Congressional App Challenge 2026-2027: Deadline, Eligibility, and How to Win Your District
- Aaron Zheng
- Mar 3, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
The Congressional App Challenge is the largest student computer science competition in the United States. It runs district by district, which makes it unusual: you are not competing against 13,000 students nationally; you are competing against however many people entered in your congressional district. In some districts that's 40 students. In others it's five.
Submissions for 2026 close Monday, October 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET. Before anything else, check whether your Member of Congress is actually hosting a challenge, because that decides whether you can enter at all.
Looking for more options? See 15 Coding Competitions for High School Students.
Key Takeaways
The 2026 submission deadline is Monday, October 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET. Registration is open now, and there is no entry fee.
Participation is at each Member office's discretion. Members have until September 15, 2026 to register their district. If your representative isn't hosting, you cannot compete, so check the participating districts list first.
There is no citizenship requirement. Students must be U.S. residents in middle or high school at the time of submission. You may compete in the district where you live or the district where you attend school, but only one.
You submit source code plus a demo video on YouTube or Vimeo explaining the app and what you learned. Any language counts, including block code.
2025 set records: 13,830 students submitted 4,650 apps across 394 congressional districts, a 20% increase over 2024. District winners get their app displayed in the U.S. Capitol for a year and an invitation to the #HouseOfCode reception in Washington.
What is the Congressional App Challenge?
The Congressional App Challenge is an annual competition run by the U.S. House of Representatives and administered by the Internet Education Foundation. Middle and high school students build an original software application and submit it within their congressional district, where a panel of local judges picks a winner.
2 things to know before you enter -
It is a House competition, not a Congress-wide one. Senators have no role. Every challenge is hosted by a Member of the House for their district.
Your representative does not personally pick the winner. Apps are evaluated by a panel of local judges drawn from academic, software, and entrepreneurial backgrounds. The Member announces and recognises the winner.
Is the Congressional App Challenge worth entering?
Yes, it is.
Because the field is your congressional district rather than the country, the effective competition varies enormously. In 2025, 16 Members received more than 50 submissions each, while many districts received a handful. That's a very different proposition from a national competition with a single winner from 1000+ applications, and it's the strongest practical argument for entering!
What winners actually get:
The app displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year
Featured on House.gov and on CongressionalAppChallenge.us
An invitation to the #HouseOfCode reception in Washington, D.C. the following spring
A copyright fee waiver through the ARTS Act
One thing to budget for: for at least some districts, travel and accommodation for #HouseOfCode is at the winner's own expense.
Who is eligible for the Congressional App Challenge?
The official rules are more permissive than most people assume:
Grade level: middle or high school student at the time of app submission. Public, private, and home-schooled students are all eligible.
Residency: all competing students must be U.S. residents at the time of submission. There is no citizenship requirement.
District: you may compete in the district where you reside or the district where you attend school. You may compete in only one district, and only in a district that is hosting a challenge.
Teams: individuals or teams of up to four. No team may exceed four students. If competing as a team, at least half the team must be eligible to compete in that district.
Cost: free. There is no entry fee.
Prior work: you may submit an app completed within roughly the last year, including work from a class, an after-school program, or a summer program. For a 2.0 version of an existing app, only the new code is considered.
While some guides state that entrants must have a teacher, mentor, or supervisor. The official rules do not list this as a requirement. Treat a mentor as useful, not mandatory, until confirmed with an official!
Which districts are hosting a Congressional App Challenge?
This is the first thing to check and the step most guides skip.
Participation is decided by each Member office, and Members have until September 15, 2026 to register their district for the 2026 cycle. The official site maintains a list of participating districts.
If your district isn't on the list, contact your representative's office directly and ask them to host. Offices do respond to this, and the request costs you nothing. In 2025, more than 70% of participating districts grew their local challenge, so offices are actively looking to expand.
What is the Congressional App Challenge 2026 timeline?
Date | Milestone |
Now | Student registration open |
Sept 15, 2026 | Deadline for Members of Congress to register their district |
Oct 26, 2026, 12:00 PM ET | Submission deadline: source code plus demo video |
Nov–Dec 2026 | Local judging panels review submissions |
December 2026 | District winners announced |
Spring 2027 | #HouseOfCode reception in Washington, D.C. |
Note that some Member offices publish the deadline in their local time zone, so you'll see 12:00 PM ET expressed as 9:00 AM PT or 11:00 AM CT. The national cutoff is the same moment.
