Studied at a university, at Stanford, on Udemy, and with the kind of code that did everything its own way. It wasn’t always fun — but it was definitely worth it.
Attended School No. 38 in Orsk, Orenburg region. In the senior years, was transferred to the physics and mathematics class for academic excellence. Graduated with honors.
Graduated with a Specialist degree. The university offered many fascinating subjects: VHDL, Assembler, C++, Fundamentals of AI. But what truly captured my interest was mobile development — I wanted to create something you could literally hold in your hands.
In the fourth year, I independently learned C# and the Windows Mobile 6.0 platform. For my thesis, I developed a calculus assistant app that solved problems and checked coursework.
After graduation, I had to adapt: Windows Mobile disappeared from the market. I switched to ASP.NET development — at that time it was the most straightforward way to work on real-world projects with real users. But the passion for mobile never left — and later returned as native iOS development.
My iOS journey started with the Stanford course Developing iOS 9 Apps with Swift (Stanford Online University). It stood out for its academic rigor, complexity, and brilliant teaching. This was my first deep dive into iOS architecture, lifecycle, and fundamental principles.
Later, I completed several courses that helped reinforce and expand my knowledge:
iOS 11 & Swift 4 – The Complete iOS App Development Bootcamp (Udemy, Angela Yu)
A hands-on course where I built 18 apps. Although the code was simplified by the instructor, I actively refactored and improved it — enhancing architecture and practices. GitHub
Swift Coding Challenges (Udemy, Stephen DeStefano)
Unusual algorithmic problems — some I still remember. Greatly boosted my skills in Swift, especially with strings, collections, and closures. GitHub
iOS Concurrency with GCD and Operations (RayWenderlich)
After this course, async code stopped feeling like “black magic”. A solid foundation in GCD, OperationQueue, and prioritization. GitHub
iOS Animations (RayWenderlich)
A visually inspiring course: working with Core Animation and UIKit sparked my passion for creating custom components and playful UIs.
Stanford SwiftUI Course
A great introduction to declarative development. It made clear how to manage state, build interfaces through composition, and work in a reactive paradigm.
Design Theory (Udemy, Dmitry Fokeev)
A valuable course in terms of visual perception: composition, typography, color theory.
Books, courses, code, and a whole lot of late nights — that’s how I learned to build apps.