Blog post
If you search for an iOS developer on LinkedIn, you will see job titles prefixed with the word "senior". What does it mean to be a "senior developer" and, more precisely what does it mean to be a "senior iOS developer"?
Interviewing other people and talking with them during meetups, I have found out that there are many different opinions on this topic. Furthermore, every company has its own scale for this, but very few have a written agreement about this.
We can all agree there is an unclear border between junior, mid and senior developer in IT industry, especially in the iOS industry.
In this blog post, I will give my opinion on what does it mean to be a senior iOS developer.
Architecture
If you have applied for an interview, one of the unavoidable questions is about architecture. As a senior iOS developer, you should know about MVC, VIPER and MVVM architecture patterns. You should know their pros and cons and use them appropriately, depending on the project's needs.
Design patterns
If you want to write a beautiful, maintainable and readable code you have to use design patterns. You should know what they are and use them appropriately.
In iOS these are "must knows":
- Singleton
- Observer
- Delegate
- Strategy
- Factory
- Iterator
- Builder
- Multicast delegate pattern
- Facade pattern
- Composite pattern
- Memento pattern
Additionally, you should be familiar with the SOLID principle and use it appropriately.
Objective-C vs. Swift
Today, many new iOS developers learn only Swift. I agree that Swift is the main iOS programming language, but to become a senior iOS developer deep knowledge about Objective-C is required.
Everything in iOS SDK has been built in Objective-C and works best with the Objective-C programming model in mind. Many third party libraries are still written in Objective-C. However, the most important reason to know it, you might have to work on an older project that is written in Objective-C and you will be expected to know how to work with it. Additionally, having an idea how to migrate from Objective-C to Swift depending on project needs is also required.
Knowing Swift pros and cons is for mid developers so I will not talk about them.
Data Persistence
There are various ways to persist data on iOS devices. You should be familiar with these:
- UserDefaults
- Core Data
- Sqlite Database
- Keychain
- Realm database
- NSKeyedArchiver and NSKeyedUnarchive
- Saving files directly on the file system
- Plist
You should know when to use each of these methods having in mind: security, speed, less code, better syntax, reusability, support, complexity of data models and frequency of the model change.
Networking
First, you must know formats like json, xml, html.
Then you should know how to make network requests, parse json data, chain asynchronous requests, make authentication and use tokens.
You should be familiar with these:
You should also have an idea how to cache network requests.
Concurrency
You should be familiar with Grand central dispatch and Operation and when to use one over another.
In summary:
- GCD vs. Operation
- serial queues vs. parallel queues
- async task vs. sync task
- main thread vs. background thread
Security
It is very important to keep the application secure and without vulnerabilities. Having that in mind, you should be familiar with these concepts:
- symmetric and asymmetric cryptography
- public and private key
- SSL Pinning
- SSL protocol
- Keychain
- MASVS — Mobile Application Security Verification Standard
- GDPR — General Data Protection Regulation
User interface
Building great UI is very important in the iOS world. There are several things I would like to point out here:
You should know how to build a user interface from interface builder and from a code. You should know the pros and cons of both and when to use one over another.
You should have deep knowledge about auto layout and know when to use it and when not.
You should know how to build an interface for different device sizes.
You should know about the UI calculation on non-main thread. Knowing Texture library that does that, or any other is a bonus.
Animations
Great UI comes with an animation. I will repeat again, great UI is very important in the iOS world. Sometimes it seems like the most important thing. To keep up, these are the required things to know:
- Basic animations on UIView
- Core animations
- Custom transitions between two screens (push, pop, present, dismiss)
Furthermore, I would not say it is required, but knowing things like Lottie and Paint code is very much welcome.
Dependencies
There is a big number of hight quality third party libraries and frameworks that you would want to include in your project. There are basically three things that you should know:
- integrate third party code into your project by hand
- use CocoaPods as your dependency manager
- use Carthage as your dependency manager
You should also know that there is a Swift Package Manager, but it is not an option right now because it doesn’t support the iOS platform.
You should have heard for this third party libraries: Alamofire, AFNetworking, Texture, SnapKit, Reactive cocoa, RxSwfit, MagicalRecord, Realm, Kingfisher, SDWebImage, Specta, Expecta, Fabric/Crashlytics, Firebase.
Reactive programming
Nowadays reactive programming is very popular. Many IT agencies uses it as a programming standard. It is an ok setup, but, as with everything in the world, there are ups and downs when using this pattern and you should know them.
However, knowledge about reactive programming is unavoidable. In iOS there are a few libraries that I would like to point up:
- Reactive cocoa (for Objective-C)
- RxSwfit
- ReactiveSwift
Code integration
QA
I know that there are dedicated testers in IT companies, but I think a programmer should be responsible for a software quality. As a senior developer you should produce a high quality product. First, you should be familiar with these concepts and use them:
- unit testing and FIRST principle of Unit testing
- integration testing
- UI testing
- end to end testing
- manual testing
You should also be able to set a QA process that best suits project needs and take responsibility for a software quality.
Education
Every day something new comes in the iOS industry and we can all agree that nobody can know everything. To keep up with all the new stuff, constant education is very important. That is why you should read books, blogs, watch videos, follow newsletters, attend meet-ups and conferences, generally speaking, be active in the iOS community.
Furthermore, writing blogs/books, speaking at conferences or developing your own library is a big bonus and is recommended for a senior developer.
Soft skills
Very often job description for a senior developer lack soft skills. I believe that they are as much valuable as technical skill. Here are a few that are very important:
- Communicating with team members, clients and other people
- Finding solutions with teammates / being able to come to an agreement
- Having skills like being able to estimate thing correctly, delivering on time and taking responsibility for your work
- Appropriately approaching the problem
- Time management
- Leading junior developers
Conclusion
Even though you might be familiar with all the things I have mentioned, you may or may not call yourself a senior iOS developer. The point is, this is my opinion and you are more than welcome give your thoughts on the subject.
I would also like to point out that 10.000 hours rule is also a good guidance. I know that you can have a really good knowledge in less hours, but trust me, once you reach that number you will see the difference.
It is like a driving a car. In one year you might be a really good driver. You might be skilled in curves, driving backwards, parking, but I’m sure that you won't experience all the things such as driving an automatic/a manual/a big/ a small car, driving in the snow or mud, what to do when you have a flat tire or what to do when a certain safety light is on. In five years, if you drive often, you will probably experience all this.
Where to go from here
If you are not familiar with all the concepts I have mentioned below is the list of sources I would recommend:
Architecture
Design patterns:
- Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide
- Design Patterns by Tutorials
- Design Patterns Video Tutorials by Derek Banas
Reactive programming
Data Persistence
Security:
- IOS Application Security: The Definitive Guide for Hackers and Developers
- OWASP Mobile Security Testing Guide
- http://damnvulnerableiosapp.com/
Animations
Networking