What do you have to submit?
Two things:
The app's source code. Any platform: desktop, web, mobile, tablet, video game, robot, Raspberry Pi. Any language: C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, or block-based code. Only completed projects are accepted.
A demo video hosted on YouTube or Vimeo, explaining what the app does and what you learned building it.
Apps must meet standards of decency, must not defame or threaten any community, must not contain obscenity, and must not violate anyone's intellectual property or privacy rights. The app must be original and created solely by the entrants.
How do you win the Congressional App Challenge?
1. Check your district first, then build. Confirm your Member is hosting before you invest three months. If they aren't, either ask them to host or find out whether you're eligible via the district where you attend school instead.
2. Solve a problem in your district specifically. Judges are local. In 2025, 70% of students built apps focused on civic engagement or social good, and the winners consistently reflect this. A team in New York's 3rd district won with HealthBridge, connecting underinsured people to affordable healthcare resources across all 50 states in 15 languages. In Texas's 26th, the winner was Hedgex, a stock market education platform with a paper-trading simulator. In California's 19th, LeftoSense won against 44 other apps. The pattern is a specific, articulable problem, not technical showmanship.
3. Be deliberate about AI. 56% of 2025 teams used AI in their submissions. That means AI is no longer a differentiator by itself. If you use it, the interesting question is what it does for the user, not that it's present.
4. Make the video do real work. It isn't a filmmaking contest, but the video is often the first and sometimes only thing a judge experiences. Show the app working on a real problem
within the first thirty seconds. Explain what you learned, because the rules explicitly ask for it.
5. Document your code. Judges include working software people. Readable, commented, well-organised code reads as competence.
6. Use the prior-work rule. You can submit something built in a class, a summer program, or an after-school club within the eligible window. You do not have to start from scratch in August.
7. Ship something finished. Only completed projects are accepted. A small app that works beats an ambitious one that doesn't.
Where can you learn to code for free?
The official site hosts a learn-to-code resource collection covering app creation, databases, and more, plus a partners page listing organisations that support local teams. MIT App Inventor is a common starting point for Android apps. Khan Academy, Coursera, and Udemy cover specific languages.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Congressional App Challenge 2026 deadline? Submissions close Monday, October 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM Eastern. Registration is open now, and district winners are announced in December 2026.
Who can enter the Congressional App Challenge? Middle and high school students who are U.S. residents at the time of submission, including public, private, and home-schooled students. There is no citizenship requirement. You must live in or attend school in a congressional district that is hosting a challenge.
Is there a citizenship requirement for the Congressional App Challenge? No. Students must be U.S. residents when they submit, but citizenship is not required. This is a common misconception.
How do I know if my district is participating? Check the participating districts list on CongressionalAppChallenge.us. Participation is at each Member office's discretion, and Members have until September 15, 2026 to register for the 2026 cycle. If your district isn't listed, you can contact your representative's office and ask them to host.
Can you compete in the Congressional App Challenge as a team? Yes, in teams of up to four students. At least half the team must be eligible to compete in the district you're entering. Teams larger than four are not eligible.
What do Congressional App Challenge winners get? The winning app is displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year, featured on House.gov and the Challenge website, and receives a copyright fee waiver through the ARTS Act. Winners are invited to the #HouseOfCode reception in Washington, D.C. the following spring.
Who judges the Congressional App Challenge? A panel of local judges working in academic, software, and entrepreneurial fields judges each district's submissions. Your Member of Congress announces and recognises the winner but does not personally select it.
How many students enter the Congressional App Challenge? In 2025, 13,830 students submitted 4,650 apps across 394 congressional districts, all records and a 20% increase over 2024. Because judging is per district, the number you actually compete against is far smaller.
Does the Congressional App Challenge cost anything? No. There is no entry fee, and the competition is open to students of all skill levels.
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Aaron Zheng is a sophomore at Harvard University, studying Bioengineering. He is passionate about biotechnology, business development, and aiding students get to college, regardless of background. In his spare time, he looks to read, journal, and explore the world. Image source: Congressional App Challenge website