BackA
Aug 2017 — Oct 2018

Senior iOS Developer

DPL · Pakistan

Built a social news app and modernized iOS practices — real-time content, deep linking, analytics and retention-focused features.

At DPL I worked as a Senior iOS Developer on TalkBack, a social news app for trending local stories, and improved the Alif Elan app. I modernized the codebase toward MVVM and Codable networking and integrated the real-time backend, push and deep-linking a social product needs.

What I did

  • Develop features for a social news app — feeds, trending content and engagement flows.
  • Integrate REST and real-time APIs and improve app performance.
  • Collaborate on new features to boost user engagement and retention.

Technical highlights

Modern MVVM + Codable networking

Adopted Swift 4 with MVVM and coordinator navigation; migrated networking from AFNetworking / RestKit toward Alamofire + URLSession with Codable, and Core Data caching (NSFetchedResultsController) for offline-friendly feeds.

Real-time content & push

Integrated Firebase (Firestore, Auth, Cloud Messaging) for live news content and push notifications that re-engaged users with trending stories.

Shareable deep links + retention

Added deep linking via Firebase Dynamic Links / Branch so shared links opened the exact story in-app; instrumented engagement funnels in Firebase Analytics to lift retention.

Smooth, fast feeds

Profiled with Instruments and optimized scroll performance + async image loading (SDWebImage) to remove jank on long feeds.

Engineering & delivery

Architecture

  • MVVM with coordinator-based navigation
  • Codable models replacing hand-rolled JSON parsing
  • Core Data cache + NSFetchedResultsController for offline feeds

3rd-party SDKs

  • Firebase — Firestore, Auth, Cloud Messaging, Analytics
  • Branch / Firebase Dynamic Links — deep linking
  • SDWebImage — async image loading; Fabric Crashlytics — crashes

CI/CD & App Store

  • Fastlane for code signing + TestFlight distribution
  • App Store Connect release management (manual)
  • CocoaPods dependency management

Code quality & process

  • Git feature-branch workflow with peer PR reviews
  • SwiftLint for style consistency
  • Agile sprints tracked in JIRA

Stack & tools

Language & UI

Swift 4UIKitStoryboardsAuto Layout

Architecture

MVVMCoordinators

Networking & Data

AlamofireURLSessionCodableCore DataSDWebImage

Backend & Growth

FirestoreFirebase AuthCloud MessagingDynamic Links / BranchFirebase Analytics

Delivery

FastlaneTestFlightCrashlyticsCocoaPods