iOS Developer Interviews with Alex Bush

Alex's Links

On Twitter @alex_v_bush
iOS Interview Guide 

Inside iOS Dev Podcast

Previous Episodes

Episode 8 - Cloud and Backend Services For Apps

What makes interviewing iOS Developers special?

Apple Design PatternsModel-View-ControllerDelegation PatternProtocol Oriented ProgrammingSpecial Background and Knowledge in Frameworks: UIKit, HealthKit, AVFoundation, WatchKit, etc...

Common mistakes employers make interviewing iOS candidates

Not understanding their own appHiring a consultant to help estimate and understand what iOS knowledge is nessecaryNot understanding the phase their app and whether general iOS developers are needed as opposed to iOS developers with specialtiesAlgorithms and Optimization Interview Questions

Interview Questions about building a UI in iOS

Finding out whether the applicant understands the pros and cons of various methods: Storyboards, Coding, etc...Make sure they are willing to work with the team

Common mistakes iOS developer applicants and candidates make

Not having broad knowledge of various solutions an app may need: Data Storage, Networking, UI...Some Backend Knowledge

Full Transcription

Leo Dion (Host): Hey Alex

[00:00:01] Alex Bush (Guest): Hey Leo 

[00:00:01] Leo Dion (Host): how are you doing, sir? 

[00:00:02] Alex Bush (Guest): Great. How are you doing? 

[00:00:04] Leo Dion (Host): Fantastic glad to have Alex Bush on from IOS interview guide and inside iOS Dev podcast. If you are interested in iOS development, you should definitely check his podcast out. Alex, what are you up to right now? 

[00:00:21] Alex Bush (Guest): I am sort of getting up to speed after Microconf and vacation.

[00:00:27] Leo Dion (Host): I hear you. I'm in the same boat microconf and peers and vacation and starting a new contract. So I know where you're coming from. 

[00:00:35] Alex Bush (Guest): Right and yeah, and I'm Contracting as well iOS so doing that getting up to speed on that  

[00:00:42] Leo Dion (Host): Who are you working with right now? 

[00:00:43] Alex Bush (Guest): Currently with Uber. Yeah, Silicon Valley, you know all the companies, around probably be looking for another gig soon enough. 

[00:00:53] Leo Dion (Host): Yeah. If you are interested in architecture, definitely check Alex's podcast out like your specialty really is in helping iOS developers get jobs and specifically the interview process, correct. 

[00:01:11] Alex Bush (Guest): Yes, that's sort of been my aim my focus lately last couple of years. Yeah, I wrote a book as you mentioned on the topic helping iOS developers get jobs right prep for interviews. 

[00:01:26] Leo Dion (Host): Okay. So if you're like a company hiring iOS developers, what are some things that make interviewing a potential iOS Developer different from - I guess the biggest thing is web developers, right? So what makes it different from hiring your standard web developer. 

[00:01:45] Alex Bush (Guest): That's a good question and it's sort of how the whole book thing and helping iOS devs interview started. I was at the time at a different consultancy helping them hire people for their iOS project. And as I was interviewing sort of same things will come up and I would kind of jot some notes take some notes on what to ask what to remember you get to ask and probe as I interview people and in general sort of when you interview, let's say a web developer or just a software developer right you go for a broader software topics, right?

[00:02:30] Roughly speaking algorithms and then design patterns and architectures, right but overall for software not specific for iOS and I think that's what's different when you're interviewing and hiring iOS people. The one thing is to in the sort of web world and specifically backend world in my opinion.

[00:02:52] You can hire a generalist and they can adapt. Quick enough I guess but in the iOS world it's very crucial to for for developers to really know very well the the frameworks that they work with and I think that's the main biggest difference when you're interviewing iOS people to sort of aim at that and assess their knowledge not just overall software development knowledge, but specifically iOS development.

[00:03:23] Leo Dion (Host): But I guess like you like it comes to mind because it drives almost everything maybe we'll particulars about UI kit are you thinking people should really know about 

[00:03:34] Alex Bush (Guest): it also depends right? Like if you're hiring for just I guess you don't have a heavy UI animation or performance concerns for your project or your app.

[00:03:46] Then you don't really need a specialist. Who knows. Low-level details some of that right but sometimes for example social networking apps or apps that have social networking aspect of some kind they struggle with scrolling performance. Right? Let's say you have a some sort of a Instagram like feed with pictures infinitives feed that you can scroll and it's dynamically size, right if that's a crucial part of your app.

[00:04:14] It's important to make the performance buttery smooth right and not every developer. Like this is what in regards of UIKit what you want to dig and assess more in that case 

[00:04:26] Leo Dion (Host): Okay, 

[00:04:27] Alex Bush (Guest): rather than just overall. You know, what is MVC? Right right. 

[00:04:32] Leo Dion (Host): So maybe we should clarify the audience like UI kit is the basic framework for the user interface on iOS. So if you're going to do any. Simple menus tables with navigation UI kit is the bread and butter of that and then like Apple kind of they teach an MVC pattern or model view controller, which I think correct me if I'm wrong like every developer who does iOS development should know that in an interview correct.

[00:05:00] Alex Bush (Guest): That is correct. Although I would say these days that's a prerequisite to Simply develop for iOS, but to be sort of hired for position. You should know more than that. At least be aware. Right?  

[00:05:16] Leo Dion (Host): I agree. I think that's the very basics what are some other things you should know about 

[00:05:20] Alex Bush (Guest): what comes to mind the core apple design pattern...