iOS developer interview questions for remote roles
Remote iOS interviews dig into Swift itself, memory management, concurrency and SwiftUI state, plus how you get builds through App Store review. Expect a take-home SwiftUI app and a technical call where you explain your decisions line by line.
These are questions we see often in interviews for remote iOS roles open to Nigerian developers.
Updated October 2026 by the WorkRemote careers team
On this page
About the role and your experience
Openers that check you understand the job and have done the work.
Why native iOS and not React Native or Flutter?
Why they ask
They want to see you understand trade-offs.
How to answer
Native gives the best performance and earliest access to Apple's APIs and platform behaviour. Show respect for cross-platform choices and say you can work alongside those teams.
Technical questions
What you know and how you'd do the work, often with a live task or test.
What is the difference between a struct and a class in Swift?
Why they ask
The most common Swift opener, and it leads into memory and SwiftUI questions.
How to answer
Structs are value types: assigning or passing one copies it (with copy-on-write for standard collections). Classes are reference types: variables share one instance, they support inheritance and deinitialisers, and they are managed by ARC. SwiftUI views are structs. Prefer structs for models unless you need shared identity or inheritance.
How does ARC work, and what is a retain cycle?
Why they ask
Memory leaks are a classic iOS bug and a standard interview topic.
How to answer
ARC counts strong references to each class instance and frees it when the count reaches zero. A retain cycle happens when two objects hold strong references to each other, often a view controller holding a closure that captures self strongly, so neither is freed. Break it with weak or unowned references, for example a [weak self] capture list. Find leaks with Instruments or Xcode's memory graph debugger.
What are the different ways to unwrap an optional, and which do you avoid?
Why they ask
Optionals are central to Swift safety.
How to answer
Optional binding with if let or guard let, the nil-coalescing operator (??) for defaults, optional chaining, and map or flatMap. Force unwrapping crashes if the value is nil, so avoid it outside tests or values you have just guaranteed. guard let is good for early exits.
In SwiftUI, what is the difference between @State, @Binding and an @Observable model?
Why they ask
State management is where SwiftUI apps go wrong.
How to answer
@State is private storage owned by a view for simple values. @Binding gives a child view read-write access to state owned elsewhere. With the Observation framework (iOS 17 and later), you mark a model class @Observable, own it with @State in the view that creates it, and pass it down; views update when properties they read change. Older code uses ObservableObject with @StateObject and @ObservedObject.
Explain async/await and actors in Swift.
Why they ask
Swift concurrency is standard now and Swift 6 enforces it.
How to answer
async functions can suspend without blocking a thread, and await marks the suspension points. Task starts concurrent work and supports cancellation. Actors protect mutable state by letting only one task access it at a time. @MainActor ensures code runs on the main thread, which UI updates need. Sendable marks types that are safe to share across concurrency domains.
Why must UI updates happen on the main thread, and how do you guarantee it?
Why they ask
A common source of crashes and odd visual bugs.
How to answer
UIKit and SwiftUI are not thread-safe; the main thread runs the UI. Mark view models or methods @MainActor, or hop to the main actor with await MainActor.run. In older code, DispatchQueue.main.async does the same job. Xcode's Main Thread Checker flags violations.
How would you load and cache images in a long list?
Why they ask
Performance in lists is a practical everyday problem.
How to answer
Use a lazy container (List or LazyVStack, or a UICollectionView), download with URLSession, cache decoded images in memory with NSCache and on disk with URLCache or a library, downsample large images to the display size, and cancel requests for cells that scroll away.
How do you decode JSON with fields that might be missing or named differently?
Why they ask
Real APIs are messy and decoding errors crash features.
How to answer
Use Codable with optional properties for fields that can be missing, CodingKeys or keyDecodingStrategy .convertFromSnakeCase for naming differences, and a custom init(from:) for awkward cases. Catch DecodingError and log the path so you can see which field failed.
How do you persist data locally on iOS?
Why they ask
Most apps need offline data.
How to answer
UserDefaults for small settings, the Keychain for secrets such as tokens, files for documents and caches, and SwiftData or Core Data for structured data with queries. Mention migrations when the model changes.
What happens between uploading a build and it reaching users?
Why they ask
Release work is part of the job, and remote teams need you to own it.
How to answer
Archive and upload from Xcode or CI, the build processes in App Store Connect, you test via TestFlight (external testers need beta review), then submit for App Review with metadata, screenshots and privacy details. After approval, release manually or with phased release over seven days, and watch crashes.
