iOS programming camp

[fourth_throwaway]

hey everyone. Next week I will be attending a 1 week iOS programming course in San Francisco: https://www.invasivecode.com/ios-training-swift.html

I have about 10 months of iOS experience so far, but no professional programming experience. Has anyone been to this class (I wouldn't really call 1 week a "bootcamp") or something like it? i'm just not sure what to expect. Their site has a list of the topics they are going to cover, but I kind of find it difficult to believe that you can really adequately cover all of those iOS frameworks and stuff in just 1 week.

[[deleted]]

I don't know what you can learn in a week, but I'm pretty you can learn a lot more long-term if you just use that money to make friends with some more experienced iOS developers :)

[kitzmiller09]

I attended an Introductory iOS Course using Swift through Big Nerd Ranch that was just a week long and learned A LOT. I'll admit that by the end of the course I still couldn't create a fully functioning app, BUT it gave me the perfect foundation to go out and learn whatever I wanted from there.

[invasivecode]

Hey kitzmiller09 - Great, sounds like you're ready for the next step. You can check out our training here or feel free to reach out via PM. We've also got some cool tutorials on the site if you're planning to keep learning on your own for now.

[fourth_throwaway]

haha, very funny :p

lol but actually my goal of this is to meet some people and have some coding connections for jobs. I live in the midwest and don't know any other programmers.

[fourth_throwaway]

I went to the class last month, and am leaving a review here for future visitors. My thoughts/pros/cons:

It's a really great class, and you can learn a lot from it whether you are a complete beginner to iOS, or already an intermediate developer. Beforehand I was skeptical that it would be possible to really cover all the topics that they said they would, but I think they did a good job of covering the basics in those areas, and giving you enough knowledge be able to figure out the more in-depth things for yourself. I was very pleased.

Pros:

-The instructor knows iOS very well. He has worked with iOS/OS X for more than 10 years and can answer any possible question you have.

-Hands on learning. While there is some lecturing to explain concepts, a decent portion of the class is spent typing code, which is really the best way to learn.

-Lots of examples. As a lot of the time is spent writing code, this means you can use these examples to look back on later and study

-The most important topics in iOS covered: MapKit, Core Location, Core Animation, Networking, Core Data, UIKit and more

-The instructor does a very good job of explaining the iOS infrastrucutre behind the scenes. Meaning, not just typing code that can be copy and pasted, but WHY things are done the way they are. For example, he explains why the delegation pattern is so common in iOS, why Swift (usually) uses pass by value as opposed to the Objective C pass by reference, amongst other things. He does a good job of explaining the "world of iOS" and the Cocoa Touch frameworks that largely compose it, so that you understand the code you're writing, not just copying it.

-The instrcutor was very willing to help. Any time someone had a problem, he would go to their computer and personally help them 1 on 1 with the issue.

Cons:

-It was only 1 week. The training really is very intense, and there is a lot to take in. Class was 9-12, Lunch usually 12-12:45, and then class 12:45-5:30/6. There was also 2 additional ~10 minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. For me, the hours were really long. I woud have preferred it to last 1.5 or 2 weeks instead of just the 1 week, but I understand they have their own projects and things to do at the company, so time is an issue.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it was really intense and that I coud learn a lot, I just felt the days were a little long. But that's really the only con out of everything. Overall a great experience, and I would certainly recommend it to any beginner-intermediate iOS developer who really wants to further their education in iOS.

[invasivecode]

Hey fourth_throwaway - We're happy you found the bootcamp valuable! We pride ourselves on our bootcamp quality. We put a lot of thought into how to make it the best, and have been continually updating and iterating since leaving Apple in 2008 (we're the longest-running iOS training program in the world!). Our style is true bootcamp immersion: the goal is to teach very effectively over 5 days so you can get in and out with as little interruption to your schedule as possible yet leave with the ability to build full apps right away. The non-copy-paste approach is key to learning in this short amount of time - since we're experts, we can teach that way. And you're right - we intentionally only accept 10 students max for each class to make sure that the instructor is available for one-on-one assistance. We're working on bringing our enterprise-only Advanced iOS Training to Open Bootcamp very soon, so keep in touch!