SwiftUI or UIKit in 2024 & 2025?
Article Summary
SwiftUI or UIKit? The iOS dev community is split, and new grads are caught in the middle trying to figure out which framework will actually land them a job.
A CS student about to graduate sparked a heated Reddit discussion in r/iOSProgramming about which iOS framework to learn first. The 40+ responses reveal how the industry is actually handling the transition from UIKit to SwiftUI in 2024.
Key Takeaways
- Most companies use hybrid approach: new features in SwiftUI, legacy code stays UIKit
- Junior devs need SwiftUI experience or risk seeming out of touch with ecosystem
- One multi-billion dollar company switched interview coding exercises from UIKit to SwiftUI
- SwiftUI still has limitations for complex UIs like custom PageViewControllers and CollectionViews
- You'll need both: SwiftUI apps still require UIKit for notifications and browser views
Start with SwiftUI for modern development and job interviews, but expect to learn UIKit basics for interop and legacy codebases.
About This Article
A CS graduate looking for iOS work wasn't sure whether to focus on UIKit or SwiftUI. Job postings on LinkedIn mentioned both frameworks, but didn't make it clear which one would actually help them get interviews.
The r/iOSProgramming community suggested learning both. Start with SwiftUI to understand modern development and prepare for interviews, then pick up UIKit to work with older codebases and understand how the frameworks connect.
Junior developers who took this approach could work on new SwiftUI features and maintain existing UIKit code. This made them stronger candidates for companies in 2024-2025 that use both frameworks.