Swift Algorithms & Data Structures - 5th Edition

The Swift language has become the cornerstone of Apple development, powering solutions for iPhone, MacOS, server-based solutions and beyond. This book provides complete implementations of essential algorithms, data structures and mathematics in modern Swift, going beyond pseudocode to show you how these concepts work in production code.

What you’ll learn

  • Learn Big O notation and algorithmic efficiency
  • Build and compare search strategies and algorithms
  • Learn and implement lists, stacks, queues, trees, graphs, and hash tables
  • Learn dynamic programming and tries for optimization problems
  • Explore graph algorithms including shortest paths and PageRank
  • Learn linear algebra fundamentals
  • Work with vectors and matrices for numerical computing and data science workflows
  • Learn similarity operations for measuring relationships between vectors

Audience

  • iOS and macOS developers who want to work confidently with data
  • Swift developers preparing for technical interviews
  • Experienced developers from other languages learning Swift’s approach to algorithms
  • Anyone building data-driven features
  • Educators teaching computer science or data analysis with Swift

How to use this book

This book supports multiple learning paths: read chapters sequentially from Big O notation through advanced topics to build a complete foundation, or jump directly to specific algorithms and data structures as reference material since each chapter is self-contained. Interview candidates should focus on Chapters 3-14 covering fundamental algorithms and data structures, practicing implementations independently before reviewing solutions. Developers interested in data science can start with Chapters 20-21 on vectors and matrices, then explore statistical operations in the Quiver documentation.

Contributing

This book is actively maintained. Your feedback helps make it better. Found a typo or code error? Submit a small PR for obvious corrections. Something unclear? Open an issue to suggest improvements.

About the author

Wayne Bishop is a technologist dedicated to making complex technology accessible and impactful. With experience spanning software development, technical writing, and education, he focuses on teaching computational thinking through practical Swift implementations.