Last updated on Oct 15, 2024

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Apple and iOS enjoy a big and loyal customer base. It will be safe to say that making a career in
iOS will be a safe bet. Not only experienced but also newcomers in programming are entering
this domain. There are a lot of good opportunities with high packages and excellent growth in
iOS. Consequently, this has also increased the number of companies targeting this platform for
its inherent features. They are, in turn, on the lookout for qualified iOS developers.

Here, we have compiled a comprehensive list of trending iOS interview questions and answers
that will help you access the right candidate and also help you ace the interview if you are a
developer.

Table of contents

Basic iOS interview questions and answers (40)

Intermediate iOS interview questions and answers (33)

Advanced iOS interview questions and answers (34)

BASIC IOS INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. Talk about CoreData.

Hide Answer

CoreData is used as a framework for managing object graphs. It helps manage a

graph of object instances that is potentially very large. This allows the app to use a
graph that would not completely fit in the memory, by bringing objects in and out of
the memory when needed. CoreData also helps in managing the limitations on
properties and relationships and in maintaining the integrity of references. This
means that when objects are added to or removed from a relationship, the forward
and backward links remain consistent. Therefore, CoreData is considered to be the
perfect framework for creating the “model” of an MVC architecture.

CoreData uses SQLite for disk storage to implement graph management. It is

possible to implement graph management using some other relational database or
even a non-relational database like CouchDB. CoreData is more of an API that
abstracts from the actual datastore than a database engine. Therefore you can tell
how CoreData must store itself - as a plist, an SQLite database, a binary file, or a
custom data store type. About
us
Giving a detailed answer to an iOS interview question like this is good, but your
answer can become great if you can add your perspective as well to the answer.

2. What is the difference between copy and retain?

Hide Answer

Generally, retaining an object increases its retain count by one. This helps retain the
object in memory instead of being blown away. Therefore, if you only have the
retained version of an object, you will share that copy of the same with whoever sent
it to you.

Copying an object, on the other hand, creates an extra copy or a duplicate version
of the object. While you share the original with the person who sent the object to you,
you do not share the copied or duplicate version with the sender.

3. Talk about code signing for iOS apps.

Hide Answer

A signed application helps the system to know who signed the application and also
to determine that no changes were made to the application after it was signed. This
is a necessary step to submit the application to the App Store for iOS and Mac. There
is a signature verification process in OS X and iOS to confirm that the applications do
not run with invalid signatures. This builds trust for the users who know that the
application is signed by a verified Apple Source and no changes were made to it
since signing.

During the build process, your digital identity is used by Xcode to sign your
application. The digital identity comprises a public-private key pair and a certificate.
The cryptographic functions use the private key to create the signature. Apple issues
the certificate that contains the public key and helps identify you as the key pair
owner.
The signature protects the executable code of the application because as soon as
About
the executable code in the application changes even slightly, the signature
us
becomes invalid. However, changes to images or nib files do not invalidate the
signatures as these resources are not signed.

The signature of an application can be removed and a different digital identity can
be used to re-sign the application. For example, all applications on App Store are re-
signed by Apple when they are sold.

For an iOS interview question of this type, it may be good to add if you have any prior
experience of a project with similar requirements, code-signing for iOS apps in this
case.

4. What are the different iOS App States?

Hide Answer

There are five app states in iOS. While the app state is managed by the OS, the
important tasks are managed by the app itself so that transitions between states
happen smoothly. The iOS programming guide lists the five iOS app states as
follows:

Non-running - When the app is not in the running state.

Inactive - When the app runs in the foreground but does not receive any events.
This can happen with an iOS app when a call or SMS is received or some other
function takes precedence.

Active - This is the state when the app runs in the foreground and receives events.

Background - When the app runs in the background and executes code at the
same time.

Suspended - When the app runs in the background but does not execute any
code at that time.

iOS interview questions like the above where you need to talk about multiple states
or steps are popular in iOS interviews
 About
5. Mention the main features of Swift. Also, outline its advantages and
disadvantages. us

Hide Answer

The main features of Swift are as follows:

Generics

Optionals

Reference types

Value types

Static typing

Protocols

The biggest feature of Swift is that it is a strongly-typed language. Being a strongly-

typed language is an advantage as well as a disadvantage. Development in Swift is
easy because of protocols, generics, and optionals which exist because of static
typing. While static timing throws several compilation errors and compile-time
warnings, it also offers more security at runtime and helps in determinism for
optionals, generics, etc. This is, therefore, a big advantage of Swift. The security
offered by strict type is most useful under the following circumstances:

When creating a client application requires more strict clarity than flexibility and
dynamism

When you don’t want inexperienced developers to have excessive power and
cause damage to themselves or their work and thus, need to add restrictions

When your code needs refactoring and using the compiler can help in writing
proper and correct code

All the above are scenariOS where developers build customer-facing iOS
applications.
The disadvantage of Swift is that it can be too restrictive, especially when the app
you are building needs flexibility. For example, when you build a library or a
framework, it needs to be flexible and dynamic. In such a case, Objective-C which
offers meta-programming capabilities can be a better choice than Swift, though
presently, Objective-C seems to be going obsolete. About
us
6. What is MVC?

