What: Congressional App Challenge

Who: Individual or teams of middle and high school students

Prizes: Winners receive Congressional recognition and an invitation to a #HouseofCode reception on Capitol Hill, and their app is displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year. They also receive $250 in Amazon Web Services credits.

Deadline: Register and submit app by November 1, 2019.

Modeled after the Congressional Art Challenge, the Congressional App Challenge is an annual initiative of the U.S. Congress to encourage student engagement in computer science and STEM. More than 250 members of Congress have opened an App Challenge for their district’s students, and dozens more are expected to launch in their over the summer, making it “the largest series of student coding competitions in the world,” says Tim Lordan, executive director of the Internet Education Foundation, which was appointed as the contest’s official sponsor by the U.S. House Of Representatives.

Middle and high school students, working as individuals or in teams of up to four people, are invited to participate. No computer science expertise is required and nearly half of past participants said they were beginners when they began their projects. (The App Challenge website includes helpful links to sites focused on learning how to code.)

Registration is now open for students. See more detailed rules and guidelines on the App Challenge website.

The program has inspired over 14,000 students across 47 states and territories to code over 4,000 apps for desktop PCs, web, tablets, mobile devices, or other platforms. Past winners have made apps to help high school seniors track the college admissions process, engage young students in U.S. history by playing an interactive game, and prepare for spelling tests.