Top 12 IOS Developer Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive job market, having a strong resume is crucial for iOS developers aiming to stand out. Highlighting the top skills that demonstrate your proficiency and innovation in iOS development can significantly enhance your chances of securing your dream job in this rapidly evolving tech landscape.

IOS Developer Skills

1. Swift
2. Objective-C
3. Xcode
4. UIKit
5. CoreData
6. CoreAnimation
7. RESTful APIs
8. Git
9. SwiftUI
10. CocoaPods
11. ARKit
12. CoreBluetooth

1. Swift

Swift is a powerful, open-source programming language developed by Apple for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and beyond, offering a modern syntax that is designed to be safe, fast, and interactive, making it the preferred choice for iOS developers.

Why It's Important

Swift is important for an iOS developer because it is Apple's modern, fast, safe, and interactive programming language specifically designed for building iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS applications, enabling efficient and easy-to-maintain development of high-performance, user-friendly apps.

How to Improve Swift Skills

Improving your Swift skills as an iOS developer involves a mix of practice, theoretical learning, and staying updated with the latest trends and features of the language. Here’s a concise guide:

1. Practice Regularly: The more you code, the better you get. Try building small apps or components to reinforce your understanding.

2. Read Apple’s Swift Documentation: Apple provides comprehensive Swift documentation that's updated with the latest language features and best practices.

3. Follow Swift Evolution: Keep an eye on Swift Evolution to stay informed about the latest proposals and changes in the Swift language.

4. Explore Open Source Projects: Reading and contributing to open-source Swift projects on GitHub can expose you to new patterns and practices.

5. Use Online Resources: Platforms like Ray Wenderlich and Hacking with Swift offer tutorials and courses that range from beginner to advanced levels.

6. Understand Swift’s Advanced Features: Dive deep into Swift’s advanced features such as generics, protocols, and closures to write more efficient and reusable code.

7. Optimize Performance: Learn about Swift’s optimization techniques by exploring resources on performance tuning.

8. Join Swift Communities: Participating in Swift communities on Reddit or Swift Forums can provide insights through discussions with other developers.

9. Implement Design Patterns: Familiarize yourself with common iOS design patterns such as MVC, MVVM, and Coordinator by applying them in your projects.

By integrating these practices into your development routine, you’ll steadily improve your Swift skills and stay on top of the latest trends and techniques in iOS development.

How to Display Swift Skills on Your Resume

2. Objective-C

Objective-C is a programming language used by iOS developers for creating applications for Apple devices, such as iPhones and iPads. It incorporates both C language and Smalltalk-style messaging, and it's known for its dynamic runtime and object-oriented capabilities.

Why It's Important

Objective-C is important for an iOS developer because it is the foundational programming language used by Apple for building iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS apps, enabling direct access to hardware and OS features, and ensuring compatibility with a vast library of existing Apple frameworks and codebases.

How to Improve Objective-C Skills

Improving your Objective-C skills, particularly for iOS development, involves a blend of mastering fundamentals, staying updated with the latest frameworks, and understanding best practices. Here are concise pointers to guide you:

1. Master Fundamentals: Strongly understand the basics of Objective-C, like syntax, memory management (especially Automatic Reference Counting or ARC), and Objective-C runtime. Apple's Objective-C Programming Language Guide is an excellent starting point.

2. Modern Objective-C: Familiarize yourself with modern Objective-C features such as blocks, literals, and modules to write cleaner and more efficient code. The Transitioning to Modern Objective-C video from WWDC 2012 is still relevant.

3. Design Patterns: Understand common iOS design patterns like MVC, Delegates, and Observers. This Cocoa Design Patterns guide can help.

4. Frameworks and APIs: Get hands-on experience with key iOS frameworks such as UIKit, Foundation, and Core Data. Apple's Start Developing iOS Apps guide, though Swift-focused, is helpful for understanding the ecosystem.

5. Debugging and Profiling: Improve your debugging skills with Xcode's debugger and Instruments for profiling. The Xcode Debugging video provides insights.

6. Best Practices: Adopt best practices for code organization, performance optimization, and security. Reading widely used style guides like GitHub's Objective-C Style Guide can be beneficial.

7. Continuous Learning: Technology evolves rapidly. Following blogs, attending workshops/webinars, and participating in developer communities can keep your skills sharp. Websites like Ray Wenderlich offer a wealth of up-to-date tutorials and courses.

8. Code Review and Collaboration: Engage in code reviews with peers to gain new perspectives and insights. Platforms like GitHub facilitate collaboration and are a great way to learn from open-source projects.

By combining these strategies with regular practice and application development, you'll significantly improve your Objective-C skills and become a more effective iOS developer.

How to Display Objective-C Skills on Your Resume

3. Xcode

Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) used by iOS developers to create, test, and deploy applications for Apple platforms, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Why It's Important

Xcode is essential for iOS developers as it is Apple's official integrated development environment (IDE), providing all the tools needed to design, develop, and debug applications for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

How to Improve Xcode Skills

Improving your Xcode experience as an iOS Developer involves optimizing the IDE for efficiency, understanding its features deeply, and customizing it to suit your workflow. Here are concise tips with external resources:

1. Familiarize with Shortcuts: Learn Xcode keyboard shortcuts to speed up your coding process. Apple's Xcode Keyboard Shortcuts guide is a great place to start.

2. Code Snippets: Utilize code snippets for repetitive code patterns. You can manage snippets in Xcode or explore GitHub repositories for community-curated snippets.

3. Customize the Interface: Tailor the Xcode layout and theme to your preference for better usability. The official Xcode documentation on customization provides a comprehensive guide.

4. Use Source Control Efficiently: Mastering Git within Xcode can streamline your version control process. Ray Wenderlich's Using Git in Xcode article offers a solid introduction.

5. Profiling and Debugging: Get proficient with Instruments and the debugger to optimize performance and solve issues faster. Apple's Performance Tools documentation is invaluable for learning these tools.

6. Stay Updated: Regularly update Xcode to the latest version to benefit from new features and fixes. Check the Xcode page on Apple's developer site for updates.

7. Extensions and Plugins: Enhance Xcode with extensions for additional functionalities. Although Xcode 8 and later have limited support for plugins, you can find approved extensions on the Mac App Store.

8. Continuous Learning: Stay informed about the latest Xcode tips and tricks by following blogs and tutorials. Websites like Ray Wenderlich and Hacking with Swift are excellent sources for tutorials and articles.

By incorporating these practices into your development workflow, you can significantly improve your efficiency and proficiency in Xcode.

How to Display Xcode Skills on Your Resume

4. UIKit

UIKit is a framework used by iOS developers to construct and manage a graphical, event-driven user interface for iOS and tvOS apps. It provides pre-made interface elements, view controllers, and other tools essential for developing visually appealing and interactive applications.

Why It's Important

UIKit is essential for iOS developers as it provides a comprehensive set of tools and interfaces for building graphical, event-driven apps on Apple platforms, enabling the creation of visually appealing and user-friendly applications.

How to Improve UIKit Skills

To improve your UIKit skills as an iOS developer, focus on the following concise strategies:

1. Understand the Basics: Ensure you have a strong foundation in Swift and the core concepts of UIKit. Apple's UIKit documentation is an essential start.

2. Practice UI Design Concepts: Learn about UI design principles. Apple's Human Interface Guidelines provide a comprehensive overview of designing intuitive user interfaces.

3. Explore Advanced Features: Dive into more complex UIKit components like animations, custom transitions, and gesture recognition. Ray Wenderlich's tutorials (UIKit) offer practical, project-based learning.

4. Utilize Storyboards and SwiftUI: Although SwiftUI is gaining traction, understanding how to efficiently use Storyboards for UIKit projects remains crucial. Practice converting SwiftUI projects to UIKit and vice versa to solidify your understanding.

5. Contribute to Open Source: Engage with the iOS development community by contributing to open-source projects on GitHub. This will expose you to diverse coding styles and real-world UIKit applications.

6. Stay Updated: UIKit and iOS development are constantly evolving. Follow blogs, podcasts, and resources like iOS Dev Weekly to stay current with the latest trends and updates.

