iOS Job Roadmap

PHASE 01

Swift Fundamentals

0/18

Move on when you can read ordinary Swift without looking up syntax every few lines.

All 18 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Course 0/1

Sean Allen — Swift Programming Tutorial (full course)

Language topics 0/15

Use The Swift Programming Language as your reference alongside the course.

Prove it 0/2

Solve ten Swift exercises without copying a solution

Read Apple's Swift API Design Guidelines

PHASE 02

SwiftUI

0/21

Move on when you can open a blank project and build a small multi-screen app without following a tutorial step by step.

All 21 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Course 0/1

Sean Allen — SwiftUI Fundamentals (full course)

Framework topics 0/14

Mini app, built solo 0/6

Small and throwaway. The point is building without a tutorial open.

Start a new SwiftUI project from scratch

Build three screens wired up with NavigationStack

Add a List with a reusable row view

Take form input with TextField

Persist one user preference with AppStorage

Add one feature you did not copy from anywhere

PHASE 03

UIKit

0/11

You will not write much new UIKit, but nearly every job has a UIKit codebase to read and interview questions about it.

All 11 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Course 0/1

Sean Allen — iOS Dev Interview Prep / Take Home Project

Topics 0/9

Understanding, not memorisation. You are learning to read UIKit, not to author it from scratch.

UIViewController and its lifecycle methods

UINavigationController

UITabBarController

UITableView with its data source and delegate

UICollectionView and compositional layout

Diffable data sources

The delegation pattern

Auto Layout: constraints, priorities, intrinsic content size

UIKit and SwiftUI interoperability, both directions

Prove it 0/1

Build one screen programmatically with Auto Layout, no storyboard Reading UIKit is not the same as writing it. Do this once so the interview answer is real.

PHASE 04

Modern Swift and the iOS Gaps

0/25

Everything a junior is expected to have touched that the beginner courses skip or rush.

All 25 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Concurrency 0/7

Read the Swift concurrency overview end to end

Write real async/await code, not just read it

Task, and when you need to create one

MainActor and why UI updates need it

Actors, data isolation, and the race conditions they prevent

Task cancellation and cooperative cancellation checks

Sendable, at least conceptually

Networking 0/6

URLSession

Codable, including custom CodingKeys

JSONDecoder and its decoding strategies

HTTP methods and status codes

Build one async/await API request yourself, from URL to decoded model

Handle all four UI states: loading, success, empty, error The difference between a tutorial app and a portfolio app is usually just this.

Persistence 0/4

SwiftData overview

Build a small SwiftData model and query it

UserDefaults

Core Data at a basic level You will not build with it, but existing codebases are full of it.

Architecture 0/4

MVC as Apple defines it

Move networking out of your views into a service type

Inject a dependency through an initializer instead of reaching for a singleton

Build one feature with MVVM-style separation

Testing 0/4

Swift Testing: read the overview and write your first test

XCTest basics Still what most existing test suites are written in.

Unit-test a piece of real business logic

Mock a dependency behind a protocol to test without the network

PHASE 05

Xcode and Shipping

0/7

The parts of the job no course covers. Each of these is a one-time thing you should have done before an interview asks about it.

All 7 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Debugging 0/4

Debug with breakpoints and LLDB (po, step over, step in)

Use the view hierarchy debugger to fix one real layout bug

Run one Instruments pass — Time Profiler or Leaks

Read a crash report and find the offending line

Getting it onto a phone 0/3

Run one of your apps on a physical iPhone

Understand code signing, certificates, and provisioning profiles

Archive and upload one build to TestFlight Needs a paid developer account. Worth it once — almost no junior candidate has done it.

PHASE 06

Portfolio App #1 — API-Driven

0/13

A polished SwiftUI app on top of a real REST API. GitHub client, movie browser, transit times, sports scores, news reader — pick one and finish it.

All 13 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Core build 0/5

Consume a real REST API with URLSession

Decode the API into Codable models

Do all async work with async/await

Keep networking out of your views, behind a service type

Load and cache remote images

The polish that gets it noticed 0/6

Implement search

Implement pagination or incremental loading

Show real loading states

Handle empty and error states, including no network

Cache or favourite something locally with SwiftData

Add accessibility labels and test with VoiceOver

Ship it 0/2

Write unit tests for the logic that matters

Write a README with screenshots, a demo GIF, and the architecture decisions

PHASE 07

Portfolio App #2 — Deeply Native

0/10

App #1 proves you can talk to a server. App #2 proves you know the Apple platform. Build it while you are already applying.

