What do you think?
Rate this book
Building Mobile Apps at Scale: 39 Engineering Challenges
While there is a lot of appreciation for backend and distributed systems challenges, there tends to be less empathy for why mobile development is hard when done at scale.
This book collects challenges engineers face when building iOS and Android apps at scale, and common ways to tackle these. By scale, we mean having numbers of users in the millions and being built by large engineering teams.
For mobile engineers, this book is a blueprint for modern app engineering approaches. For non-mobile engineers and managers, it is a resource with which to build empathy and appreciation for the complexity of world-class mobile engineering.
This book collects challenges engineers face when building iOS and Android apps at scale, and common ways to tackle these. By scale, we mean having numbers of users in the millions and being built by large engineering teams.
For mobile engineers, this book is a blueprint for modern app engineering approaches. For non-mobile engineers and managers, it is a resource with which to build empathy and appreciation for the complexity of world-class mobile engineering.
217 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 7, 2021
89 people are currently reading
467 people want to read
About the author
Gergely Orosz
6 books222 followersI write The Pragmatic Engineer, the # technology newsletter on Substack. Author of The Software Engineer's Guidebook and other titles. Formerly at Uber, Skype / Microsoft and Skyscanner.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
August 19, 2023
Nicely covers a major set of challenges that people might face building medium to large scale apps. I think the book is a good start for a new mobile engineer. However for experienced engineers there isn't much new to grasp.
Each chapter is short and doesn't go in depth into possible solutions to the problems discussed. The approaches discussed are also very much scoped to Uber. Would have been nice to have some actual metrics in the chapters when talking about measurable things. The formatting is bit weird, random sponsored sections appear in between chapters.
There is very less content on cross platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter which are some of the best choices for startups starting their mobile app journey.
Each chapter is short and doesn't go in depth into possible solutions to the problems discussed. The approaches discussed are also very much scoped to Uber. Would have been nice to have some actual metrics in the chapters when talking about measurable things. The formatting is bit weird, random sponsored sections appear in between chapters.
There is very less content on cross platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter which are some of the best choices for startups starting their mobile app journey.
June 5, 2022
It is a great book to comprehend all the challenges that might be relevant to mobile projects. The author covered all the topics that I saw as pain points until now in my career as a mobile engineer. It is a very comprehensive reference book not for mobile engineers but also for managers, product owners and everyone who is eager to understand the scope of mobile projects.
August 9, 2021
It’s an interesting journey for several important topics we need to tackle during the process of building mobile apps. All backed up by actual examples and references from Uber Engineering team.
It’s worth to read
It’s worth to read
April 25, 2021
A good reference of various mobile engineering challenges and a concise starting point to dig deeper into each of them with number of links to other resources.
June 14, 2021
The book gives a very nice overview of some of the challenges faced during mobile app development. Especially from chapters 1, 2, and 5, I got a large list of ideas directly mentioned or related to the concept discussed in the book to improve the app I help to develop. The book mostly serves as a starting point for internal discussion and important points to think about, which makes it most relevant for people at the start of the middle of such a process.
May 6, 2021
This book perfectly represents what are the challenges iOS and Android engineers face when working at scale on big apps with millions of users and large teams.
This is a must-read for all engineers that are curious to know more of the challenges faced by their mobile teammates.
This is a must-read for all engineers that are curious to know more of the challenges faced by their mobile teammates.
August 24, 2021
I think is a very good overview of mobile development and challenges.
Also, this book is full of useful tips and things to think about when scaling apps to millions of users or when building app from scratch.
Also, this book is full of useful tips and things to think about when scaling apps to millions of users or when building app from scratch.
June 5, 2021
Building Mobile Apps at Scale does a good job of summarising the state of the art of mobile development in 2021. The first half does not go too much into details, and provide a general overview of some of the technical aspects involved in mobile development. I liked more the second half, where Gergely dives deeper into real mobile development at scale (testing, modularising, organising teams, planning...), and I believe this is where the book provides value.
May 29, 2021
This is one of those books that might very well work as cautionary tales (I know this for a fact since in my current job we faced ALL the pitfalls described in it).
