How to hire for an IOS Application Developer?
Summary (Layman Explanation of the role):
iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple company. It belongs to MAC OS family. iOS developers work on developing applications
specific to Apple mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad. Main tasks that iOS developers do are with respect to UI, develop the application and publish in the Apple store. There are two development strategies – Native and Hybrid. For example: Let us consider three Operating systems. Say iOS, Android and Windows. Native application development is specific to a OS. Here respective developers create three individual applications for three operating systems. Whereas Hybrid development strategy is developing an app which interacts with all operating systems in expected way. Object -c is used to develop native iOS applications. Swift falls in Hybrid development which means platform independent. iOS developers must be good with Object C, Swift, creative in using UI frameworks, innovative and quick in development tasks by using various Apple Frameworks, SDKs and remain updated with the software versions.
Standard Job Description:
iOS Developers are responsible for designing and coding the base application, ensuring the quality of the application, fixing application bugs, maintaining the code, and implementing application updates. Their primary focus will be developing high-end iOS applications for the latest Apple mobile devices. Their duties may include collaborating with the design team for new application features, identifying and fixing application bottlenecks, maintaining the core code, and updating applications published on the App Store.
Key Job Responsibilities:
1. Designing and building mobile applications for Apple’s iOS platform.
2. Collaborating with the design team to define app features.
3. Ensuring quality and performance of application to specifications.
4. Identifying potential problems and resolving application bottlenecks.
5. Fixing application bugs before final release.
6. Publishing application on App Store.
7. Maintaining the code and atomization of the application.
8. Designing and implementing application updates.
Ideal Candidate:
1. Proven experience as an app developer.
2. Familiarity with push notifications, APIs and cloud messaging.
3. Experience with continuous integration.
4. Proficient in Objective-C, Swift, and Cocoa Touch.
5. Extensive experience with iOS Frameworks such as Core Data and Core Animation.
6. Knowledge of iOS back-end services.
7. Knowledge of Apple’s design principals and application interface guidelines.
8. Proficient in code versioning tools including Mercurial, Git, and SVN.
9. Knowledge of C-based libraries.
Desired Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering.
Certifications Associated:
1. Apple Certified Developer
2. Swift Developer Certificate
Key Skills:
Objective C, IOS Framework, Swift, XCode, Interface Builder, Version Control, SQLite, Cocoa Touch, Jenkins, Xcode, MacOS, SDK, iPhone, Apple
Unix.
Common Positions:
1.Senior iOS Developer
2. Mobile Application Developer
3. Software Engineer (iOS)
4. Mobile App Developer
5. Mobile Software Engineer
6. Software Architect (iOS)
7. iOS Engineer
8. Lead iOS Developer
Screening Questions/Assessment Parameters:
These are the basic set of questions that a recruiter must ask from the candidate-
1. Familiar with Native and Hybrid app development?
2. Application complexity? (Scale of applications)
3. Experience in Frameworks like CoCoatouch (Foundation and UIKIT)?
4. Xcode versions and IOS SDK versions used?
5. other Frameworks like MAPkit, Core Motion, Core Data, AR kit?
6.Expertise in UX/UI designing?
7.Design patterns knowledge like MVC, MVP, MVVM?
8. Knowledge on photoshop is a plus.
For deeper assessment of the candidate the recruiter can go to the link below-
https://medium.com/@duruldalkanat/ios-interview-questions-13840247a57a
Basic Terminologies:
1. Application programming interface (API). A set of functions, classes, protocols, and other components that define how pieces of software should interact with each other.
2. Array. A data type that stores multiple values of the same type in an ordered list.
3. Cocoa Touch. The set of Apple frameworks and technologies used to develop iOS apps.
4. Data Model. The representation or structure of data within an app.
5. Enumeration. A data type that defines a group of related values and enables you to work with those values in a type-safe way within your code.
6. Fix-it. A suggested fix for a compiler error in Xcode.
7. Function. A reusable, named piece of code that can be referred to from many places in a program.
8. Protocol. A blueprint of methods, properties, and other requirements that suit a task or piece of functionality.
9. Read-only. A value that can only be viewed (read) but never changed (written).
10. Read-write. A value that can be both viewed (read) and changed (written).
Industry Jargons:
1. Model-View-Controller (MVC). A pattern of app design in which view controllers serve as the communication pipeline between views and the data model.
2. Optional binding. The process of attempting to assign an optional value to a constant in a conditional statement to see if the optional contains an underlying value.
3. Override. To replace an implementation of a method defined on a superclass.
4. Parameter. An additional piece of information that must be passed into a function, method, or initializer when it’s called.
5. Swift standard library. A set of data types and capabilities designed for Swift and baked into the language.
6. Tuple. A grouping of values.
7. UIKit. A Cocoa Touch framework for working with the user interface (UI) layer of an iOS app.
8. Global. A constant, variable, or function defined at the top-level scope of a program.
9. Instance. A specific occurrence of a class (that is, an object), structure, or enumeration.
10. Interface Builder. The graphical environment for building a user interface (UI) in Xcode.
11. MVVM: MMVM is a layered and separated architectural pattern used in developing mobile apps irrespective of operating systems.
Benchmark Profile:
Benchmark Profile on LinkedIn (1)
Benchmark Profile on LinkedIn (2)
Benchmark Profile on LinkedIn (3)
References: