App Challenge

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Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is pleased to announce that the Eighth Congressional District will be participating in the 2025 Congressional App Challenge (CAC). CAC is a competition designed to encourage student participation in computer science and coding. Student sign-up for the 2025 Congressional App Challenge is now open. Eligible students can register and submit their apps through October 30, 2025.

Officially launched by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015, this nationwide effort allows students to compete against their peers by creating an application or "app," for desktop/PC, web, tablet, mobile, or other devices. The Challenge is designed to promote innovation and engagement in computer science. 

The Congressional App Challenge is open to all middle and high school students in Illinois’ Eighth Congressional District. Students entering the competition must submit their app at https://www.congressionalappchallenge.us/students/student-registration/ during the Competition Submission Period by 12:00 PM EDT on October 30, 2025. Students are encouraged to register before September 30, 2025 to indicate their intent to compete.

The winner from the Eighth Congressional District, chosen by a panel of expert judges, will be featured on CongressionalAppChallenge.us, and the winning app will also be eligible to be on display in the U.S. Capitol, honoring the winners from across the country.

Congressional App Challenge Rules

• Students must be in middle or high school at the time of app submission.
  • Students may not participate after having graduated from high school.
• Students may only compete in one district.
• Students may only submit one application per year.
• Students may compete in either the district they reside or the district in which they attend school.
• Students may compete as individuals or in teams of up to four.
  • If competing as a team, at least half of the teammates must be eligible to compete in the district in which they are submitting their app.
  • Teams with more than four students are not eligible to compete.
• Students can only compete in a Congressional District holding an App Challenge.
• Students can submit any app created after October 24th, 2024.
• Students can develop the app for any platform (Examples: web apps, desktop/PC apps, mobile apps, web browser extensions, robots, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), wearable devices, smart devices, and embedded systems).
• Students can use any programming language (Examples: C, C++, Objective C, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, Swift, and block-based coding languages).
• Students are permitted to use AI tools in app development, provided that all AI usage is fully disclosed in the submission materials.
  • AI may only be used to support specific aspects of the project and must not constitute the entirety of the technical development.

You can find more information about the competition here.

Please direct any questions or concerns to Theodora Koulouvaris at Theodora.Koulouvaris@mail.house.gov, Vishnu Avva at Vishnu.Avva@mail.house.gov, or call our office at  (847) 413-1959 between 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. every weekday.