Karan Pal · Writing in public

I build things,
and write about them.

Deep-dives and hard-won notes on iOS, the web, AI, and whatever I'm building next. Tested first, then written plainly — no fluff, no AI slop.

★ FeaturedGeneral2 min

Why I'm Rebuilding My Blog From Scratch (and Leaving Medium)

After years of publishing on someone else's platform, I'm moving my writing to a home I actually own. Here's the reasoning, and what I'm building instead.

Read article

Latest articles

24 of 124 posts
AI2 min

Data Is the Model: The Most Ignored Part of AI

A beginner-friendly guide to why data quality beats model hype.

Read
iOS3 min

AI on Apple Platforms: What Runs Where (And Why)

A beginner-friendly view of Apple’s AI stack, from on-device tradeoffs to server realities.

Read
iOS6 min

How to Use GeometryReader in SwiftUI Without Breaking Everything

The practical guide to GeometryReader: reading view sizes, building adaptive layouts, and avoiding the mistakes that break your UI

Read
iOS6 min

Stop Using Just Button: Better Ways to Handle Taps in SwiftUI

Button styles, tap gestures, custom hit areas, and gesture modifiers that make your SwiftUI views interactive

Read
iOS7 min

How to Actually Understand SwiftUI Layout (Not Just Copy-Paste)

Learn how VStack, HStack, alignment, and spacing work together to build layouts confidently

Read
iOS7 min

Stop Using Default Text: Better Typography for SwiftUI Apps

Dynamic Type, proper spacing, custom fonts, and text effects. Here’s how to make text look intentional

Read
iOS9 min

How to Make SwiftUI Apps Look Good Without Being a Designer

The practical guide to colors, gradients, and shadows that’ll make your SwiftUI views look professional

Read
iOS7 min

How to Use SF Symbols in SwiftUI Without Fighting the Docs

Apple’s icon library is powerful but confusing. Here’s the practical guide to using SF Symbols the right way

Read
iOS6 min

Swift async let: The One Keyword That Makes Your App 3x Faster

Sequential async calls are killing your load times. async let runs them all at once — same syntax, way faster results.

Read
iOS5 min

Swift For-Await Loops: Handle Real-Time Data Without the Chaos

Network streams, notifications, sensor data — for-await loops make async sequences feel like normal Swift code. Finally.

Read
iOS6 min

How to Convert Callback Hell to Modern async/await in Swift

A practical guide to wrapping callbacks, delegates, and old APIs in modern Swift concurrency

Read
iOS8 min

Swift Actors: How to Fix Data Races in Your iOS Apps

Stop fighting race conditions. Here’s how actors make concurrent Swift code safe by design

Read
iOS8 min

Swift Tasks: The Complete Guide That Separates Hobbyists from Professionals

Everything you need to know about Task creation, Task.sleep, cancellation, and avoiding the async pitfalls that crash production apps

Read
iOS7 min

Master Structured Concurrency in 20 Minutes or Keep Writing Buggy Async Code

Everything you need to know about structured concurrency: automatic cancellation, task hierarchies, and parallel execution without the…

Read
iOS9 min

Swift Protocols That Look the Same But Do Completely Different Things

Master the three essential protocols that let you compare, sort, and store custom types — with automatic synthesis that’ll make you wonder…

Read
iOS6 min

Learn Swift Generics in 15 Minutes or Keep Writing Duplicate Code Forever

Stop writing the same function 10 different ways and learn the generic approach that’ll save you hours of repetitive coding

Read
iOS8 min

The Swift String Quirks That Separate Juniors from Seniors (Complete Guide 2025)

Master String operations, indexing, and performance tricks that’ll save your app from crashes and make your code interview-ready

Read
iOS11 min

Arrays in Swift: The Core Building Block of DSA

Master the fundamental data structure that powers 80% of iOS interview questions — from basic operations to advanced techniques that…

Read
iOS6 min

The Swift is vs as? vs as! Decision That Separates Pros from Beginners

Learn when to use is, as?, and as! in Swift with practical examples, common pitfalls, and the type safety secrets that prevent runtime…

Read
iOS3 min

Why Senior iOS Developers Always Use Lazy Properties (And You Should Too)

Master lazy properties to slash app startup time and memory usage

Read
iOS8 min

The iOS Interview Question That Exposes Junior Developers Every Time

The escaping vs non-escaping patterns that make your async code actually work

Read
iOS6 min

Why Your Swift Enums Look Amateur (And How to Fix Them in 15 Minutes)

Master wildcards and case let to write code that makes other developers jealous

Read
iOS10 min

The Big-O Secret That Separates Junior from Senior iOS Developers

Master time complexity with real iOS examples that actually matter for your apps

Read
iOS7 min

I Rewrote 500 Lines of Swift Code With Just 3 Functions

The map, filter, reduce patterns that Apple engineers use daily

Read
● The newsletter

New articles, straight to your inbox.

No spam, no filler — just new writing on iOS, the web, and AI when it ships. Unsubscribe anytime.