iOS Design Challenge - Top 200 Winners

In May 2023, while many were scrambling through finals, I was at Manarat Al Saadiyat receiving a MacBook from Apple for an app I hadn’t even launched.

This blog post is the story of Solacify — an iOS application built from the ground up with the intention to help students like me manage stress, promote mindfulness, and actually be able to survive high-school with some sanity left.

It’s also the story of how a high schooler with semi-what professional experience took on the Swift Accelerator Program, beat out thousands in the iOS Design Challenge, and walked away with more than just certificates.

The Origin: A Challenge Built on Resilience

In November 2022, I was invited to compete in the iOS Design Challenge run by Apple, Sandooq Al Watan, and Swift Accelerator UAE. The challenge was to build a prototype of an iOS app around the theme of tolerance and resilience.

Out of the 4,000+ students (including me) who have participated and the 2,000 submissions, only 200 students were selected as winners. Apple itself handpicked the winners, and I'm proud to announce that I was one of them.

So, we got on stage, got a MacBook, and got a challenge: build the app.

I wasn’t alone — I worked with three other amazing students as part of a team. Together, we built the concept that would soon become the iOS app Solacify.

Enter: Swift Accelerator UAE

I, then, joined the Swift Accelerator Program, an intensive 6-month course hosted in the United Arab Emirates and taught at the Higher Colleges of Technology. It was a deep dive into iOS development using Swift — no fluff, just real code and real app architecture. Here's what I learned so far:

• Core Swift syntax and best practices.
• UI building with Interface Builder.
• Framework usage and navigation design.
• Debugging pain (and minor emotional trauma).

It was more than just learning to write code. It was learning to design like Apple. I scored 925/1000 on the Apple-certified "App Development with Swift Associate" exam — one of the highest scores in the program's cohort.

Building Solacify: The App That Fights Burnout

Solacify was born out of a very real problem: students are stressed, burnt out, and navigating academic life like it’s a boss battle with no healing potions.

Solacify offers:

• Tools for mindfulness and reflection
• Mood tracking and stress check-ins
• Daily reminders grounded in empathy, not judgment
• A clean, minimal interface designed for students.

Our team worked with real constraints, from performance tuning to accessibility. We wanted something simple, beautiful, and helpful.

The Graduation & Beyond

By February 2024, I officially graduated from the Swift Accelerator Program. The final ceremony wasn’t just a photo-op — it was the culmination of 6 months of wireframing, testing, building, and fighting SwiftUI errors at 2AM.

And now? Solacify is gearing up for release on the Apple App Store in 2025, backed by Apple itself, Sandooq Al Watan, and the Swift Accelerator team.

You can check out a detailed breakdown of the app by clicking here.

Final Thoughts: Build Before You're Ready

Everything I know about Swift, I learned before I was technically supposed to. This wasn't a class assignment; there was even no grade in the first place.

It was just the will to learn and build; it taught me more than syntax:

• It taught me discipline.
• It taught me how to communicate ideas through design.
• It taught me that age has nothing to do with ambition.

To the students out there: Don’t wait for a course. Don’t wait for permission. Build before you think you’re ready; someone out there will look at your work and ask: "Who taught you that?", and the best answer will always be: "I did."