Use the following curated list of questions and answers as a starting point when choosing potential applicants to join your team as Swift developers to gauge their compatibility and knowledge.
1.
Explain the critical advantages of using Swift over Objective-C in iOS app development.
Swift offers several advantages over Objective-C, including safety, performance, and readability. Swift's optional types and strong type inference enhance safety, reducing the risk of runtime crashes. It compiles highly optimized machine code, resulting in faster app performance. Additionally, Swift's modern syntax and concise code make it more readable and easier to maintain, improving overall developer productivity.
2.
Differentiate between Swift and Objective-C in iOS development.
Swift is a modern, open-source, and user-friendly programming language, while Objective-C is a class-based language. Swift supports dynamic libraries and tuples and is semicolon-free. Objective-C relies on separate interface and implementation files, which Swift combines into one. Swift uses optional types, making code safer. These differences highlight Swift's performance, syntax, and interoperability advantages.
3.
Differentiate between Swift and Objective-C in iOS development.
Swift is a modern, open-source, and user-friendly programming language, while Objective-C is a class-based language. Swift supports dynamic libraries and tuples and is semicolon-free. Objective-C relies on separate interface and implementation files, which Swift combines into one. Swift uses optional types, making code safer. These differences highlight Swift's performance, syntax, and interoperability advantages.
4.
Describe the differences between Swift's value types (structs and enums) and reference types (classes).
Swift's value types (structs and enums) and reference types (classes) have distinct characteristics. Value types are copied when assigned to new variables or passed as function arguments, ensuring that each instance has its own independent data. On the other hand, reference types share a single instance among all references, leading to shared data.
Value types are suitable for simple, independent data structures, while reference types are used for more complex objects with shared states. Understanding these differences is crucial for managing memory and avoiding unexpected behavior in Swift applications.
5.
What is a closure in Swift, and how is it different from a regular function?
A closure is a self-contained block of code that captures and stores references to variables and functions from the surrounding context. Closures are similar functions but can be passed around as variables, making them a powerful tool in Swift. The main difference between a closure and a regular function is that closures can capture and store references to variables and constants from the surrounding context, while functions cannot. This allows closures to carry code and data, making them flexible and helpful in various scenarios.
6.
Differentiate between "let" and "var" in Swift.
In Swift, "let" is used to declare constants (immutable variables), while "var" is used for variables (mutable). Constants declared with "let" cannot change their values after initialization, promoting code safety. Variables declared with "var" can have their values modified during runtime. Choosing between "let" and "var" depends on whether the value should remain constant or change during the program's execution.