7. Build and Iterate: The best way to learn is by doing. Build your own projects or clone existing apps to practice and implement the various components of UIKit. Use TestFlight to gather feedback and make improvements.

By focusing on these strategies and leveraging the linked resources, you'll significantly improve your UIKit skills and become a more efficient iOS developer.

How to Display UIKit Skills on Your Resume

5. CoreData

CoreData is a framework provided by Apple for iOS and macOS app development that allows developers to manage and persist model data in a structured and object-oriented way, simplifying data storage and retrieval operations.

Why It's Important

CoreData is important for an iOS developer because it provides an efficient, object-oriented framework for managing an app's data model, allowing for easy data persistence, retrieval, and manipulation, thereby simplifying the storage of complex data structures and reducing development time.

How to Improve CoreData Skills

To improve CoreData for an iOS Developer, consider the following steps:

1. Use Background Contexts for Heavy Operations: Perform heavy data operations in the background to keep the UI responsive. Concurrency with Core Data.

2. Batch Processing: For large data sets, use batch processing to reduce memory footprint. Batch Processing.

3. Indexing Attributes: Index attributes that are frequently searched or sorted on to improve fetch performance. Core Data Programming Guide.

4. Lightweight Migrations: Use lightweight migrations for simple model changes to simplify schema evolution. Lightweight Migrations.

5. Fetch Limits and Predicates: Use fetch limits and predicates to minimize the data loaded into memory. Fetching Managed Objects.

6. Optimize Relationships: Be mindful of relationship settings (like deletion rules) to avoid unnecessary data loading. Core Data Relationships.

7. Use Instruments: Regularly profile your app with Xcode's Instruments to identify and optimize slow Core Data operations. Analyzing Data with Instruments.

By following these practices and continuously profiling your application, you can significantly improve the performance and efficiency of CoreData in your iOS projects.

How to Display CoreData Skills on Your Resume

6. CoreAnimation

Core Animation is a graphics compositing framework used in iOS for creating smooth, animated user interfaces. It enables developers to animate changes in visual properties like position, size, and opacity of UI elements without detailed knowledge of how the animations are rendered, making it easier to create visually appealing interfaces.

Why It's Important

Core Animation is essential for iOS developers because it provides a powerful framework for creating smooth, compelling animations and effects, significantly enhancing the user interface and user experience of iOS applications.

How to Improve CoreAnimation Skills

To improve CoreAnimation for an iOS Developer, focus on the following tips:

1. Optimize Layer Performance: Minimize layer complexity and reduce offscreen rendering. Utilize shouldRasterize for static content but be mindful of its memory footprint. Core Animation Programming Guide

2. Use Layer Instruments: Profile your app with Xcode's Instruments to identify bottlenecks in animations. The Core Animation instrument helps in analyzing frame rates and layer rendering times. Instruments User Guide

3. Efficient Animations: Use CASpringAnimation for more natural motion and CATransaction to batch animations for efficiency. Leverage hardware acceleration by animating properties like opacity and transform. Animating Layer Content

4. Precompile Shaders: If using custom shaders with CAEAGLLayer or CAMetalLayer, precompile them to avoid runtime compilation delays. Metal Shading Language Guide

5. Memory Management: Be cautious with layer memory usage, especially with contents property. Use @2x and @3x resources and downsample large images when necessary. Image I/O Programming Guide

6. Simplify View Hierarchy: Reduce the number of views and layers. A simpler hierarchy means less work for Core Animation and the GPU. View Programming Guide for iOS

7. Understand Animation Commit Mechanism: Core Animation batches and optimizes animations. Understanding when animations are committed can help you optimize further. Use CATransaction to explicitly control this behavior. Core Animation Basics

8. Utilize Explicit Animations: For more control and performance, opt for explicit animations like CABasicAnimation or CAKeyframeAnimation over implicit ones. Core Animation Explicit Animations

By focusing on these areas and leveraging Apple's documentation and tools, you can significantly improve the performance and smoothness of Core Animation in your iOS applications.