Hide Answer

MVC stands for Model View Controller. It is Apple’s main software design pattern for
developing iOS apps. Models represent the data for the application. Views bring
things to the screen. Controllers are used to manage the flow of data between
model and view. There is no direct communication between model and view, all
communication is taken care of by the controller.

As a senior developer, one must know that while MVC is good for general-purpose
design, it can be used only for the view layer. Therefore, using only MVC will restrict
the architecture of the application and could also lead to the “Massive View
Controller” problem.

Massive View Controller refers to that state of the codebase when excessive logic
and responsibility are given to View Controllers that are not supposed to shoulder
that responsibility. As a result, the code may become rigid, bloated, and difficult to
alter. As a remedy, one can use design patterns such as Coordinator, MVP, and
MVVM. For scaling the iOS code and avoiding this type of problem, architectures like
VIPER and RIBs can be used.

7. Can you differentiate between delegate and KVO?

Hide Answer

Both, delegate and KVO, create relationships between objects. Delegation creates a
one-to-one relationship in which the delegate protocol is implemented by one
object, and the other object uses protocol-defined methods to send messages to
the first object. KVO, on the other hand, creates a many-to-many relationship in
which the message is broadcast by one object, and one or more objects receive the
message and react to it. KVO is not protocol-dependent.
When preparing for your iOS interview, ensure that you go through all such concepts
where you could be asked to differentiate between two things. About
us
8. Mention some design patterns apart from the common Cocoa patterns.

Hide Answer

Apart from MVC, Singleton, Observer, and Delegate patterns that are commonly
used, there are other patterns too that could be used for developing iOS
applications:

Factory Method: With the Factory Method, one can replace class constructors for
abstracting and hiding initialization of objects so that the type is determined when
the application is run. This method also helps to hide and contain the switch/if
statements that help identify which objects to create instances for.

Adapter: With the help of the Adapter design pattern one can adapt one object’s
interface to that of the other. It is useful when a third-party code cannot be
changed to one’s own code or when something with an inconvenient or
incompatible API needs to be used.

Decorator: The Decorator is a wrapper that can be wrapped around different

classes to enhance their capabilities. One can wrap it around things one wants to
decorate. Once wrapped, it implements the interface and delegates the
messages that were sent to it to the underlying objects, or it changes and
improves objects or gives its own implementation to them.

Command: The Command design pattern allows you to implement an object

representing an operation that you want to perform. The operation you want to
execute may have its own state and logic for performing the task. As an
advantage, you can hide the operation’s internal implementation from the users,
add undo/redo capabilities to it, and even execute operations later instead of at
the time of operation creation.

Template: The Template design pattern has a base class outlining the algorithm
for what is required to be done. There are several abstract methods of the base
class. These abstract methods must be implemented by the concrete subclasses
of the base class. These abstract methods are also referred to as hook methods.
The interaction of the Template Method class users happens through the base
 class that implements the algorithm steps. The subclasses supply the concrete
implementations for those steps. About
us
9. Mention different options for implementing storage and persistence in iOS.

Hide Answer

Outlined below are the ways to store data in simple to complex order:

For intermediate data storage or for storage that doesn’t need to last long, we can
use in-memory arrays, dictionaries, sets, and other data structures.

For simple key-value storage, we can use NSUserDefaults/Keychain. Here, one

thing is insecure, and the other is secure, respectively.

For writing data to or from a disk, we can take the help of NSFileManager, whether
the data is serialized or not, we can use File or Disk storage.

When trying to simplify working with databases, frameworks like Core Data and
Realm are useful.

When your requirements include implementing complex querying mechanics, the

SQLite relational database is what you should use.

The above iOS interview question is an example of questions where you can use the
traditional answer outline above and be safe, but if you add examples of having
implemented each or any of the options above, you may earn the interviewer’s
attention.

10. When must you use strong, weak, and unowned references?

Hide Answer

When you work with Structs or Enums, ARC doesn’t manage these memory types.
Thus, there isn’t any need to worry about specifying whether you are using weak or
unowned references for the constants or variables there.
In hierarchical relationships, where the parent references the child but the reverse
does not occur, you can use strong references. In most cases, anyway, strong
references are apt. However, where the relationship of two instances is optional, you
must ensure that one instance is weakly referenced to the other.
When one instance is linked to another in a way that it cannot exist in the other’s
absence, there is a mandatory dependency of one variable on the other. AboutIn such a
us hold an
case, the instance that has mandatory dependence on the other must
unowned reference to the other.

