How long does it take a beginner to make an app?

Answer 1

Using the tutorial a person can probably do the example app in an hour or so, regardless of any previous experience (or lack). However this is very basic and has little functionality.

To actually design, code, test, and build a deliverable app that actually does something useful can take weeks to many months depending on your goals in developing this app and your experience in programming on other development environments. As a beginner I assume you have no experience programming using any development environment.

I have been programming computers using many different languages and development environments since 1973. From 1992 to 2008 the programming I did at work was all team projects that would have been impossible for one programmer to do entirely by himself, most of these projects took years for professional experienced software engineers working as a team to design, code, test, and build a deliverable for the customer.

Even with this experience I have never successfully written an app using a GUI, except for one tutorial several years ago (IIRC this took me a little over an hour). On projects I did at work that used a GUI other members of the team that were experts at coding GUI interfaces handled that code. My specialties at work were Requirements Analysis and Derivation, Documentation Preparation (some of our documents were 5 foot tall stacks of paper!!), Built In Test, realtime Failure Analysis, and Fault Logging systems.

Please do not let these comments discourage you in any way, one has to start somewhere. I wish you every chance of success in your task. Software development is both a very exciting but often frustrating field to pursue. My initial interest in programming back in High School resulted in a 30 year career getting well paid to do exactly the things I would have been most willing to pay them to allow me to do.