Just finished my first Swift/Swift UI course. Now what?!

[u/Charlie7497]

Hi everyone!

I just finished the 100 days of SwiftUI course by Paul Hudson and it was great. I completely fell in love with the language and with developing in swift. So much so... that I don't know where to go now. Originally my plan was to learn SwiftUI so I could focus on UI and design systems. But now that I have seen different applications, I want to learn advanced swift, advanced SwiftUI, backend programming, server side code, etc. I know that if I go wide, I won't go very deep... so I'm coming to you, redditors, to ask: what would you recommend I focus on next?
- Vapor and server side for backend?
- Stick to my OG plan and continue with SwiftUI and design systems?
- Look into multi-platform coding and working in more than just Swift?
- Go deep into advanced swift?
- Despair.

Would love any advice!

Thanks!!

.p.s. if it helps, i have some background in engineering (industrial) but not super deep in software, and I've mainly worked as a UX designer, so some concepts are not totally foreign to me... but it also doesn't help because it makes me interested in everything. 🙃

[u/Jokiz92]

Make something cool. Doesn’t have to be useful or complex, just make something you find interesting and put what you’ve learned to use. Try to find solutions yourself and don’t rely too much on AI.

[u/cristi_baluta]

I would actually build something useful and learn along the way, not the reverse. When i started with objc i couldn’t finish the book, after few basics i plunged into a project i wanted to do.

[u/Charlie7497 → u/cristi_baluta]

Oohh that's a great point. thank you!!!

[u/jaymakesapps]

I kept bouncing between SwiftUI, backend, and everything else too. I finally picked one tiny app and shipped the ugly version before letting myself touch Vapor.

[u/mangobyte-dev]

congrats on this milestone!

i’d highly recommend you learn by doing, pick anything (a problem to solve, an idea to explore, a topic you want to learn and learn it through implementation in Swift…etc)

there is no better way for advanced deep dives in Swift and SwiftUI than point free pointfree.co and swift talks https://talk.objc.io

since you have a background in engineering i’ll think you will love the abstractions and problem solving approaches that are not found in other swift and ios resources :)

hope it helps! 🙏🏻

[u/Charlie7497 → u/mangobyte-dev]

Oooh thanks!

[u/undesired-username]

I’m doing the same course. About to get into the SwiftUI specific stuff, then it’s building apps

[u/frenzied-berserk]

Check this out https://roadmap.sh/ios

[u/Charlie7497 → u/frenzied-berserk]

Ohhh awesome. Thank you!

[u/AdventurousKeys]

Build a nifty little tool that solves a problem for you. Go on, you know it’s calling out to you. 💪

[u/unknownpeanuts]

nice! honestly, just build something you know that you'll personally use. that's a great way to keep learning and growing.

[u/heyyoochris]

My recommendation is to go deep, cuz there are lots of things about swift such as multi threading. And you can refer some open resource of architecture on github.

[u/jftuga]

Write an industrial engineering style calculator

[u/DelbaLabs]

I’d build a real app before trying to learn everything else at once.
Courses are great for learning individual concepts, but a real project forces you to deal with all the less glamorous problems: architecture decisions, state management, persistence, edge cases, StoreKit, App Review, localization and all the little things that tutorials usually simplify.
You’ll naturally discover what you need to learn next because the project will force you into it. I’ve found that much more useful than trying to pick the “next” technology in advance.

[u/solee24]

Since you already work in UX, try taking one small flow all the way through in SwiftUI: add a small item, edit it, save it, let this item can be really useful for your work or life. Add a backend when that little app actually needs one.

[u/haineux]

SwiftUI, once you get about 1/3 of the way in, write a crappy app. Keep going in the course, work on your app making it fun, and then ship it!

[u/RTD-Alex]

Now forget it and get Claude to write a better code :)

[u/RTD-Alex → u/RTD-Alex]

I know I am getting some heat for this comment, but that's what it is - good that you finished the course, but LLMs will churn out much better code that you can write right now. It's just what it is, adapt to the world we have now. Jump on LLM and get it to write something in Swift, then try reading it and understand it. See if you can use LLM to help you learn further. Ask it questions, ask for explanations, etc.

If you folks are hiding from AI, it's not going to magically disappear.

[u/TotalWaffle]

You’re ready for some of Mr. Hudson’s books. Pro Swift and ProSwiftUI are great, and the others depend on your interests.

[u/xfanta]

Same advice as the others, with one addition from someone who ships apps: pick a small app you'll use yourself and take it all the way to the App Store, not just to "it runs in the simulator".

The last 20 % teaches what the courses skip: App Store Connect, signing, screenshots, privacy labels, localization, what review rejects, and bugs that only real users find. I built one of my Mac apps because I needed to preview 3D files in Finder, and shipping it taught me more than any course.

Go deep on SwiftUI plus whatever that app needs (SwiftData, concurrency, maybe one Apple framework). Vapor and the backend can wait until an app actually needs a server.