11. What programming language is used for iOS development?

Hide Answer

The primary programming language used for iOS development is Swift. Objective-C
is also used, but its usage has been declining in favor of Swift.

12. Explain overlays.

Hide Answer

Overlays are a technique used in operating systems to allow programs to use more
memory than they would otherwise be able to.

When a program is loaded into memory, it takes up a certain amount of space. If the
program is large and requires more memory than is available, overlays can be used
to load only the portions of the program that are currently needed into memory. As
the program executes, different portions can be swapped in and out of memory as
needed.

13. List some important features of Swift.

Hide Answer

Some of the important features of Swift include:

Safety

Simplicity in syntax

Readability
 Support for multiplatform
About
us
14. Explain conditional conformances in Swift?

Hide Answer

In Swift, conditional conformances allow you to declare that a generic type

conforms to a protocol only under certain conditions. This means that a type will
only conform to a protocol if some condition is met, such as the type's generic
parameter satisfying certain constraints.

15. Explain ButtonStyle protocol in Swift.

Hide Answer

ButtonStyle protocol allow to customize new button styles that can be reused
without the need for new views. Using this protocol, you can create a button that will
appear the way you want. You will make your own style that sets a decent
background for a button. You can use the buttonStyle(_:) modifier.

16. Tell one difference between an array and a set.

Hide Answer

Where arrays are an ordered collection of values, sets are an unordered collection.
Also, an array can duplicate elements, while a set cannot.

17. Explain tuples and their use in Swift.

Hide Answer
A tuple is a set of multiple values inside Swift. They occupy space between
dictionaries and structures and return values from a function call. About
us
18. What is the use of GeometryReader?

Hide Answer

GeometryReader reads all the size and position information and passes that
information to its child views via GeometryProxy. It is a flexible view and takes over all
the available space provided by the parent view

19. Explain the bounding box.

Hide Answer

A bounding box is a rectangular frame that represents the smallest rectangle that
completely encloses a particular object or shape. This object can be an image, a
text character, or any other graphical element on the screen. The bounding box is
defined by its position and size. The position is specified by the coordinates of the
top-left corner of the rectangle, while the size is specified by the width and height of
the rectangle

20. What purpose does IBDesignable serve?

Hide Answer

When a custom view is set to IBDesignable, it allows Xcode to preview it while

storyboards are edited. Interface Builder helps directly with making custom layouts.
You can easily provide any effects like border width shadow color, shadow width,
border color, corner radius, and shadow Opacity.

21. Can you tell the type of settings that are stored in your Info. plist file?

Hide Answer
It stores those settings that must be available even when the app is not running. It is
a file in the Mac and GNUstep environments that stores user settings.About
There are three
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formats plist, Text, Binary, and XML. A plist can store string, number, data(binary
data), boolean, dictionary(associative array), and array.

22. Explain raw strings in Swift.

Hide Answer

They create strings that print what you see, unlike some escape orders that make
your string print in a different form. Raw strings are denoted by the # hash symbol,
also known as pound symbol. It is used before and after quotation marks by using #
at the starting and ending point.

23. Through what observable objects announce modifications to SwiftUI?

Hide Answer

Using two primary ways @Published property wrapper or calling objectwillchange.

send()

@Published property wrapper: It is very useful in SwiftUI. It allows us to create

observable objects that automatically announce when changes occur.

Objectwillchange: It is a property defined on the ObservableObject protocol.

Whenever any @Published properties of the objects change, the compiler
synthesizes a default implementation for the property, which emits a value.

24. Tell me about circular references in Swift.

Hide Answer

When two objects strongly refer each other, they can never be deallocated. And this
strong reference also enables them to keep each other alive. When objects hold
strong references to each other, it means that each object has a strong ownership
About
of the other, which creates a cycle, and this cycle is referred to as a circular
reference. us

25. Can we add a stored property to type through an extension?

Hide Answer

No, we cannot add a stored property to a type through an extension in Swift.

Extensions in Swift can add computed properties, instance methods, class methods,
and initializers to a type, but they cannot add stored properties. This is because
stored properties must be initialized when an instance of the type is created, and
extensions cannot provide their own initializers.

26. What do you understand about Half Open Range Operators in Swift?

Hide Answer

It specifies a range between values x and y (x..<y) where y is not included. The
operator specifies a range that includes the first value but not the final value.It is
specifically useful when you work with zero-based lists such as arrays, where it's
useful to count up to the length of the list.