How to Display CoreAnimation Skills on Your Resume

7. RESTful APIs

RESTful APIs are a set of web service APIs that adhere to the REST architectural style, allowing iOS developers to perform network requests to communicate with backend services using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) for creating, reading, updating, and deleting data, utilizing URLs and JSON/XML for resource identification and data interchange.

Why It's Important

RESTful APIs are important for iOS developers because they provide a standardized way to communicate with web services, enabling easy data exchange and integration with server-side functionality, enhancing app performance and user experience.

How to Improve RESTful APIs Skills

Improving RESTful APIs, particularly from an iOS developer's perspective, involves enhancing efficiency, security, and user experience. Here are concise tips:

1. Efficiency: Utilize HTTP caching mechanisms to reduce server load and speed up response times. This is crucial for mobile applications where network speed can vary. Apple's URL Loading System provides insights into managing network requests and caching.

2. Versioning: Implement API versioning to avoid breaking changes for existing app versions. Semantic Versioning is a widely used method. Apple's documentation on supporting multiple versions of your app can shed light on managing different versions efficiently.

3. Security: Secure your API using HTTPS and token-based authentication like OAuth 2.0. Apple's Authentication Services offer solutions for integrating authentication mechanisms.

4. Data Format: Use efficient data formats like JSON for API responses, which are easily handled in iOS through Codable or third-party libraries like SwiftyJSON. Apple's Codable documentation provides a basis for working with JSON in Swift.

5. Error Handling: Implement comprehensive error handling in your API to provide clear, actionable feedback for developers and users. Apple's documentation on error handling guides you on handling errors gracefully in Swift.

6. Documentation: Comprehensive and up-to-date API documentation is crucial. Tools like Swagger or Apiary can help. Apple's documentation on documenting your code emphasizes the importance of clear code documentation.

7. Rate Limiting: Implement rate limiting to protect your API from abuse and to manage server load. Cloudflare's guide on rate limiting provides insights into why and how to implement rate limiting effectively.

By focusing on these areas, iOS developers can significantly improve the performance, security, and reliability of RESTful APIs.

How to Display RESTful APIs Skills on Your Resume

8. Git

Git is a version control system that enables iOS developers to track and manage changes to their codebase, facilitating collaboration and efficient project management.

Why It's Important

Git is crucial for an iOS developer because it allows for version control and collaboration, enabling efficient management of code changes and teamwork on projects.

How to Improve Git Skills

Improving your Git skills as an iOS Developer involves understanding advanced Git features, optimizing your workflow, and leveraging tools for better version control. Here are concise recommendations:

1. Master Branching and Merging: Understand how to efficiently manage branches and handle merges to maintain a clean project history. Atlassian’s Branching Tutorial is a great resource.

2. Utilize Git Hooks: Automate your workflow by using pre-commit hooks to run scripts, like lint checks, before commits. Git Hooks provides a comprehensive guide.

3. Leverage Gitignore: Use .gitignore files to exclude temporary or private files from being committed. GitHub’s Gitignore for Swift is a good starting point.

4. Commit Often, Commit Well: Adopt a habit of making frequent, small commits with meaningful messages. Conventional Commits offers guidelines for structured commit messages.

5. Rebase for a Clean History: Use git rebase to integrate changes and maintain a linear project history. Git Rebase from the Pro Git book explains rebasing in detail.

6. Explore Interactive Rebasing: Fine-tune your commits using interactive rebasing for squashing, reordering, or editing commits. Interactive Rebasing from Thoughtbot offers practical examples.

7. Understand Git Stash: Use git stash to save uncommitted changes temporarily, allowing you to switch branches without committing half-done work. Git Stash Documentation provides all the details you need.

8. Familiarize with GUI Tools: While the command line is powerful, GUI tools can provide visual clarity for complex Git operations. SourceTree and GitKraken are popular among iOS developers.

9. Continuous Learning: Git is vast, and continuous learning is key. Pro Git Book is an invaluable resource that covers Git extensively from basics to advanced topics.

10. Join Community Forums: Participate in communities like Stack Overflow or GitHub Community Forum to stay updated with the latest practices and solve doubts.

