DevOps & Release Engineering Topics
CI/CD pipeline design, build automation, deployment strategies, release management, artifact repositories, version control integration, and continuous delivery practices. Covers infrastructure automation for delivery workflows, release gates and approvals, multi-service orchestration, rollback strategies, and GitOps approaches. Distinct from Cloud & Infrastructure by focusing specifically on delivery automation and release processes rather than infrastructure platforms.
App Store Distribution and App Lifecycle
Knowledge of app signing, provisioning profiles, iOS development certificates, and App Store submission process. Understanding of app lifecycle (launch, backgrounding, termination), background execution, and app extensions. Familiarity with iOS versioning and supporting multiple OS versions.
Mobile Build Systems, CI/CD, and Release Management
Understanding mobile build systems in depth: Gradle for Android, Xcode for iOS, CocoaPods and SPM for dependencies. CI/CD pipelines specific to mobile: automated builds, unit tests, integration tests, code signing, app signing. Release management: versioning strategies (semantic versioning), beta testing on TestFlight/Google Play, staged rollouts, feature flags for gradual rollout. Build optimization for faster CI/CD cycles. Tools: Fastlane for automation, GitHub Actions/CircleCI for CI/CD.
Mobile Feature Flags and Progressive Rollouts
Design and operate feature flag systems and progressive rollout strategies specifically for mobile applications. Topics include client side and server side flag architectures, remote configuration, local fallback values, safe default behavior, and the trade offs between compile time and runtime flag evaluation. Evaluate rollout strategies such as percentage based rollouts, cohort based gating, staged deployments, and the use of feature flags for experimentation and split testing. Instrument releases with metrics and monitoring to detect regressions quickly and to support safe rollback. Account for offline behavior and cached flag values, long lived application versions, data privacy and security, and the performance impact of flag evaluation in the client.
Mobile App Deployment and Release Management
Processes and tooling for building packaging and releasing mobile applications and updates. Topics include platform specific store submission and review processes, code signing and provisioning, versioning strategies and compatibility policies, beta distribution and staged rollouts, release tracks and channel management, continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, rollback and hotfix workflows, migration strategies for client and server changes, and compliance and privacy considerations during releases.
Feature Flagging and Rollout Strategy
Managing product evolution and cross platform launches using feature flags experiments and controlled rollouts. Topics include server side versus client side flag evaluation, experiment design and measurement, cohort targeting, canary and gradual rollouts, kill switches and rollback patterns, synchronization of flags across platforms for consistent user experience, monitoring rollout health and metrics, and operational practices to remove stale flags and migrate flags into permanent code paths.