27. Explain one benefit of using child view controllers?

Hide Answer

One benefit of using child view controllers is that it allows for better modularization
and organization of code in an iOS app. By breaking down a large, complex view
controller into smaller, more manageable child view controllers, it becomes easier to
understand and maintain the codebase.
28. What are reference types? About
us
Hide Answer

A reference type contains the location in the memory where data lives. A reference
type is passed to a function; instead of creating a new copy of the object, it just
creates another reference to that object which is shared among all the different
references.

29. Tell me about Nested Function in Swift.

Hide Answer

In Swift, a nested function is a function defined within the body of another function.
Nested functions are useful for organizing code and encapsulating functionality
within a larger function scope. Nested functions can be useful for abstracting
complex logic or for breaking down large functions into smaller, more manageable
parts.

30. What is Regular Expression?

Hide Answer

They are special string patterns that tell how to search for a string. It is a sequence of
characters that specifies a search pattern in the text; it finds or finds and replaces
operations on strings.

31. What is a Responder Chain?

Hide Answer

It is an order of objects that receive the chance to respond to events. It is the series
of events that happen once we start interacting with the application on iOS.
Applications receive and handle events using responder objects.
About
us
32. List the different types of literals Swift has.

Hide Answer

Octal Literals

Hexadecimal Literals

Binary Literals

Decimal Literals

33. Explain processor management.

Hide Answer

It provides tools and resources to steer business processes toward better

performance. It is an execution unit in which a program operates. It ensures that
each process and application receives enough of the processor’s time to function
properly and deallocates after the process is completed.

34. Name different types of control transfer statements used in Swift.

Hide Answer

Continue

Fallthrough

Return

Break

Throw
35. List two types of classes in Swift. About
us
Hide Answer

Subclass: It is the act of constructing a new class on an existing class. They inherit
characteristics from the existing class, and you can further modify them with new
characteristics.

Super Class: When a class inherits properties from another class, the inheriting class
is known as a subclass, and the class it inherits from is called a superclass.

36. What is Process management in iOS?

Hide Answer

Each thread in iOS serves as a single path of execution. Every application in IOS
starts with a single thread that runs the application's main functions.

37. Explain the process of writing a comment in Swift?

Hide Answer

For a single-line comment you can use double slashes (//)

And for multi-line comments you can use a forward slash followed by an asterisk
(/*)

38. Explain Optional Chaining in Swift.

Hide Answer

It is a process of querying and calling properties. Different queries can be chained

here, but the chain fails if any link is nil.
39. What do you understand about inheritance in Swift? About
us
Hide Answer

It is a process by which a class inherits properties, methods, or any other features

from some other class. It is a fundamental behavior that differentiates classes from
other types in Swift. We can write different implementations while maintaining the
same behaviors by reusing code we have already written.

40. Can you tell me about using Switch Statements in Swift language?

Hide Answer

It is used as an alternative to long if-else-if statements. It lets you inspect a value

and match it with a number of cases. It's especially effective in making concise
decisions based on one variable that can contain a number of possible values.
Using the switch statement often results in more concise code that's easier to read.

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INTERMEDIATE IOS INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. Explain the use of break statements in Swift language?

Hide Answer

It is used in a loop when you want to end a statement immediately in a loop. Also, it
is used to end the case in the switch statement. In simple words, when a program is
running at a specified condition, we use a break statement that automatically
breaks the current flow and terminates the program. About
us

2. What is the difference between "didSet" and "willSet" in Swift?

Hide Answer

"didSet" is a property observer that is called after the property's value has been set,
while "willSet" is a property observer that is called before the property's value is set.
"didSet" and "willSet" are useful for performing additional logic when a property's
value changes, such as updating the UI or triggering other methods.

3. What is NSUserDefaults?

Hide Answer

It is the simplest way to store data without a database using key-value pairs.
Basically, it provides a programmatic interface for interacting with the default
systems. By this default setting, an application is able to change or modify its
behavior to match a user's preference. For example, users can specify their preferred
media playback speed.

4. NSUserDefaults support which types?

Hide Answer

Types supported by NSUserDefaults are as follows.

NSString

NSDate

NSDictionary

NSData
 NSNumber
About
us
5. What is the use of reuseIdentifier?

Hide Answer

It is used to accumulate together parallel rows in an UITableView, for example, rows

that are different only in their content but otherwise have similar layouts. A
UITableView object maintains a line of the currently reusable cells, each with its own
reuse identifier, and makes them accessible to the delegate in the
dequeueReusableCell method.

6. Tell one difference between viewDidLoad and viewDidAppear.

Hide Answer

Where viewDidLoad pop-ups on the screen only when the view is loaded. At this
position, you can instantiate any instance variable and build any views that remain
on the device of this view controller.

viewDidAppear appears each time on the device. In this position, you can perform
any layout actions, or you can do any drawing in the User Interface.

7. Through which methods can you identify the layout of elements in UIView?

Hide Answer

InterfaceBuilder: It gives collections of user interface objects to a Swift developer.

