Congressional App Challenge
Each fall, a nation-wide middle and high school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)—competition is sponsored by the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Congressional App Challenge is an opportunity to recognize and encourage the STEM talent across the nation, as well as in our Congressional District. Each participating Member of Congress will name a winner to represent their district.
The Congressional App Challenge is open to all middle and high school students in our District. The Congressional App Challenge will officially launch on May 5th, 2026, which is when students can start registering to submit their applications. The winning app of our district's competition will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol, a Copyright Fee Waiver provided through the ARTS Act, their app featured on the Congressional App Challenge webpage, and an invitation to attend a winner's celebration inside the U.S. Capitol called #HouseOfCode.
The following is a summary of the Congressional App Challenge rules:
Important Information:
- Link to the Registration Page
- Deadline: October 26th, 2026
- Eligibility Criteria:
- A middle or high school student can compete in the Congressional App Challenge if they live or attend school in the 3rd 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 the 3rd 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.
- A middle or high school student can compete in the Congressional App Challenge if they live or attend school in the 3rd District.
- ONE ENTRY PER PERSON PER YEAR: Students may only submit ONE app per year. Multiple entries across multiple teams is not allowed.
App Parameters:
- TOPIC: The app can be about any topic.
- PLATFORM: The app can be on any platform (web app, desktop/PC app, a web
browser extension, robot, Ruby on Rails, mobile, etc). - PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE: Use any programming language: C/C++, Objective C, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, Swift, "block code", etc.
- FUNCTIONALITY: The app must have some degree of functionality to be competitive.
- ORIGINALITY: The app must be original and solely owned by the Contestant such that no other party has any rights or interest, whether known or unknown.
There are no limits to what you can create. Whether you're solving a real- world problem or building something just for fun, you can code your app in any language, for any platform, using any tools you like.
Examples of eligible apps include:
• Desktop applications
• Mobile apps
• Wearable tech apps
• Web-based tools or platforms
• Programmed robotics projects
• Chatbots or voice assistants
• Games with coded logic
• Al or machine learning models