Advanced Techniques to Speed Up Compile Time in Xcode
Article Summary
Swiggy's iOS team was watching Xcode compile for minutes after single-line changes. They cut that time by 75%.
Kumar Reddy from Swiggy breaks down the Xcode build system from preprocessor to loader, then shares two phases of optimization: one-time build settings and ongoing dependency management. This isn't theory: it's battle-tested techniques from a production app.
Key Takeaways
- Script execution dropped from 20 seconds to 4 seconds with input/output files
- Complex expression cleanup saved 40 seconds per build cycle
- Incremental builds reduced from 30-120 seconds to 10-70 seconds
- One utility file change compiled 30 files, split files reduced it to 3
- Use Incremental mode for Debug, Whole Module for Release configurations
Critical Insight
Swiggy reduced clean build time from 300 to 250 seconds and incremental builds by up to 75% through build settings optimization and restructuring Swift dependency graphs.