NSLayoutConstraints: NSLayoutConstraints is the relationship between two user

interface objects that must be satisfied by the constraint-based layout system.

CGRect: CGRect is a structure that contains the location and dimensions of a

rectangle.
8. What is the significance of “?” in Swift? About
us
Hide Answer

When declared, “?” makes a property optional. However, if the property is not
valuable, it helps avoid runtime errors.

9. What do you know about synchronous and asynchronous tasks in iOS?

Hide Answer

Synchronous tasks are those for which you have to wait to complete before moving
ahead. On the contrary, for asynchronous tasks, you don't have to wait for the task to
complete. Synchronous code execution blocks the current thread until the task is
completed, while asynchronous code execution allows the thread to continue
running and completes the task in the background.

10. What is a de-initializer, and how is it used in Swift?

Hide Answer

A de-initializer is called before a class instance is deallocated.

To write it, we use the deinit keyword as follows:

Deinit {

// deinitialization is performed

11. Explain lazy stored properties?

Hide Answer
These are those properties whose first values are not computed until the first time
About
they are used. To use it, you can report the lazy modifier before its declaration.
us

12. What is the use of Size Classes?

Hide Answer

Size Classes is a feature in iOS that allows developers to design adaptive interfaces
that can adjust to different screen sizes and device orientations. It is used to create
user interfaces that look great and function well across different iOS devices. With
Size Classes, developers can specify how the layout and behavior of their app's UI
should change when it's displayed on a different device.

13. Can you name the JSON framework supported by iOS?

Hide Answer

SBJson framework is a data interchange format that is easy to read and write. Here
JSOn stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is a JSON syntax analyzer and
generator for Objective-C, which provides additional controls and flexible APIs, which
makes JSON handling easier. Using the SBJson framework, you can reduce the
apparent latency for each download/parse cycle of documents over a slow
connection, can start parsing and return chunks of the parsed document, and can
parse large documents bit by bit, so you don't have to keep them in memory.

14. Explain one difference between atomic and nonatomic properties?.

Hide Answer

While atomic properties are slow but thread-safe, only one thread is accessed by
the variable(static type). It is not a keyword but a default behavior.
Whereas nonatomic is fast but thread-unsafe and multiple thread access by the
variable (dynamic type). It is not a default behavior; that's why we need to add the
keyword in the property attribute. If two different threads access a similar variable at
the same time, then maybe the result is unexpected behavior. About
us
15. List the different kinds of iOS Application States.

Hide Answer

Not running state

Active state

Background state

Suspended state

Inactive state

16. List the ways to achieve concurrency in iOS?

Hide Answer

Threads

Dispatch Queues

Operation Queues

17. Explain SpriteKit and SceneKit.

Hide Answer

SpriteKit is a framework to develop animated 2D objects easily.

SceneKit is a framework from OS X that helps with 3D graphics design.

18. What is the difference between "try", "try?", and "try!" in Swift?

Hide Answer
"try" is used for throwing functions that can potentially fail, "try?" is used to handle
errors gracefully by returning nil if an error occurs, and "try!" is used toAbout
force unwrap
the result of a throwing function and crash the app if an error occurs.us
"try?" is
typically used for non-critical operations where it's okay to gracefully handle errors,
while "try!" should be used sparingly and only when you are certain that an error
won't occur.

19. Explain autorelease pool in Swift.

Hide Answer

The primary purpose of an autorelease pool is to help manage memory usage and
reduce memory footprint in programs that create a lot of short-lived objects.

An autorelease pool is a stack-like structure that manages the release of objects.

When an object is added to an autorelease pool, it is not released immediately, but
rather added to a list of objects that will be released when the pool is drained.

20. Which API is suitable for writing test scripts to use the application’s UI elements?

Hide Answer

UI Automation API as it initiates user interaction with the application and returns the
log information.

21. UIKit classes are used from which application thread?

Hide Answer

UIKit classes should only be used from the main application thread, also known as
the main thread or UI thread. In iOS development, the main thread is responsible for
handling user interface updates, including processing user interactions, layout
changes, and animation.
22. What is the difference between ‘app ID’ from ‘bundle ID’. Why areAbout
they used?
us
Hide Answer

App ID is a unique identifier used by Apple to identify a specific app developed by a

specific development team. It is used for various purposes, such as enabling push
notifications, setting up app groups, and configuring the App Store.

Bundle ID, on the other hand, is an identifier specified by the developer in Xcode that
uniquely identifies each app. It is used to identify the app's executable, as well as its
resources and metadata

23. Tell one difference between Cocoa and Cocoa Touch.

Hide Answer

Cocoa is an application framework for building applications for Mac OS, whereas
Cocoa touch is used for building applications that run on iPad and iPhones (iOS).

