1. If you are not a programmer already, do not waste your time applying to appacademy.io because you won’t get in. I really liked their approach to tuition, but it just doesn’t make sense for them to accept someone who is a beginner. If the person won’t get a job they are not going to get paid.

2. Personal story:
10/24/12 I applied for 7/1/13 session (and 2 more after that)
10/26/12 submitted second part of application form
10/30/12 got invitation to a coding challenge. it contained 9 chapter study material
11/5/12 completed a math challenge (2 problems) and tried to take a coding challenge (6 problems. completed only 1)
11/6/12 received an email:
“Thanks very much for applying to App Academy. After reviewing your
application, we think you might be a good fit.
One thing we did notice from your coding test is that you may not
have a lot of prior experience programming; many of the students we
have accepted in the past did not. However, we would like you to
complete some additional programming prepwork for us to review
before we offer to accept you into the program.
The prepwork we’d like you to complete is the same that we give all
accepted students; you may access it here. The
prepwork constitutes a basic introduction to programming designed to
be accessible to everyone. It contains some selected readings to
bring you up to speed on Ruby, plus some exercises for you to
complete. All told, we expect the prepwork to take about 15hrs.
The prepwork details contain information about submitting your
exercises. When you complete the prepwork successfully, our final
step is to conduct a brief, last-check interview. After this, we
will be able to make a final decision on your application within
24hrs.
There is no deadline for the prepwork; you may complete it and take
the second coding exercise whenever you like.
We believe that the time you invest in learning Ruby will be time
well spent: the prep work constitutes a self-contained introductory
course in programming, giving you skills that you will be able to
apply to other parts of your life.”

Prep work had 13 problems, each problem had 2-8 sub problems. Since i didn’t have a lot of programming experience it took me way more than 15 hours to complete this prepwork.

12/17/12 I submitted my prepwork
12/18/12 Received email that my prepwork was accepted.
12/21/12 Had my 19min interview that contained coding challenge: 2 simple problems/ Completed it.
12/23/12 Received my rejection letter.
“Thanks very much for applying to App Academy. I am sorry to write
that we are unable to accept your application. I wish I were writing
to report a different decision, but the applicant pool for these
cycles was very strong, and there were many talented applicants who
we didn’t have space to admit.
Applicants sometimes ask if there was a reason why we didn’t accept
their application. In truth, there is often no specific reason. The
reality is that we are space-constrained and have to turn away many
qualified people.
Please don’t take our decision personally, particularly because we
know we make mistakes. We also know that many applicants we were
unable to admit have what it takes to learn software development; it
is a certainty that many will find successful careers in software
development.
Please accept our best wishes.”

12/26/12 Created this site