Uber's Crazy YOLO App Rewrite, From the Front Seat
I've worked on many projects throughout my career as a software engineer. However, Helix - Uber's Rider app rewrite in 2016 introducing Swift and RIBs - stands as the craziest project by a margin.
It's the middle of 2016. Uber has been dominating headlines: the company on a rocket-ship growth trajectory and is changing the way people get from A to B. Valued at $62.5B, the company does not seem to be slowing down.
My interview process was messy, and although I thought I was interviewing for a mobile role, I ended up on a backend interview loop and getting a backend engineering offer. I took it.
Two weeks before my starting date, my manager emails me to ask if there's any way I can do Android. He can tell more details when I've joined. I've done Windows Phone and iOS before - Android would be the first. I say yes, though I'm a bit puzzled at the request. (Little did I know that I would not have written Building Mobile Apps at Scale if this last-minute request did not come in).
On week one, I get the scoop on the unusual and last-minute request. We're rewriting the Uber app: the whole thing. The codename for the project is Helix. Over 1M lines of code per platform, with more than 100 iOS and 100 Android engineers working on the project. But we need more hands on deck. Hence me joining the Android team over the backend one.