24. Explain Automatic Reference Counting (ARC).

Hide Answer

ARC (Automatic Reference Counting) is a memory management technique used in

iOS development to automatically manage the memory of objects. It initializes and
reinitializes the system resources. It is a memory management option for Objective-
C provided by the Clang compiler. It automatically frees up memory when class
instances don’t have strong references.

25. What do you know about Grand Central Dispatch in iOS?

Hide Answer
Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) is a low-level API that allows running tasks in parallel.
About system
Also, it manages threads in the background. It contains language features,
us
enhancements, and runtime libraries that provide comprehensive, systemic
improvements on multicore hardware in iOS.

26. What is Deep linking in iOS?

Hide Answer

It directs the user to an app instead of a website through URLs or universal links.
Deep linking links to a specific piece of content within an app. The content could be
a particular section of a page, a view, or a certain tab.

27. What is Objective-C in OS?

Hide Answer

Apple uses Objective-C as an object-oriented programming language. This

language entails the benefits of C and Smalltalk. Objective-C inherits C syntax, flow
control statements, and primitive types and adds syntax for defining methods and
classes.

28. List the important data types in Objective C.

Hide Answer

BOOL

NSInteger

NSUInteger

NSString

29. What is the use of NotificationCenter?

 Hide Answer
About
usto receive
NotificationCenter is a feature in iOS and macOS which is mostly used
system messages outside and inside of your application. It shows your notifications
history, allowing you to scroll back and see what you have missed. Users may
choose what applications appear in Notification centers and how they are handled.

30. What is a Dictionary in Swift?

Hide Answer

Dictionary in Swift is an unordered collection of items that stores items in key-value

pairs. It uses a key as an identifier to store values that can be recovered through the
same key. It is an unordered collection of key-value pairs; a key refers to unique
identifiers, and a key stores a value.

Syntax:

var Dict_name = [KeyType: ValueType] ()

Example:

var examresult= [“Neha”: “44”, “Adil”: “56”, “Era” : “84”]

print(examresult)

Output:

[“Neha” : “44”, “Adil” : “56”, “Era” : “84”]

Keys are “Neha,” “Adil,” “Era”

Values are “44”, “56”, “84”

31. What are design patterns in iOS?

Hide Answer

It solves specific problems that might occur while designing an app's architecture.
They are templates designed to make your coding easier. The most common design
patterns are:
About
Facade
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Decorator

Memento

Adapter

32. What is the completion handler?

Hide Answer

They are functions passed as parameters to other functions. Also, they are used with
asynchronous tasks. They tell when an operation has finished. It is a technique for
implementing callback functionality using blocks/closures.

33. What are iBeacons in iOS?

Hide Answer

It is new low-energy Bluetooth wireless technology that allows iPhone and other iOS
users to get location-based info on smartphones. It is a small-scale network device
that acts as a transmitter to detect and track smartphones.

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ADVANCED IOS INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. List the different Process States in iOS. About
us
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Not Running: The app is not launched or was running but was terminated by the
system.

Inactive: The app is in the foreground but not receiving events. This state is typically
brief as apps transition to other states.

Active: The app is in the foreground and receiving events.

Background: The app is in the background and executing code. Most apps enter this
state briefly on their way to being suspended.

Suspended: The app is in the background but is not executing code. The system may
purge suspended apps from memory at any time without warning to make more
space for other apps.

2. How do you create a custom UIView in iOS? Provide an example.

Hide Answer

To create a custom UIView, you need to create a subclass of UIView and implement
the draw(_:) method.

Example:
3. What is Test-Driven Development (TDD)? About
us
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It is used during software development to decide the software characteristics and

write test cases for each such characteristic. It provides insights into both quality
and design. You have to create and test each functionality of the test case; if it fails,
write the new code to pass the test and make the code simple and bug-free.

4. What is the difference between a closure and a function in Swift? Provide an

example of each?

Hide Answer

A closure is a self-contained block of code that can be passed around and executed
at a later time, while a function is a named block of code that performs a specific
task.

5. How do you implement a singleton in Swift? Provide an example?

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To implement a singleton in Swift, you need to create a static instance property and
a private initializer. About
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6. What are the different smart groups in Xcode?

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Simple Smart Group - This basic smart group lets you filter your project by file type,
name, or path.

Simple Expression Smart Group - This smart group lets you filter your project using a
more complex expression, such as "name contains 'ViewController' and the path
contains 'Controllers'."

Custom Smart Group - This smart group lets you create a custom filter using
predicates, which are similar to expressions but offer more options and flexibility.

