"Kucing ini makan apa?"

Translation: What does this cat eat?

[Indofreezer]

Why is my answer "What is this cat eating?" wrong?

[1CN5ijzC]

your answer are correct too, since indonesian doesn't have tense.

Note that to emphasize the continuous tense, in indonesian we could use the word "sedang"

Kucing ini sedang makan apa?

[WayangOrang]

Kucing ini makan tikus.

[BranchVinc]

Depens on what you feed him/her

[Jan850798]

This cat is eating what? should be accepted!

[Ramjam720]

I agree. The literal translation is "This cat eats what?". Since this is a proper English sentence, it should be accepted.

[keinekatze]

Could someone please help explain the word order/construction to me?
Why is "Apa kucing ini makan?" incorrect? Does "apa" always come at the end of a question?

[WayangOrang]

Why is "Apa kucing ini makan?" incorrect?

"Apa kucing ini makan?" = Does this cat eat?

Does "apa" always come at the end of a question?

No.
In the strictly formal style, the preferred word order is to start a question with a question word.
That means that 'apa' appears at the beginning of the question.

The word order as shown in the sentence above, is the same word order as in a normal declarative sentence.
In the question sentence 'apa' simply replaces the word that you're asking for.
That's the reason that 'apa' appears at the end.

It works like this :

(+) Kucing ini makan sesuatu. = This cat eats something.
(?) Kucing ini makan apa? = This cat eats what?
(?) Apa yang kucing ini makan? = What does this cat eat?

[keinekatze]

This makes sense! Thank you