Palace/Library

Cara Gue Masuk Apple Developer Academy — Tips and Tricks (Theo @theodevoid)

apple-developer-academyada-indonesiaselection-processportfoliofgdcareer

Cara Gue Masuk Apple Developer Academy — Tips and Tricks

A YouTube live session by Theo (@theodevoid, LinkedIn: tmangowal), software engineer and alumni of Apple Developer Academy Indonesia Kohort 7 (BSD/Tangerang campus, graduated 2024). Not affiliated with Apple or the Academy — sharing purely from personal experience, which may differ across cohorts.

The session covers the selection process timeline and gives practical tips for each phase. Primary audience: prospective applicants for Kohort 9 at BINUS/BSD, though much of the advice applies across Indonesian campuses.

The Selection Process

Four phases in order:

Pre-registration — before any formal application. Theo adds this because preparation here determines the quality of everything downstream.

Phase 1: Online Application — submit a motivation statement (essay format + a specific given topic, e.g. healthcare), resume/CV, and portfolio. Portfolio uses an Apple-provided template; maximum 4–5 projects, minimum 1. Treat this like a job application: ATS-friendly resume, professional photo, achievements and projects in storytelling format with data where possible.

Phase 2: Online Entry Test — multiple choice. Three content areas:

  • Logic questions — the hardest part. CPNS-style logic and pattern reasoning. Bring pen and paper. Nothing to do with coding.
  • Programming questions — basic coding knowledge: arrays, data structures (linked list, stack, queue), pseudocode, programming paradigms (especially OOP). Not LeetCode. More "given this pseudocode, what is the output?" or "find the bug."
  • Design and business questions — color contrast, basic business models, design fundamentals. Seating runs in AM and PM sessions; you pick one and commit.
  • During the test: open mic and open video are required throughout for integrity monitoring.

Phase 3: Focus Group Discussion (FGD) — the most important phase according to Theo. Format: applicants split into two groups (Group A and Group B), each develops a solution to the essay topic from Phase 1, then the groups exchange constructive criticism. Offline/onsite for BSD and Surabaya; online for Bali and Batam.

Three things assessed: creativity, collaboration skills, and communication ability.

Tips by Phase

Pre-registration

Don't panic if you're not a developer. ADA is open to everyone: business owners, creatives, people with zero experience. What matters is potential, creativity, growth mindset, and collaborative skills — above all, empathy. Coding is nice to have, not required. If you have Swift or SwiftUI experience, great; if not, the Academy teaches from scratch.

Skills worth building before applying:

  • Design thinking — empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. Theo estimates this constitutes roughly 80% of what you do in the Academy. His first challenge was one month of pure research and design with no coding required.
  • Tool familiarity: Figma, Xcode/Swift Playground, Keynote (Apple's Canva).

Online Application: Portfolio Philosophy

The most important section of Theo's tips. His own portfolio included his YouTube channel — not an app — because it showed his passion for teaching better than any app could.

The frame shift: don't start from what technology you used; start from what problem your product solves and how. A Figma mockup that demonstrates the full problem-solving process is more valuable than a finished app that doesn't. A to-do list app is the example of what not to submit.

What to show:

  • The why behind design decisions: why this UX flow, why this color, why this feature.
  • Team and collaboration experience — the Academy is heavily collaborative; show moments where you worked with others or handled group dynamics.
  • Online presence (LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, etc.) — they may look. Not a guarantee, but it surfaces your journey and authenticity.

Connect with alumni if you can. That's exactly what this session was.

Online Entry Test

No additional tips beyond: practice CPNS-style logic puzzles (the hardest part) and review basic OOP, data structures, and pseudocode. Theo could not give more specific preparation because this section is straightforwardly tested knowledge.

AM session has more of the day free afterward; PM session lets you sleep in. Theo picked PM but recommends AM for productivity.

FGD

Five practical notes:

  1. Empathy over ego. The FGD creates group tension by design — within your team and between teams. It is not a debate competition. The point is not to win; the point is to find the best way to an answer together. Listen actively. Show that you can collaborate, not dominate.

  2. It's not about the right answer. Theo's quote: "The goal isn't to find the best answer. The goal is to find the best way to an answer." A team that produces the optimal solution while fighting internally fails. A team that reaches a decent solution while demonstrating genuine collaborative process passes.

  3. Think out loud. Show your reasoning process, not just your conclusions. Your idea may not be chosen, but the way you approach a problem — what angles you consider, how you handle uncertainty — is what gets evaluated. If you don't know something: "I'm not sure, but let's explore this together" is a strong response.

  4. Don't kill the vibe. Don't be the person who needs to be heard loudest. Critique constructively. Be someone who can lift the group's energy, not someone who deflates it. The Academy doesn't only want the smartest person in the room — it wants people who can make a whole team better.

  5. Be curious, not defensive. When criticized, don't shut down and don't go defensive. Treat criticism as information: "Can you walk me through why you think that's a better approach?" Show that you can receive feedback and adapt.

What The Academy Actually Selects For

Theo's summary: a T-shaped developer — someone with broad understanding across product, design, coding, and business, plus depth in one area. The Academy rotates roles across projects deliberately; a designer will be asked to code, a coder may run a product management cycle. The goal is to produce people who can participate meaningfully across the full stack of a project.

Worth noting: Theo's first challenge at the Academy had no coding requirement at all. The entire month was research and design. The app matters far less than whether the student can demonstrate that the app would solve a real problem for real users.

Sources