Today Apple has announced that the next Swift Student Challenge. This is much earlier than in previous years, but this is by design. According to the Apple Developer site,

We're releasing new coding resources, working with community partners, and announcing the Challenge earlier than in previous years so students can dive deep into Swift and the development process — and educators can get a head start in supporting them.

There is an additional change, according to the "The next challenge will open in February 2024, and will include a new category recognizing 50 Distinguished Winners, who will be named for standout submissions."

In order to help everyone learn to code, Apple has provided some new resources for educators.

Apple's new Everyone Can Code Projects provide step-by-step resources to help educators guide students through every step of their coding and app development journey, and develop essential skills while creating apps that solve problems they care about.

Everyone Can Code Projects can be integrated into any subject area, and are perfect for the classroom or coding clubs. They introduce students to SwiftUI — the modern way to build user interfaces with surprisingly little code — and use the latest app-building technologies in Swift Playgrounds. As they code, students can see how their app changes in real time with App Preview.

Four new Projects available today include:

• Design a Simple App: Students can create 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.

If you are a student you will be able to apply for three weeks in February, so stay tuned to the Swift Student Challenge site to find out when applications open.

Source: Apple Newsroom