Enhancing your Git skills will not only make your workflow more efficient but also contribute to better collaboration with your team.

How to Display Git Skills on Your Resume

9. SwiftUI

SwiftUI is a user interface toolkit introduced by Apple that allows iOS developers to design and construct user interfaces across all Apple platforms using a declarative Swift syntax.

Why It's Important

SwiftUI is important for an iOS developer because it simplifies UI development with a declarative Swift syntax, enhances code reusability across Apple platforms, and enables faster, more efficient creation of visually consistent and interactive user interfaces.

How to Improve SwiftUI Skills

Improving your skills in SwiftUI as an iOS Developer involves continual learning and practice. Here are concise tips to enhance your SwiftUI proficiency:

1. Master the Basics: Ensure a solid understanding of fundamental concepts like views, modifiers, state management, and data flow. Apple's SwiftUI Tutorials is an excellent starting point.

2. Stay Updated: SwiftUI is evolving. Keep up with the latest features and improvements via the What’s new in SwiftUI page on the Apple Developer site.

3. Practice by Building: Apply what you learn by creating projects. Start with simple apps and gradually increase complexity. GitHub is a great source for project ideas.

4. Learn from the Community: Engage with the SwiftUI community. Sites like SwiftUI Lab and Hacking with Swift offer valuable tutorials and tips.

5. Understand Architecture Patterns: Familiarize yourself with architecture patterns suitable for SwiftUI, like MVVM. This SwiftUI Architecture guide by John Sundell provides insights.

6. Use SwiftUI Previews: Leverage SwiftUI Previews for faster development and testing. This guide from Apple explains how to make the most of previews.

7. Optimize Performance: Learn optimization techniques specific to SwiftUI. This Optimizing SwiftUI Views post by Majid Jabrayilov offers practical advice.

8. Explore Advanced Topics: As you become more comfortable, delve into advanced topics like custom transitions, animations, and integrating SwiftUI with UIKit. The Advanced SwiftUI section on Ray Wenderlich's site is a valuable resource.

By following these steps and regularly practicing, you'll progressively improve your SwiftUI skills and be able to build more complex and refined iOS applications.

How to Display SwiftUI Skills on Your Resume

10. CocoaPods

CocoaPods is a dependency manager for Swift and Objective-C iOS projects, streamlining the process of integrating and updating third-party libraries or frameworks into your projects.

Why It's Important

CocoaPods is important for iOS developers because it simplifies the management of library dependencies, ensuring easy integration and update of external libraries and frameworks in their projects, thereby significantly enhancing development efficiency and project maintainability.

How to Improve CocoaPods Skills

Improving your CocoaPods experience as an iOS Developer involves streamlining installation, updating regularly, optimizing your Podfile, and enhancing build times. Here’s a concise guide:

1. Streamline Installation: Ensure you have the latest version of CocoaPods by running sudo gem install cocoapods in your terminal. For a more detailed guide, check CocoaPods Installation.

2. Stay Updated: Regularly update CocoaPods and your pods to the latest versions with pod update and sudo gem update cocoapods. This helps with security, performance, and accessing the latest features. For more, visit CocoaPods Guides.

3. Optimize Podfile: Use specific pod versions and avoid using :head or very loose versioning to ensure consistency and stability. Utilize pod 'MyPod', '~> 1.2.3' for automatic semantic versioning updates that don’t break compatibility. More on Podfile syntax at CocoaPods Podfile.

4. Reduce Build Times: Leverage the use_frameworks! :linkage => :static option in your Podfile to switch to static linking, which can significantly reduce build and launch times. More tips on improving build times can be found in Improving Build Times.

5. Use CocoaPods Caching: Implement caching mechanisms for CocoaPods to speed up pod installation on continuous integration (CI) systems and local development. This can be achieved with tools like Cocoapods-binary-cache.

6. Contribute and Stay Informed: Engage with the CocoaPods community by contributing to its development or by staying informed about the latest updates and practices. This can lead to better tooling and practices over time. Start by visiting CocoaPods GitHub and CocoaPods Blog.

