDC Swift Student Challenge, students can start their coding journey, or if they’re already experienced can showcase their skills. And the best part is, it’s completely free!
With the annual Worldwide Developers Conference set to take place on June 22, 2020, virtually; the Swift Student Challenge will encourage even more students to participate to the already enormous Apple Developer community. In fact, last year, WWDC saw attendance from more than 350 student developers spanning 37 different countries! And since the event this year is virtual, this means that anyone and everyone can join in.
Starting today, until May 17 at midnight, students can create their own interactive scene in a Swift playground and submit them to go in the running for an exclusive WWDC20 jacket and pin set.
Don’t know how to code? Here’s how to get ready for the competition
- Read about Swift Playgrounds to discover how it can help you learn coding in Swift, the same programming language used to create world-class apps for the App Store.
- Download the Swift Playgrounds app for iPad or Mac.
- Fire up the first “playground” called Learn to Code 1 and tackle each of its seven chapters one day at a time.
- Create an interactive scene in a Swift playground that can be experienced within three minutes.
- Enter the Swift Student Challenge here anytime starting now through 11:59 p.m. PDT on May 17th.
Why learn to code?
Coding is a lifelong skill that can benefit any person looking to pursue a career in STEM. In fact, some students that have submitted and won past Swift Playgrounds scholarships have gone on to work in jobs at some of the biggest companies in the industry like Microsoft and Airbnb, amongst many others.
The most important part is to not be afraid to tackle a new challenge and learn a new skill. 75% of last years’ students were first-time attendees so don’t shy away, give it a shot and who knows, you may just make a career out of it.
Need some more inspiration? Check out what some of past years’ winners did…
Yuma Soerianto, 13 (Melbourne, AU)
- Yuma was the youngest attendee at WWDC in 2017 and he received a call out from Tim Cook during the Keynote. He also received a WWDC Student Scholarship in 2018 and 2019.
- He is now in grade 8 at St Michael’s Grammar School.
- Last year he attended the World Youth Forum in Egypt where he spoke about Artificial Intelligence in front of 8,000 people, including the president of Egypt!
- His favourite programming language is Swift because it’s “easy, fast and reliable” and he’s already launched 8 apps on the App Store.
- His favourite technology is ARKit and he loves using it to create AR games, including Let’s Stack AR!, which was the Game of the Day on the App Store.
- He loves teaching other kids (and adults) how to code and he has his own YouTube channel called ‘Anyone Can Code.’
Will Bishop, 18 (Adelaide, AU)
- Adelaide-based Will Bishop attended WWDC as a Student Scholarship winner for the first time in 2019. He is taking a gap year after completing high school last year.
- He has three watchOS apps on the App Store (Nano for Reddit, Chirp for Twitter, MiniWiki with over 670,000 combined downloads. His most successful app is his Apple Watch app, Chirp, which lets users interact with Twitter, despite Twitter not being available on Apple Watch.
- He loves developing for watchOS because he loves interacting with Apple Watch and enjoys the challenge of creating meaningful app experiences for the small screen.
- He has also made Chirp available in 15 languages and accessible for low-vision and blind users, who continually reach out to Will to say thank you.
Click here to read more about the challenge and to enter.
