In this issue: More book updates, I'm live streaming SwiftUI for charity, fairy lights for macOS, and your last chance to save money on books and bundles.

Swift Interview Challenges arrives this weekend!

Last month I said there was a gigantic update to Swift Coding Challenges coming in December, and I'm pleased to say the update is complete and will be shipping this weekend!

Why then? Because that's when the next Hacking with Swift+ live stream is, and we'll be building a useful app that will ship as part of the book update – you can come along and see exactly how the app is made.

As I said last month, the book is being renamed to Swift Interview Challenges to reflect the size of its update: many more challenges have been added based on all the emails I've received since the book was written, but there's now a huge new Foundations section that teaches computer science fundamentals from scratch, in Swift.

Videos for the book update will start arriving this weekend, but it will take some time for me to finish them all because the book is so big.

The new Swift Interview Challenges book will be a free update for everyone who bought the book individually or through a bundle, and will also be available through the Swift Career Accelerator.

Learn SwiftUI, help people in need

My birthday is December 22nd, and every year I run a YouTube live stream where we build a complete SwiftUI project from scratch. This year I've got a lovely project ready to share with you, so I hope you can join us live to follow along and ask questions – you can set a reminder here: https://youtube.com/live/up6LpJOz5bQ

I do these birthday live streams every year to raise money for charity, because I know how fortunate we are in our community and want to share that fortune with others too. My chosen charity is called Julian House: they give unhoused folks a place to stay, provide safety for people escaping domestic abuse, run training courses to help get long-term unemployed folks into work, and more.

So, if you can spare even $5 this Christmas, please consider donating to my fundraiser here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/swiftui-birthday-2024 – all the money goes straight to Julian House, not to me, and will make a real difference to folks who need it most.

Watch the live stream here Donate here

A reminder about PayPal

Gumroad are withdrawing PayPal as a payment option in the near future. This was not my idea and I was not informed ahead of time, so I apologize if this is causing you hassle.

They do support Apple Pay, though, so if you're like me and prefer not to hand out your credit card details to websites, I would highly recommend you switch your Gumroad payment method to Apple Pay.

Again, apologies if this hits you!

Upcoming Hacking with Swift+ dates

The next Hacking with Swift+ live stream dates are:

December 14th
January 4th
February 8th

This weekend will be particularly fun because we're building an app that will accompany the new Swift Interview Challenges update!

News from friends

Simon Støvring has released a thoroughly delightful macOS app called Festivitas, which decorates macOS with fairy lights. If you celebrate Christmas, this is a great app to pick up! And if you don't, Simon is an indie developer building great things, so you should check out his work – he's a real inspiration!

Discounts on books

My Black Friday sale ended last week, but I've been so busy doing book updates that I haven't taken it down yet. So, there's a good chance you can still save 50% on all my books and bundles if you're fast: https://www.hackingwithswift.com/offers

Last chance to save 50% on books

One more thing…

As part of the update to Swift Coding Challenges, I wrote a whole bunch of new challenges and solutions to make the book much more valuable for folks who are applying for jobs at every level.

But I wanted to do more: I wanted to make the book the perfect companion for everyone who didn't get the chance to do a computer science degree, but still wants to learn the same skills that are taught there.

It's been quite an eye opener for me: I graduated almost 25 years ago, and I often take for granted the huge range of skills I've picked up along the way. Things like linear search and binary search, linked lists and deques, logarithms and Big O notation, and so much more – all things I've learned, used, and practiced over the years, but are completely new to folks who are just starting out.

So if you're facing all that learning and finding it hard, or if you've tried interviewing for jobs and discovered gaps in your knowledge, please know that I fully appreciate the problem and I'm doing my best to help.

When I started learning to code things were significantly simpler – heck, I didn't even have an internet connection at home! Learning like that was difficult in its own way, but I have no doubt that learners today have a much steeper hill to climb because of the many extra complexities and layers we deal with these days.

So, if you're a Swift learner and reading this, I want to encourage you to keep going. It is difficult to learn something new, but you're not alone: this is a big and welcoming community, and there are countless folks who would love to help if you ask.

If you're not sure where to start, try the Hacking with Swift Slack workspace – just saying hello is a great step forward.

Paul

Hacking with Swift Newsletter: September 2025

Hacking with Swift Newsletter: August 2025

Hacking with Swift Newsletter: July 2025

Everything but the Code: Initial chapters now available!

Introducing the next Hacking with Swift book…

See all posts from Paul Hudson