Build Mobile Apps That Actually Work

Most development courses throw frameworks at you without context. We do something different. You'll spend six months learning how mobile apps actually behave in production—not just in tutorials. Our autumn 2025 cohort starts with real problems from real projects.

Explore Program Structure
Mobile development workspace with real project planning

Why Traditional Courses Miss the Point

Here's what usually happens: You watch videos. You copy code. You build a todo app. Then you face a real project and realize you can't debug performance issues or handle edge cases.

We start from the opposite direction. Week one covers what breaks in production. Memory leaks. Network failures. State management when things go wrong. Because that's where you actually learn architecture.

Our instructors work on commercial apps during the day. They've seen what causes 3 AM emergency calls. That's the stuff we teach—alongside the syntax and patterns you need to prevent those calls in the first place.

By month four, you're working with codebases that look messy on purpose. Refactoring exercises. Legacy code challenges. The kind of work you'll actually do in your first year as a developer.

What You'll Actually Learn

These aren't course modules—they're the skills that separate developers who ship apps from those who struggle with their first production deploy.

Native iOS Development

Swift and SwiftUI from scratch. You'll build interfaces that feel right on iOS, not just web views wrapped in native code. We cover UIKit too, because half the jobs out there still need it.

Android Architecture

Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. Material Design that doesn't look generic. State management patterns that scale beyond demo apps. Testing strategies that actually catch bugs.

Cross-Platform Strategy

When to use React Native or Flutter. When not to. How to share business logic without compromising native feel. Real trade-off analysis based on project constraints.

Performance Optimization

Profiling tools. Memory management. Render optimization. Network efficiency. Battery considerations. The technical details that determine whether users keep your app installed.

Security Fundamentals

Authentication flows. Secure storage. API communication. Certificate pinning. Common vulnerabilities and how to prevent them. Because apps handle sensitive data.

Backend Integration

REST and GraphQL. Real-time updates. Offline functionality. Sync strategies. Error handling. The server side matters even when you're building client apps.

Torin Balfour, Lead Mobile Instructor at Flow-Signal

Torin Balfour

Lead Mobile Instructor

I've been building mobile apps since iOS 7. Worked on everything from fintech apps handling millions in transactions to consumer apps with challenging offline requirements. Crashed production twice—learned more from those incidents than from any course.

Teaching felt like a natural extension. The students who succeed aren't necessarily the ones who code fastest. They're the ones who ask "what happens when this fails?" before it does.

Our curriculum reflects what actually matters in commercial development. Not the perfect-world scenarios from documentation, but the compromises and constraints you'll face when shipping real products.

I still maintain two production apps while teaching. Keeps me honest about what's practical versus what's theoretically elegant. Students appreciate when I can say "we tried that pattern last month—here's what broke."

Six Months, Four Phases

Our program runs from September 2025 through February 2026. Each phase builds on practical work, not abstract theory. You'll have something deployable by December.

1

Foundations (Months 1-2)

Platform fundamentals. Development environment setup. Version control workflows. Basic UI patterns for both iOS and Android. Simple apps that actually deploy to test devices. You'll understand how the platforms differ and why that matters.

2

Architecture (Months 2-3)

Navigation patterns. State management. Data persistence. Network layers. Testing strategies. This is where apps start feeling professional rather than educational. You'll rebuild earlier work using better patterns.

3

Production Skills (Months 4-5)

Performance optimization. Security implementation. Analytics integration. Crash reporting. Release management. Working with messy codebases. Code review practices. The operational side of development.

4

Capstone Project (Month 6)

Build something substantial. Native iOS or Android, or a cross-platform solution—your choice. Deploy to TestFlight or internal testing. Present your architecture decisions. Defend your technical choices. This becomes your portfolio piece.

Code review session focusing on mobile architecture patterns

Code Review Culture

Performance profiling and optimization work

Performance Analysis

Team debugging session with production logs

Debugging Real Issues

Ready to Build Something Real?

Our next cohort starts September 2025. Limited to 16 students so everyone gets meaningful code review and mentorship. Applications open in June. No prior mobile experience required, but you should be comfortable with at least one programming language.