7. What is the difference between a weak reference and a strong reference in iOS
development?

Hide Answer

A strong reference keeps an object in memory until it is released, while a weak

reference allows the object to be deallocated when there are no more strong
references to it. For example, in the following code, the parent object has a strong
reference to the child object, while the child object has a weak reference to its
parent:
 About
us

8. Explain Code Coverage.

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It measures the statements in the body of code that have been executed and non-
executed when tests are performed. A program with high test coverage executes
more of its source code during testing, suggesting it has a lower chance of
containing undetected software bugs than a program with low test coverage.

9. How do you use a guard statement in Swift?

Hide Answer

A guard statement is used to exit a function or method early if a certain condition is

not met. It is typically used to validate input parameters at the beginning of a
function.

Here's an example:
 About
us

10. What is the use of design patterns in Linux?

Hide Answer

They are used to solve common problems in software design and assist in writing
simplified code using different templates. Using design patterns, you can represent
an idea, not a particular implementation, and make code more flexible, reusable,
and maintainable.

11. List some common Cocoa Design patterns.

Hide Answer

Some of the most commonly used Cocoa design patterns are:

Creational: Singleton - This pattern is used to ensure that only one instance of a
class is created and that it is globally accessible. This is useful when you need to
share a resource or configuration settings throughout your application.

Behavioral: Memento - The Memento pattern is a behavioral design pattern that

allows an object's state to be saved externally and restored later. The Memento
pattern is often used in conjunction with the Command pattern and the Undo/Redo
functionality.

Structural: Decorator - The Decorator pattern allows behavior to be added to an

object without changing its structure. This is useful when you want to add
functionality to an object at runtime or when you want to create a chain of
decorators that modify an object's behavior in a specific order. About
us

12. Tell me about Adapter Pattern.

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The Adapter Pattern is a design pattern that allows objects with incompatible
interfaces to work together. It acts as a bridge or a wrapper between two existing
interfaces, converting the interface of one object into another interface that clients
expect.

This conversion allows objects with different interfaces to collaborate seamlessly.

We need this when we have an Ethernet interface on one end and USB on the other.

13. How do you create a custom table view cell in iOS?

Hide Answer

To create a custom table view cell in iOS, you need to create a new subclass of
UITableViewCell and define the user interface elements in the cell's contentView.
Here is an example of a custom table view cell:
14. List the APIs for battery-efficient location tracking. About
us
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Significant location changes: Users can track locations up to 1km.

Region monitoring: Users can track enter/exit events within a radius equal to 100m or
more.
Visit events: It monitors enters/exits visit events from a place(Home/office)

15. What method do you prefer to cache data in memory?

Hide Answer

While there are many ways, NSCache is preferable over a simple dictionary as it
automatically clears the cache on low memory. NSCache will automatically remove
items without you knowing about it and remove items intelligently, trying to keep as
much cached as possible.

Additionally, NSCache provides other features such as thread-safe access to

cached data, support for arbitrary keys and values, and customizable behavior
through the use of delegate methods. These features make NSCache a flexible and
robust caching solution that is well-suited for a wide range of use cases.

16. What is the difference between a delegate and a notification in iOS

development?

Hide Answer

A delegate is a design pattern that allows one object to communicate with another
object by sending messages directly to a delegate protocol. A notification, on the
other hand, is a message that is broadcasted to all registered observers without any
specific target. In short, delegates are used for one-to-one communication, while
notifications are used for one-to-many communication.
 About
17. What is the difference between the "frame" and "bounds" properties of a UIView
in iOS? us

Hide Answer

The "frame" property of a UIView specifies the view's location and size relative to its
superview, while the "bounds" property specifies the view's location and size relative
to its own coordinate system. In other words, the frame takes into account the view's
position within its superview, while the bounds only considers the view's own
coordinate space.

18. What is the use of computed properties?

Hide Answer

Computed properties are a feature that allow you to define a property whose value
is computed rather than stored. Instead of directly storing a value in memory, a
computed property calculates its value on the fly based on some underlying logic or
other properties.

19. What is dynamic dispatch?

Hide Answer

It is a mechanism that enables the program to decide during runtime what

implementation of a method or function to call. Dynamic dispatch can provide
flexibility and extensibility to a program by allowing new subclasses to override
methods inherited from their parent classes and provide their own implementations.

20. What are the different kinds of operations possible on semaphore?

Hide Answer
Two atomic operations are possible:
About
Wait(): This operation decreases the value of the semaphore by 1. If the value of the
us
semaphore is already 0, then the process that performs the wait operation is
blocked until the semaphore value becomes greater than 0.

Signal(): This operation increases the value of the semaphore by 1. If any processes
were blocked on this semaphore due to a wait operation, then one of those
processes is unblocked.

21. Define RTOS.

Hide Answer

RTOS stands for Real-Time Operating System and it is used for real-time
applications. It is suitable for those applications where a large number of events,
mostly external to the computer system, must be accepted, and data processing
must be done in a short time or within certain deadlines. With the help of RTOS, you
can measure the processing time in tenths of seconds.

