Build Time Optimizations in Xcode
Article Summary
Swiggy's iOS team cut build times by 21% and saved developers hours of waiting. Here's their battle-tested playbook.
Dhruvil Patel from Swiggy's mobile team breaks down their systematic approach to tackling slow Xcode builds. They analyzed compilation bottlenecks, optimized code patterns, and tweaked build settings to dramatically improve developer productivity.
Key Takeaways
- Code signing optimization alone reduced incremental builds by 50% using SHA-1 hashing
- Pod dependency flags saved 40 seconds per build across debug configurations
- Swift compiler flags identified functions taking over 100ms to compile
- XCLogParser tool revealed slowest targets and files across all modules
- Simple changes like final classes and explicit types reduced compilation overhead
Critical Insight
A 21% build time reduction came from systematic measurement, targeted code improvements, and smart build setting adjustments.
