2026 Congressional App Challenge
Official registration for the 2026 Congressional App Challenge is now open. Established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, this competition was designed to engage students’ creativity and encourage participation in computer science and coding. Middle and high school students nationwide will compete within their congressional district by creating and exhibiting their software application, or “app,” for mobile, tablet, or computer devices.
Students entering the competition must submit their app’s source code online by Monday, October 26, 2026, and provide a YouTube or VIMEO video explaining their app and what they learned through this competition process.
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Important Information
- Deadline: October 26th, 2026
- Eligibility Criteria:
- A student can compete in Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove’s Congressional App Challenge if they live or attend school in the Congressional District.
- Students can compete in a team of up to four students, as long as ½ of the team lives or goes to school in a competing Congressional District.
- Students can submit any coded project—on any topic, built for any platform, using any programming language. This includes mobile apps, websites, games, robots, wearable tech, and more.
- Students can submit an app they completed between October 30th, 2025 - October 26th, 2026.
- Students can submit work they completed in the classroom last year, in an afterschool program, summer program, or other extracurricular activity.
Resources
- Scratch a simple visual programming language
- Alice is used to create 3D animations
- Development Kits:
Judging Process
A panel of local judges will choose the district’s winner sometime in December. We will announce and recognize this year’s winner at a reception here in the district, and the winning app will also be displayed in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
The winning app gets the following prizes:
- The winning app in each district will be featured on the House.gov website and the CongressionalAppChallenge.us website.
- The Program Administrator (the Internet Education Foundation) may distribute additional prizes equally to all participating Congressional Districts.