Discover The Best Interview Questions For Ios Developers In 2025

What are the best interview questions for iOS developers in 2025?
They’re the ones that reveal real-world skills, not just textbook knowledge. They dig into Swift, design patterns, memory handling, and iOS development approaches like MVC and MVVM. These questions help hiring teams evaluate how well a candidate can code, build performant apps, and solve practical problems—all critical for today’s fast-paced mobile environments.

In this guide, you’ll find essential interview questions for iOS developers along with insights into what they assess, how to frame them, and why they matter. This is your blueprint for stronger hiring outcomes in mobile engineering—especially as talent competition heats up across sectors like fintech, eCommerce, and healthtech.

Why Interview Questions for iOS Developers Matter in 2025

With mobile usage growing exponentially and iOS commanding a significant market share, the demand for expert iOS developers has never been higher. Recruiters aren’t just looking for someone who can write Swift code—they need developers who can design for performance, manage memory, and understand data flows inside modern apps.

Using the right interview questions allows hiring teams to:

• Evaluate technical depth in iOS development
• Understand approach to design and architecture
• Test coding under constraints like memory leaks or thread blocking
• Gauge familiarity with privacy practices and app policy requirements

Add to that the challenge of hiring at scale, and it becomes essential to use frameworks like recruiting automation to streamline sourcing and scheduling. GoPerfect, for instance, helps you automate your interview schedule and identify top-tier talent across the US, UK, and Israel—without sacrificing quality.

1. Assessing Core iOS Fundamentals

Example Interview Question:

“Can you explain the difference between a strong and weak reference in Swift?”

Why it matters: This question touches on critical aspects of memory management, especially when handling retain cycles between objects like view controllers and delegates.

Look for answers that cover:

• Definitions of strong references, weak references, and unowned references
• The role of automatic reference counting (ARC)
• Practical examples involving closures, delegates, and view controllers

2. Swift-Specific Proficiency

Example Interview Question:

“What’s the difference between optional and implicitly unwrapped optionals in Swift?”

This interview question helps evaluate how well a developer uses Swift's type system to avoid runtime crashes.

You may also want to test their grasp of protocol-oriented programming, especially with protocol in Swift and other concepts used in Swift.

3. Architecture and Design Patterns

In 2025, building scalable iOS apps isn’t just about code—it’s about structure. Great iOS developers should be familiar with MVC, MVVM, and even VIPER when relevant.

Example Interview Question:

“How do you choose between MVC and MVVM when designing a new feature?”

This is where you test:

• Experience with design patterns like dependency injection
• Use of Grand Central Dispatch for concurrency and thread management
• Clarity in explaining data flow from UI to model

Tip: Ask them to walk through a table of contents for a sample feature. How do they structure the files, classes, and data?

4. Performance and Memory Considerations

Example Interview Question:

“What are common causes of memory leaks in iOS apps and how do you prevent them?”

Here’s where candidates should talk about:

• Memory leak sources like retain cycles in closures
• Identifying leaks using Instruments
• Implementing strong, weak, or unowned references properly

A follow-up could involve can you explain what happens when an app blocks the main thread and how to handle long-running tasks in iOS via asynchronous tasks.

5. Testing and Debugging Knowledge

Good interview questions for iOS developers should include their approach to debugging and validating their code.

Example Interview Question:

“How do you approach unit testing and UI testing in iOS?”

Ideal answers touch on:

• Use of XCTest framework
• Mocking data and dependencies
• Testing views, protocol conformance, and logic

You can also explore how they test for performance and responsiveness under network request loads or delayed app launches.

6. Advanced Interview Questions for iOS Developers

To identify senior talent, go beyond syntax.

Ask:

• “How do you manage concurrency in iOS apps?”
• “Can you provide an example of dependency injection used in an actual ios application?”
• “What’s your process for handling large data structures or working with core data?”

These interview questions help pinpoint not just who can code, but who can design, optimize, and scale mobile experiences.

What Recruiters Should Look For

While technical knowledge is foundational, don’t overlook the softer aspects of a developer interview. Use the interview as a chance to assess:

• Communication and ability to explain complex ideas clearly
• Collaboration mindset, especially when multiple developers work on shared objects
• Curiosity and learning mindset—key for navigating evolving frameworks, tools, and even AI onboarding platforms

And remember: in today’s hiring landscape, automated onboarding is just as important as the interview. Platforms like GoPerfect help streamline this process, especially when paired with robust candidate relationship management workflows.

Integrate the Right Tech to Support Smarter Hiring

As the demand for mobile engineers continues to surge, so does the need for strategic talent sourcing strategies. Forward-thinking recruiters are now integrating recruiting automation tools to streamline everything from sourcing to follow-ups, ensuring no candidate slips through the cracks.

Want to ensure a seamless ios interview experience? Align your interview preparation process with tools that support:

• Seamless scheduling and reminders
• Preloaded questions and answers for structured evaluation
• ATS-integrated developer interview questions templates

For example, GoPerfect offers built-in workflows for scheduling ios interviews, crafting interview scorecards, and optimizing your recruiting top talent pipeline.

Ready to Build a High-Performing Mobile Team?

Finding the right iOS developer in 2025 is about more than just skill—it's about match, mindset, and adaptability. Use this guide as a resource to elevate your ios developer interview process with smart, structured, and forward-thinking interview questions.

Need help streamlining your pipeline or engaging passive ios developers at scale? Contact us now to learn how we can help!

It’s built to help recruiters develop talent, accelerate outreach, and simplify the candidate selection process—so you can hire better, faster, and smarter.

‍