Behavioural questions
Past situations. Answer with a real example: what happened, what you did, what changed.
Tell me about a hard bug you fixed in an iOS app.
Why they ask
Shows real experience and debugging method.
How to answer
Describe the symptom, how you narrowed it down (logs, Instruments, breakpoints), the cause and the fix. Mention what you changed to stop it coming back.
How do you decide whether to adopt a new API Apple announced at WWDC?
Why they ask
They want judgement, not excitement.
How to answer
Check the minimum iOS version it needs against what the app supports, whether it solves a real problem for users or the team, and the cost of migrating. Prototype on a branch and propose it with a short write-up.
Situational questions
Hypotheticals about problems you'd meet in the job.
Your app was rejected for asking for location permission without a clear reason. What do you do?
Why they ask
Rejections are routine; they want calm, practical handling.
How to answer
Check that you only ask when the feature needs it, write a specific purpose string in Info.plist explaining why, update the privacy details in App Store Connect, and reply in Resolution Center explaining the change. Tell your team the realistic new release date.
Show a sample answerHide the sample answer
Our delivery app asked for location on first launch with a generic message. I moved the request to the moment a user taps "Use my location" at checkout, changed the purpose string to "We use your location to find the nearest pickup point", and replied to the reviewer with screenshots. It was approved within a day.
Users report the app is slow to open. How do you investigate?
Why they ask
Launch time affects reviews and retention.
How to answer
Measure with Instruments' App Launch template and Xcode Organizer metrics. Look for heavy work in app startup, such as synchronous network calls, large database setup or many SDKs initialising. Defer what is not needed for the first screen and measure again.
Remote work questions
How you'll work from Nigeria with a team elsewhere: hours, power, internet, communication.
How do you work with a designer who designs mostly for Android or the web?
Why they ask
Cross-platform teams often have designs that ignore iOS conventions.
How to answer
Point out iOS conventions politely with screenshots (navigation, sheets, back swipe), suggest small changes and agree on what must look the same across platforms.
Do you have a Mac and an iPhone for this role?
Why they ask
Interviewers know hardware can be a barrier and need to be sure you can do the job.
How to answer
Answer directly with your setup and the iOS and Xcode versions you run. If your Mac is older, say how you plan to upgrade.
Remote interview tips
Have Xcode open with your take-home project built before the call. Indexing and package resolution can take minutes on a fresh open.
If asked to demo on device, mirror your iPhone using QuickTime on the Mac and test it beforehand. Keep the simulator ready as a fallback.
Expect at least one question on Swift concurrency or ARC in every iOS interview. Practise explaining them out loud in two minutes each.
Questions people ask
What is a typical iOS take-home test?
A SwiftUI app that fetches data from an API, shows a list and detail screen, handles errors and loading, caches data and includes unit tests. Expect four to eight hours.
Do iOS interviews include algorithm questions?
Larger companies often include one coding round, sometimes in Swift. Startups more often ask practical iOS questions and review your take-home.
Will they ask about UIKit if the app uses SwiftUI?
Often, yes. Many SwiftUI apps still use UIKit for some screens or components, so expect at least basic questions about view controllers and Auto Layout.
Updated October 2026 by the WorkRemote careers team
Interview questions for roles close to ios developer
- Mobile Developer
A mobile developer builds apps for Android and iPhone, and most remote roles open to Nigerians use a cross-platform framework, React Native (often with Expo) or Flutter, so one codebase ships to both stores. It can be done fully remotely from Nigeria, but you need apps people can download, and some real-device testing on iOS.
- Android Developer
An Android developer builds native apps for Android phones and tablets, today mostly in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose. It is one of the cheapest software careers to start from Nigeria (no Mac needed, $25 once to publish on Google Play), and remote companies hire Nigerian Android developers, usually at mid-level and above.
- Software Engineer
A software engineer designs, writes, tests and maintains the code behind products, and it is one of the remote jobs Nigerians most often get with foreign companies. Entry-level remote roles are rare, so most people get their first two years of experience locally or through freelance work before landing a dollar-paid contract.
- QA Engineer
A QA engineer makes sure software works before users find out it does not, by planning tests, finding bugs and, increasingly, writing automated tests in code with tools like Playwright, Cypress and Postman. Remote QA roles open to Nigerians exist, especially for automation engineers (often called SDETs); purely manual testing roles are fewer and pay less.