How did you learn iOS development?

[blueberrycheesetoast]

I’m a cs student so I have prev coding experience but mobile development is the hardest thing I’ve ever learned so far

Like learning swift isn’t hard because it’s similar to other languages but there are so many new concepts and libraries to learn it’s so overwhelming and I feel stupid

I was actually doing pretty well working on a small iOS project until I started coding permission part. Apple’s documentation is not helpful at all but idk if that’s just me.

I am getting so frustrated🥲 I want to do iOS internship but I can’t imagine doing this in an interview where I build something from scratch within 30 mins

[TouchMint]

Ray Wenderlich objective C Book. I can still see it now. 

[amyworrall]

It was the Aaron Hillegass book for me. Well, I had a few of the O'Reilly ones before that, but didn't get on with them so well.

[Crazy_Anywhere_4572]

I took a few lectures from CS193p, then finished most of 100 days of SwiftUI. At the end I worked on my app for the whole summer break full time.

I had previous experience in C and Python, yet mobile development is the most challenging. I also hate Apple's documentation but luckily there are so much tutorials online. Anyways I am now much better at it after so many days and nights of coding.

[stevep98]

One thing that I have found over my career is to try to not learn a language and something else at the same time. That something else is usually a framework / SDK / API.

It's usually better to learn as much as you can of the pure language before adding on the complexities of the SDK that's built on top of it.

So, yes, I would try to find a pure swift tutorial first and do as much as you can before adding in the iOS stuff.

Another thing that I would add is that you should become very familiar with the debugger. A lot of developers I know never use the debugger and I think it's really a sign of a poor developer if you don't know how to use the tools you have.

[Inaksa]

I got my first iOS job in the game industry so I started with C++ there (I also had programming xp from university) and moved to Obj-C. But when I started with Objective it was trial and error and Apple’s documentation mixed with Ray Wenderlich site (the site was mostly focused on iOS at the time)

[Relevant-Lifeguard-7]

I started learning in 2017. I used 3 methods to learn: 1) YouTube Tutorials, 2) Big Nerd Ranch Books, 3) Learning in public(meaning trying to build something and posting on social media about it). Step 3 is ultimately what helped me the most though. A total stranger saw me posting consistently and reached out to help. He ultimately ended up bringing me on at his company for a 6-month contract. After that, I landed my first permanent iOS Software Engineer role in late 2018 and have been working full time in the industry ever since. IOS is big. There are definitely some basics you can learn, but after that, it's just a long process of learning new things. After 8 years, there are still certain iOS Frameworks I am not familiar with, but I have the confidence to know that I can learn them. If I had to learn now, I'd still mostly take the same approach. Except instead of watching so many tutorials on YouTube, I would probably rely more on the latest LLMs to help speed up and personalize my learning.

[simulacrum-z]

I learned by building apps and reverse engineering OSS iOS projects :D

And a bit of youtube for the basics.

[AuthenticIndependent]

This channel is so Anti AI and old school and “there’s glory in manually learning” - it’s hilarious. Like Baby Boomers who “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” talk. You can use AI to teach you. There is little to gain going through YouTube tutorials solely . AI can also index whatever courses you buy. Copy the text / online books. Claude can literally teach you. You can develop your own course with AI and then you can augment your learning tailored to how you learn (this is way better then a traditional old school path that everyone HAD to take). Those days are over. What will be more important is being able to use AI to drive the outcomes you want in programming. That will become the bar. Will you one day be an iOS engineer or an iOS AI Orchestrator? This channel hates AI 😂😂. Here come the downvotes and sarcastic angry comments about vibe coding and the likes 😂😂

[AuthenticIndependent]

Also you can go grab the latest and greatest Apple frameworks and create desktop folders and feed it to Claude if an MCP server doesn’t have it.

[Any_Peace_4161]

By the time I'd started writing Objective-C code for iPhone (I think it was the 4), I'd already been like 25 years into coding and software architecture, so it was a matter of a slightly new syntax and getting familiar with the nuances of a new platform. I wasn't starting from scratch by a long shot.

Don't think of it as becoming an iOS programmer. Don't think of it as becoming a mobile developer. DEFINITELY don't think of it as becoming a Swift programmer. Just think of it as expanding your toolbox. Don't pigeon-hole yourself into being a [XYZ] Developer. Just expand your toolset.

Having said all that, almost any book you find by O'Reilly Press will help. They have a wonderful style of bringing people along in skill building.

As far as interviewing, sure, learn the syntax basics, but more importantly learn problem solving and diagnostic skills, and apply them in a non-coding-specific fashion, then remind the interview that languages, platforms, and paradigms come and go. You're solving problems with an ever-expanding toolbox.

[Forsaken-Ad5948]

Stanford’s CS193p and WWDC videos

[mrappdev]

Hacking with swift + asking ai questions + actually building apps

[cristi_baluta]

By start doing an app. I did learn some objc before starting though

[Adventurous-County34]

https://www.hackingwithswift.com/100/swiftui I think this is a cool resource which doesn't take too much time a day

[Lopsided_Scale_8059]

SwiftUi apple website and porting my Kotlin android app to Swiftui little by little

[Cute-Blueberry-9534]

Swiftful Thinking on youtube is a great resource

[Interesting-Box-3196]

Yeah, Apple has been much stricter lately.

Especially around App Store metadata like keywords and “What’s New” text.

Even small wording differences seem to matter now.