Learn With Tutorials, Projects, Videos?
When you’re learning Swift, it’s important to find your ideal learning style.
Some people learn better with hands-on videos, and others have more success by reading a guide or tutorial. You might want a pro iOS developer on speed dial, for questions and support. What about a community of Swift learners? And some of us simply learn best by trial-and-error and building lots of Swift projects.
Let’s figure out a few learning styles, and resources that can help you learn Swift more effectively.
Learn Swift via a bootcamp
A bootcamp is a completely immersive classroom/workshop environment, where you learn Swift programming and iOS development from one or more tutors. Most bootcamps have high success rates, but they can also be expensive. Many bootcamps offer a job guarantee, or help you find work as a professional Swift developer.
A few popular bootcamps include Big Nerd Ranch, DevMountain and General Assembly.
It’s worth it to find a local bootcamp near you, so you can attend over a longer period of time. Some bootcamps and study groups are run by volunteers, and they rely on freely accessible learning materials, like those of freeCodeCamp.
Learning via videos and screencasts
Screencasts are a simple audiovisual way to convey what’s happening on screen, while teaching important Swift programming topics. It’s like being in a classroom with a teacher, while not being in a classroom with a teacher. Learning by video is effective, but there are disadvantages: poor video quality, needing to pause the video to code, the inability to copy and paste code on-screen, and outdated tutorials.
You can find plenty of Swift videos on YouTube, like Sean Allen, Lets Build That App and CodeWithChris. It’s worth it to find a teacher you like, because that helps you learn more easily.
Learn Swift from tutorials, books and blogs
Reading a book and following some exercises, is as straightforward as it is effective. Tutorials, articles and guides are a proven way to learn more about Swift programming. You can take a deep dive into a specific Swift topic, or follow a complete hands-on tutorial, to build a cool app project.
Learning by reading has lots of advantages, like keeping your own pace, making notes on the page, and mix-and-matching your own learning path. Books about Swift can be outdated when they’re released, but that shouldn’t be a problem. A downside of finding your own learning materials is that tutorials often lack structure, which means you could develop “gaps” in your knowledge.
The easiest way to find tutorials is to search on Google or DuckDuckGo, or to read from your most favorite authors, such as Swift By Sundell, AppCoda, Swift with Majid or Hacking With Swift. You can also find more beginner tutorials, below.
Learn Swift coding by doing
Learning Swift coding by building something, should be part of every Swift learner’s approach. You only learn so much from reading blogs and watching videos; you gotta do stuff at some point. What about putting into practice what you’ve learned?
A great approach to learn-by-doing is to keep track of principles, topics and techniques you’ve read about (or watched). You then commit to trying each of them in a Swift project yourself. You could, for example, read about closures and then practice working with them in an iOS app project.
Another smart technique is to learn by checking out sample projects. You can find plenty of example code on GitHub. It’s also a great idea to read the source code of open source libraries you’re using — you can learn a great deal from those. Another good resource to keep an eye on are Awesome lists, like this one about Swift.
Learning from (paid) courses
When you’re learning Swift, you can go it alone, or you can learn with a proven, high quality resource, such as a course on iOS development.
A good course has the added benefit of helping you organize your learning trajectory, so you don’t have to figure out what you’re going to learn next. Just follow the course, and if it’s well written, it’ll expose you to the different Swift and iOS topics you need to learn more about. And when the course helps you build real-world projects — even better!
Most courses are also actively kept up-to-date, which is important if you’re learning Swift. The Swift language changes often (about twice a year), so it’s smart to make sure you’re working with the latest materials.
Here’s a quick summary of what we’ve discussed so far:
- You can choose from a few alternative learning methods, including videos, tutorials, bootcamps, courses, and more
- It’s smart to figure out which approach suits your needs and wishes best
- Whatever you do, build stuff yourself — don’t just watch tutorials!
