Why pre-screen iOS developers before the technical interview
Shipping the first version is the easy part. Maintaining an app through operating system releases, deprecated frameworks, a store rejection and a memory problem that only appears on older devices is the actual job. Developers worth hiring have been through all four. A short screen asks about a rejection they handled and a memory issue they found.
What actually matters when screening iOS Developer candidates
- 01
Technical proficiency
Check depth in Swift and SwiftUI or UIKit: concurrency with async/await and actors, memory handling with ARC and retain cycles, Combine, and Core Data or SwiftData use.
- 02
Systems and trade-offs
Probe architecture choices: MVVM versus TCA or VIPER, module boundaries in Swift Package Manager, offline sync strategy, and how they cut launch time or memory footprint.
- 03
Evidence and rigour
Assess measurement habits: XCTest and XCUITest coverage, Instruments or MetricKit profiling, crash triage in Crashlytics or Xcode Organizer, and App Store review rejections they resolved.
- 04
Collaboration and communication
Look for how they work with designers on Figma handoff, negotiate API contracts with backend engineers, and run TestFlight releases with product and QA stakeholders.
Pre-screening questions to ask iOS Developer candidates
12 questions grouped by what they test. Ask the same set in every screen and score answers on a consistent scale, or send them as an async video screen and compare answers side by side.
Apps they maintain
3 questions01What types of applications have you developed for this platform?
Listen forPublished apps named with their role, ideally ones still maintained rather than shipped once.
Only unreleased projects, or apps they cannot point to on the store.
02What is your experience with iOS development overall?
Listen forYears of real work with the operating system versions supported and the app types described.
Experience described without shipped products, or version support never a consideration.
03Can you describe a challenging problem you solved during development?
Listen forA genuine technical difficulty such as concurrency, memory or a platform behaviour change.
Challenges described as requirements changing, or no problem that required investigation.
Platform depth
4 questions04Can you explain your experience with the main platform frameworks?
Listen forFrameworks used in production with their behaviour and pitfalls known from real projects.
Frameworks listed without depth, or view lifecycle and state handling misunderstood.
05Which languages do you work in on this platform, and how fluently?
Listen forFluency in the current language with idiomatic patterns used, and legacy code handled where needed.
Language use limited to following samples, or an inability to work in existing older code.
06Can you describe your experience with concurrency on this platform?
Listen forBackground work managed properly with main thread work kept minimal, and cancellation handled.
Work performed on the main thread, or concurrency bugs described as intermittent and unexplained.
07What is your experience with third-party libraries and external services?
Listen forDependencies chosen carefully with maintenance risk considered, and network failures handled properly.
Dependencies added freely, or network calls that assume connectivity and success.
Profiles properly
3 questions08What is your process for testing and debugging applications?
Listen forAutomated tests where they pay back, with debugging tools used rather than print statements.
Testing done manually before each release, or debugging limited to logging statements.
09How do you handle memory management and performance on this platform?
Listen forRetain cycles found with profiling tools, and performance measured on older devices too.
Memory issues avoided by intention, or performance tested only on the newest hardware.
10Do you have experience with secure handling of sensitive user data?
Listen forPlatform secure storage used correctly, with data collection minimised and transport secured.
Credentials stored in preferences, or sensitive data logged during development and left in.
Knows review rules
2 questions11Have you worked within the constraints of app store review guidelines?
Listen forA rejection they handled, with the guideline understood and the resubmission successful.
Review guidelines unfamiliar, or rejections described as arbitrary without understanding why.
12Are you comfortable working within a team and its project tools?
Listen forCode review and shared conventions treated as normal, with release process understood.
Solo working preferred throughout, or release process handled entirely by somebody else.
How to score responses
Score every candidate on the same four criteria immediately after the screen. At this stage you are shortlisting for panel interviews, not making the final call.
Technical proficiency
35%5Explains Swift concurrency, retain cycle causes and view lifecycle precisely, with real examples from apps they built, not tutorial-level recall.
Systems and trade-offs
25%5Weighs architecture and dependency decisions against team size and app scale, naming specific trade-offs they later revisited or reversed.
Evidence and rigour
25%5Cites crash-free rates, cold start milliseconds or memory graphs, and shows how profiling data, not guesswork, drove their fixes.
Collaboration and communication
15%5Describes concrete pushback on unbuildable designs or API shapes, plus a release process they owned end to end.
Shipping version one is easy; maintaining through releases and rejections is not. A one-way video screen asks about both.
Try it on HirevireScreening FAQ
Process basics
How long should a pre-screening round for this role take?
Fifteen minutes across eight to ten questions, answered async. Enough to establish apps they shipped, test their framework and concurrency depth, and check performance and review knowledge.
Should this replace a coding exercise?
No, it decides who receives one. The screen filters out candidates whose experience is tutorial projects, so the exercise goes to people who have maintained a published app.
Evaluating answers
What is the strongest signal when screening this role?
A store rejection they handled. Developers who ship regularly have one and know the guideline involved. Anyone who has never been rejected has released very few updates.
How do I judge their performance work?
Ask how they found a memory problem. Real answers involve profiling tools and a specific retain cycle. Anyone who says they write careful code has not looked for one.
Go deeper on this role
Sanat has been hiring since 2012 and watching the recruitment industry change up close ever since, and turned that screening process into Hirevire's video screening platform. LinkedIn
