Most chapters in this book will finish with at least one challenge that encourages you to take your work in the chapter one step further and prove to yourself what you have learned. We suggest that you tackle as many of these challenges as you can to cement your knowledge and move from learning iOS development from us to doing iOS development on your own.
Challenges come in three levels of difficulty:
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Bronze challenges typically ask you to do something very similar to what you did in the chapter. These challenges reinforce what you learned in the chapter and force you to type in similar code without having it laid out in front of you. Practice makes perfect.
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Silver challenges require you to do more digging and more thinking. You will need to use methods, classes, and properties that you have not seen before, but the tasks are still similar to what you did in the chapter.
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Gold challenges are difficult and can take hours to complete. They require you to understand the concepts from the chapter and then do some quality thinking and problem-solving on your own. Tackling these challenges will prepare you for the real-world work of iOS development.
Before beginning any challenge, always make a copy of your project directory in Finder and attack the challenge in that copy. Many chapters build on previous chapters, and working on challenges in a copy of the project ensures that you will be able to progress through the book.