All 10 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Platform features 0/7

Build the whole thing on SwiftData

Schedule local notifications

Ship a home screen widget

Add at least one App Intent

Use one more native framework: Core Location, PhotosUI, Charts, or Background Tasks

Handle the app lifecycle properly — scene phase, background, restore

Add StoreKit 2 if monetisation makes sense for the app Optional, but a strong differentiator if the app has any premium tier.

Ship it 0/3

Add unit tests

Test accessibility with VoiceOver and Dynamic Type

Write a README with screenshots, a demo GIF, and the architecture decisions

PHASE 08

Git and GitHub

0/8

Your GitHub is the portfolio. Do this early — every project above should be committed as you go, not dumped at the end.

All 8 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Git 0/5

The daily loop: clone, add, commit, push, pull

Branching and merging

Rebase, at least enough to not fear it

Open a pull request and merge it

Cause a merge conflict on purpose and resolve it Far better to meet your first conflict alone than on day two of a job.

Profile 0/3

Pin your strongest iOS repositories

Put screenshots or demo GIFs at the top of every portfolio README

Clone each public repo fresh and confirm it still builds A pinned repo that does not compile is worse than no pinned repo.

PHASE 09

LeetCode 75

0/78

Seventy-five problems covering every pattern that shows up in an iOS interview loop. Solve them in Swift — that is the language you will be asked to code in. Attempt each one cold first, then study the pattern, then re-solve it later from scratch.

All 78 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Arrays and Hashing 0/10

Bit Manipulation 0/5

Sum of Two Integers Medium

Number of 1 Bits Easy

Counting Bits Easy

Missing Number Easy

Reverse Bits Easy

Dynamic Programming 0/11

Graphs 0/8

Clone Graph Medium

Course Schedule Medium

Pacific Atlantic Water Flow Medium

Number of Islands Medium

Longest Consecutive Sequence Medium

Rotting Oranges Medium

Is Graph Bipartite? Medium

Redundant Connection Medium

Intervals 0/5

Insert Interval Medium

Merge Intervals Medium

Non-overlapping Intervals Medium

Minimum Number of Arrows to Burst Balloons Medium

Interval List Intersections Medium

Linked Lists 0/6

Reverse Linked List Easy

Linked List Cycle Easy

Merge Two Sorted Lists Easy

Merge k Sorted Lists Hard

Remove Nth Node From End of List Medium

Reorder List Medium

Matrix and Backtracking 0/4

Set Matrix Zeroes Medium

Spiral Matrix Medium

Rotate Image Medium

Word Search Medium

Strings 0/9

Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters Medium

Longest Repeating Character Replacement Medium

Minimum Window Substring Hard

Valid Anagram Easy

Group Anagrams Medium

Valid Parentheses Easy

Valid Palindrome Easy

Longest Palindromic Substring Medium

Palindromic Substrings Medium

Trees and Tries 0/14

Heap and Priority Queue 0/3

Kth Largest Element in an Array Medium

Top K Frequent Elements Medium

Find Median from Data Stream Hard

Interview readiness 0/3

Solving each problem once is not the same as being ready. Aim for ~20 minutes on an Easy, ~35 on a Medium, and for Hards, understanding the approach even if you cannot always derive it under time pressure.

Re-solve twenty of these cold, without looking at your old code

Do five timed, interview-style sessions

Practise stating time and space complexity out loud for each solution

PHASE 10

Résumé and Interview Prep

0/7

Knowing the material and being able to say it out loud under pressure are different skills. Practise the second one.

All 7 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Résumé 0/4

Write a one-page, iOS-focused résumé

List a skill only if you can be questioned on it for ten minutes

Describe projects by engineering outcomes, not feature dumps

Link your GitHub and your two portfolio apps

Saying it out loud 0/3

Explain each portfolio app's architecture out loud in under five minutes Record yourself. It is uncomfortable and it works.

Do one full mock interview — Swift questions plus a live coding problem

Keep one document of every question you fumbled, and answer them properly

PHASE 11

Apply

0/8

Start the moment the Application Gate clears, and keep building while you do. Interviews tell you what to study next better than any roadmap can.

All 8 done. Nothing left in this phase.

Where to look 0/4

Set up LinkedIn alerts for Junior iOS, iOS, and Swift Developer

Search Indeed for iOS Developer roles

Search Wellfound for iOS roles at startups

Search Apple's own job board

How to run it 0/4

Apply to roles asking for a bit more experience than you have Listed requirements are a wish list, not a filter.

Set up an application tracker and log every single application

Write a debrief after every interview, while it is still fresh

Pick your next study topic from what interviews exposed, not from this list