22. What is the purpose of the "prepareForReuse" method in a UITableViewCell in

iOS?

Hide Answer

The "prepareForReuse" method is called on a UITableViewCell just before it is about

to be reused for a new row in the table view. It allows the cell to reset its state and
prepare for new content. For example, you might reset the cell's text and image
properties and cancel any pending network requests.

23. List two types of process synchronization.

Hide Answer

The two types of process synchronization are:

Interprocess Communication (IPC): This mechanism allows processes to
About
communicate and synchronize their actions with each other. Examples of IPC
us
mechanisms include shared memory, message passing, and semaphores.

Mutual Exclusion (Mutex): This is a technique used to ensure that only one process
at a time accesses a shared resource or a critical section of code. Mutex can be
implemented using binary semaphores, locks, or synchronization primitives.

24. When would you say that an app is not running?

Hide Answer

Either when it is not launched or when it gets terminated by the system when
running. The OS may have terminated the app. Therefore, if an application is not
visible on the screen or background, that means the application is in the Not
Running state.

25. When will you assume an app to be in an active state?

Hide Answer

The app is running in the background, receiving the events and executing code, but
for a limited time ( In iOS 12, the app remains working for 180 seconds ); the
Operating System automatically moves the application to the suspended state and
stops the execution of code.

26. Can you say something about how the app transitions when launched?

Hide Answer

After moving from an inactive state, it first goes to an active or background state. It
is not said to be running before launch. The app runs in the foreground but does not
receive events in an inactive state. The next stage is an active state where an
application runs in the foreground and receives events. Next is the background state,
where the application runs in the background and executes code. Last is the
suspended state, where the application is present in the background, but no code is
being executed. About
us

27. Which state does an app reach briefly before being suspended?

Hide Answer

A background state is where most apps enter briefly on their way to being
suspended. Although, an application that requests extra execution time may remain
in this state for a certain period. Apart from an application being launched directly
into the background, it enters the background state instead of the inactive state.

28. Can you tell the difference between == and ===?

Hide Answer

Where the equal-to == operator checks whether the values are the same,the strict
equality === operator checks if the references point to the same instance. The
equal-to == operator does the type conversion of the operands before comparison,
whereas the strict equality === operator compares the values and the data types of
the operands.

29. When will you use deinit?

Hide Answer

You can use it if you want to clean up before deallocating the class instances. With
it, you can free up the memory space occupied by the system. If we manually want
to deallocate instances, we only use deinit in Swift. Otherwise, Swift automatically
does the deallocation. Each class contains only a single deinit.

30. What methods will you use to reduce the size of the App?
 Hide Answer
About
uscode that
Bitcode: This is an intermediate representation of your app's compiled
Apple can recompile for different devices and architectures. This can help reduce
the overall size of your app.

App slicing: With app slicing, only the necessary assets are downloaded to a user's
device, which can help reduce the size of your app by excluding assets that aren't
needed for specific devices.

On-demand resources: This method involves delivering content only when it's
needed. This can help reduce the initial download size of your app by not requiring
users to download all assets at once.

App thinning: This is a set of techniques used to optimize the installation process
and reduce the amount of storage required by your app. App thinning includes
techniques such as app slicing, on-demand resources, and bitcode.

Identify and remove unused assets: Reviewing your app for unused assets and
removing them can help reduce the overall size of your app.

31. From two choices- viewDidLoad and viewDidAppear, which will you choose to
load data from a remote server to display in the view?

Hide Answer

It solely depends on the data use case. If data is static, unchangeable, and it is
called exactly once, we can load it in viewDidLoad and cached. However, if data
changes, we can load it in viewDidAppear, and it is called multiple times during the
life cycle of a view controller. The viewDidLoad is called when the view controller is
first loaded into memory, whereas viewDidAppear is called when the view is actually
visible.

32. Determine the value of “u” in the Swift code below.

 About
us

Hide Answer

33. What is the difference between a synchronous and asynchronous NSURLSession

in iOS?

Hide Answer

A synchronous NSURLSession blocks the current thread until the network request is
complete, while an asynchronous NSURLSession allows the request to be executed in
the background without blocking the main thread. Asynchronous NSURLSessions are
typically used for long-running network requests, while synchronous NSURLSessions
are used for quick network requests that need to block the main thread.

34. Write a code to swap two numbers?

Hide Answer
 About
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WRAPPING UP

We hope the above list of iOS interview questions and answers will give you a good jumpstart for
your interview preparation. For hiring managers, these questions and answers will provide as a
reference to assess the proficiency of talended iOS developers. Here we have segregated the
questions into basic, intermediate, and advanced, so that you can glimpse the important iOS
concepts as per the grade of difficulty.

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