Welcome to Phase 2 of the Microsoft Student Accelerator (MSA) 2026 programme!
This repository contains the Phase 2 project and assessment materials.
You are required to complete one project individually, based on the stream you selected for Phase 2:
- Software Development Stream – complete the Software Development project
- Data Science Stream – complete the Data Science project
Participants should apply the knowledge gained during Phase 1 and make use of the resources provided by the MSA team for their selected stream.
Please read all instructions carefully before getting started and ensure that you follow the submission requirements outlined in this repository.
The expected workload for Phase 2 of each stream is 3–4 hours per week, and it builds upon the knowledge gained from Phase 1 of the same stream. Please follow the stream you selected in Phase 1 and manage your time effectively to further develop your knowledge and skills.
Contents:
- Ensure that you:
- Have downloaded all the key tools from Phase 1 for your chosen stream
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Create a repository inside your personal GitHub account to store all your work and clone that repository into your IDE (ignore any other branches, everything you need is in the main branch)
- In your repository, we recommend that you create a folder for each part of your chosen stream to store your work for each part separately
- Alternatively, feel free to clone this repository and then delete the folder for the stream you are not doing
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Refer to the folder for each stream to get started:
To complete the technical component of Phase 2 and submit evidence of your completion:
- Ensure that you have:
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Completed all parts of your chosen stream by checking that you have included all items in your repository, as stated in the folder for your chosen stream
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Software Development
- The submission details are in the Software Assessment.pdf file Software Development
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Data Science
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Made your repository/ies and any other links you want to submit public so that they can be accessed by the MSA team for marking
- You can check that all your links are publicly accessible by opening them in the Incognito/Private mode of your browser
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Included all files needed to run your code inside your repository so that it's easy for the MSA team to mark your submission
- The form will open from Week 4 (starting July 13, 0:00). MSA 2026 Phase 2 Submission
The submission deadline is 11:59 pm, Sunday, 2 August
The MSA programme strictly enforces academic integrity and students that do not submit their own work will first be notified with our concerns, and if your work is determined to be copied from someone/somewhere else and/or insufficiently different from others if you have collaborated or troubleshoot with other parties (including MSA team members and the content created by them in this repository), you may not be invited to any events and activities as part of the non-technical component of Phase 2.
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If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact the MSA team via Discord Channel.
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We will be running regular Office Hours to support you during Phase 2.
- Time: Friday of Week 2, Week 4, and Week 6, 7:30–8:00 PM
- Dates: July 3, July 17, and July 31.
During these sessions, there will be two team members available from both the Software Development (SD) and Data Science (DS) teams. They will answer questions in the help-software and help-data voice channels on Discord.