By following these steps and staying engaged with the CocoaPods community, you can significantly improve your CocoaPods usage, leading to a more efficient and enjoyable iOS development experience.

How to Display CocoaPods Skills on Your Resume

11. ARKit

ARKit is Apple's framework for developing augmented reality (AR) experiences on iOS devices, providing tools for tracking device motion, understanding the environment, and placing virtual objects in the real world.

Why It's Important

ARKit is critical for iOS developers as it provides a comprehensive framework for creating augmented reality (AR) experiences, integrating digital information with the real-world environment, thus enabling the development of innovative and interactive apps for Apple devices.

How to Improve ARKit Skills

To improve your skills with ARKit as an iOS Developer, focus on the following concise steps:

1. Deepen Your Understanding of ARKit Fundamentals: Start with Apple's ARKit documentation to solidify your understanding of core concepts, capabilities, and how ARKit integrates with iOS.

2. Practice with Sample Projects: Engage with Apple's ARKit sample projects to see practical implementations and get hands-on experience.

3. Stay Updated with ARKit Changes: Apple frequently updates ARKit. Keep an eye on the release notes through the Apple Developer portal to stay informed about new features and improvements.

4. Explore Advanced Features: Dive deeper into advanced ARKit features like ARWorldTrackingConfiguration, face tracking, and collaborative sessions. The official ARKit videos from WWDC provide in-depth explanations and demonstrations.

5. Join Developer Communities: Engage with other developers in forums such as Stack Overflow and Reddit to exchange knowledge, tips, and get feedback on your work.

6. Experiment and Build: The best way to improve is by building your own AR experiences. Experiment with different features, and try to incorporate ARKit into your existing iOS apps.

By following these steps and actively engaging with the resources and the developer community, you'll be able to enhance your ARKit skills and create impressive augmented reality apps for iOS.

How to Display ARKit Skills on Your Resume

12. CoreBluetooth

CoreBluetooth is a framework provided by iOS that enables developers to communicate with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices. It provides APIs for discovering, connecting, and interacting with peripherals such as sensors, wearables, and other BLE-enabled devices.

Why It's Important

CoreBluetooth is crucial for iOS developers as it enables the development of apps that can interact with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices, essential for creating IoT applications and enhancing user experience with wireless connectivity.

How to Improve CoreBluetooth Skills

Improving your CoreBluetooth skills as an iOS developer involves both understanding the CoreBluetooth framework deeply and keeping up with best practices for Bluetooth development. Here are concise tips and resources:

1. Understand Bluetooth Protocols: Grasp BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) protocols and services. Apple's CoreBluetooth Overview provides a solid foundation.

2. Master CoreBluetooth APIs: Dive deep into CoreBluetooth APIs to efficiently manage connections, data transfer, and energy consumption. Apple's CoreBluetooth Framework gives detailed API documentation.

3. Implement Best Practices: Follow best practices for Bluetooth development, such as efficient scanning, maintaining stable connections, and optimizing battery life. Apple's Energy Efficiency Guide for Bluetooth Accessories offers valuable insights.

4. Error Handling: Efficiently handle errors and ensure your app can gracefully manage disconnections or transfer failures. Learn from Apple's Error Handling guide.

5. Security: Implement robust security measures to protect data. The Bluetooth SIG Security Page provides resources on Bluetooth security features.

6. Stay Updated: Bluetooth technology and iOS updates introduce new features and deprecate old practices. Regularly visit the Apple Developer Documentation and subscribe to updates.

7. Hands-on Experience: Practice by building projects. Experiment with different types of Bluetooth devices to understand their characteristics and challenges.

8. Community and Forums: Engage with communities on platforms like Stack Overflow and the Apple Developer Forums to stay informed about common pitfalls and new solutions.

9. Tutorials and Courses: Look for updated tutorials and courses that focus on Bluetooth development with iOS, such as those found on Ray Wenderlich and Udemy.

By combining a solid understanding of the CoreBluetooth framework, staying informed about the latest developments, and actively engaging with the development community, you can significantly improve your Bluetooth development skills on iOS.

How to Display CoreBluetooth Skills on Your Resume