Win $1,000
by helping your peers.
The F7 Competition is a 6-week summer challenge where high schoolers build real apps and websites to solve real problems for their friends, peers, and neighborhoods — alone or with a team. No experience needed. The best project wins a $1,000 grand prize, with smaller prizes every week along the way.
You're not just competing — you're helping launch the platform.
The F7 Competition is how we're rolling out F7 Missions to the world. We'll be learning from you as much as you learn from us, and your feedback will shape what F7 becomes.
How it works
Six weeks. One project to be proud of.
Here's the 5-step method you'll run on a real problem in your community.
The method
You'll learn Design Thinking — the same 5-step process used at NASA, Google, Meta, and Nike.
Design Thinking is how the world's best teams turn real human problems into products people love. It starts with people — not code, not features — and ends with something tested and shared. Over six weeks, you'll run the full loop on a problem in your own community.
- Step 1Empathize
Talk to real people. Understand their day, their friction, their hopes.
- Step 2Define
Sharpen the messy problem into one clear, worth-solving statement.
- Step 3Ideate
Generate lots of ideas — wild ones included — then pick the boldest bet.
- Step 4Prototype
Build a real, working version with AI tools. Fast, scrappy, shareable.
- Step 5Test
Put it in front of users. Learn what works, fix what doesn't, share v2.
- FinalePitchPitch Day
Tell the story. 30 seconds + 5-minute walkthrough. Win the room.
Challenges + skills
Pick a problem. Build real skills.
These are examples of the types of challenges you could tackle — not the exact ones you'll work on. Tap one to see the kind of problem in play, then check the skills you'll sharpen along the way.
Real problems, your call.
Pick one that matters to you — every track ends in a real project.
Make fashion less wasteful.
Fast fashion creates tons of waste, and a lot of clothes only get worn a few times before ending up in a landfill.
How can technology make it easier for people to buy, swap, recycle, or share clothes in smarter, more sustainable ways?
Skills that open real doors.
Every challenge stretches the same skills employers and founders pay for.
Use AI tools to make real apps and websites — even if you've never coded before.
Talk to real people and figure out what they actually need.
Make things that look good and feel easy to use.
Take on big challenges and break them into steps you can actually finish.
Learn to explain your idea in a way people get — and want to support.
Leave with a real project to show schools, jobs, and your community.
What you'll make
Solutions you can build as an intern.
Three example apps you could share this summer — each one a working build. Tap a tab below to try it: play a song in tempo, check off your trip steps in Liftoff, or fund a wall in Open Walls.
tempo
A calmer corner of the internet where teens share songs with the mood they helped — so a friend having a rough day can find the exact track that gets them through it. Tap play below or upload your own song to feel it in action.
Try the app belowon the right — tap, type, play.
Every prototype is real and interactive. This is the kind of thing you'll ship in 6 weeks.
our anthem — built for the summer you launch something real 🚀
What you get
Get paid. Win prizes. Earn bragging rights.
You earn money each week for the work you finish and turn in.
Goes to the best overall project on Pitch Day, July 1.
Smaller prizes every week for great ideas, creativity, and progress.
Where this can take you
This summer is just the start.
The project you build now becomes the portfolio that opens doors later — college apps, internships, first jobs, your own thing. We're not exaggerating.
In six weeks you'll have something most people your age don't: a real project you built, a story behind it, and proof you can solve problems that actually matter to people.
This is the same way the world's top universities teach innovation — and the same way the teams behind the apps, shoes, games, and tech you use every day actually build their stuff. You're not playing pretend. You're doing the real work.
Lean in and it turns into a major, an internship, a career — designer, researcher, product lead, AI builder, or the move nobody saw coming: your own startup.
You don't have to know which one yet. You just need one real thing you made — and a reason it matters. That's what opens doors. We'll help you build both.
Taught & built at
Logos belong to their owners. Used here to show where Design Thinking is taught and applied.
Careers in design
Median pay, remote-friendly.
- UX Designer
- $98k
- Product Designer
- $125k
- Product Manager
- $135k
- UX Researcher
- $115k
Range $72k–$140k
Range $95k–$180k
Range $105k–$210k
Range $85k–$165k
US median total comp for remote-friendly roles · sources: BLS, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi (2025)