Probably it's gonna be outdated in a couple of years as new technologies emerge but for the time being it works as a guide to sort out every major challenge known by mobile developers so far, as well as a conversation starter with those non mobile engineers.
Recommended no matter your seniority but I think It'll be specially useful for Principal and Engineer managers given the influence these roles have within their enterprises.
Probably it's gonna be outdated in a couple of years as new technologies emerge but for the time being it works as a guide to sort out every major challenge known by mobile developers so far, as well as a conversation starter with those non mobile engineers.
Recommended no matter your seniority but I think It'll be specially useful for Principal and Engineer managers given the influence these roles have within their enterprises.
April 25, 2021
As a mobile developer whose worked on a handful of large apps, this book was spot on. It offers a fantastic overview of the all the different factors and angles of mobile development, and just from a development perspective (never mind marketing, SEO, design, etc.). Highly recommend for all mobile devs, from aspiring to principles, and anyone who may work with one.
September 16, 2025
I love Gergely's writing in his articles and I'm a long-term paid subscriber to his content. However, I must say I was negatively surprise by this book.
The book lists plenty of challenges that face engineers who want to build mobile app at scale. For some of them, it only mentions them, e.g. "remember, this is important" without giving any solutions or market-proven approaches to it. For others, it gives a general direction, but we're left to our own to find the specific implementations or benchmarks we could use. For a few topics, it digs deeper, giving us market benchmarks, proven tools and techniques that leading companies use. I was expecting such deep insights for all topics mentioned, not just selected few.
This book might be a good guidance for people tackling mobile development professionally for the first time and identifying topics they need to handle. For everybody with experience, it will bring some value, bot only some.
Overall, this books reads more like a collection of articles, rather than a comprehensive book filled with content. Some of the short chapters even include works like "look here" as if they were clickable links (it's a printed book, so they're definitely not). It might be that Gergely shines in long articles, which are great for web, but when they're collated into a book, they tend to be too shallow and short.
The book lists plenty of challenges that face engineers who want to build mobile app at scale. For some of them, it only mentions them, e.g. "remember, this is important" without giving any solutions or market-proven approaches to it. For others, it gives a general direction, but we're left to our own to find the specific implementations or benchmarks we could use. For a few topics, it digs deeper, giving us market benchmarks, proven tools and techniques that leading companies use. I was expecting such deep insights for all topics mentioned, not just selected few.
This book might be a good guidance for people tackling mobile development professionally for the first time and identifying topics they need to handle. For everybody with experience, it will bring some value, bot only some.
Overall, this books reads more like a collection of articles, rather than a comprehensive book filled with content. Some of the short chapters even include works like "look here" as if they were clickable links (it's a printed book, so they're definitely not). It might be that Gergely shines in long articles, which are great for web, but when they're collated into a book, they tend to be too shallow and short.
March 18, 2023
Stay away if you aren't a novice!
Very disappointing book, I don't know why I expected more of it. In the end I just skimmed through it because it didn't give any concrete information, it just felt like a dictionary listing different technologies for mobile development.
Doesn't help at all that the book is basically a glorified ad. I have never seen in my life so many advertisements in a single book, I am honestly impressed how the author is not ashamed.
Each chapter and almost every fifth page is "sponsored" by come company.
How can you recommend KMM as the best cross-platform solution and then on the same page put an ad from a company selling KMM solutions?
Honestly, I am coming off now as a hater, but this work is a major waste of time and it feels like a student project...
Very disappointing book, I don't know why I expected more of it. In the end I just skimmed through it because it didn't give any concrete information, it just felt like a dictionary listing different technologies for mobile development.
Doesn't help at all that the book is basically a glorified ad. I have never seen in my life so many advertisements in a single book, I am honestly impressed how the author is not ashamed.
Each chapter and almost every fifth page is "sponsored" by come company.
How can you recommend KMM as the best cross-platform solution and then on the same page put an ad from a company selling KMM solutions?
Honestly, I am coming off now as a hater, but this work is a major waste of time and it feels like a student project...
April 22, 2022
Since the launch of the iOS and Android app stores in 2008, the importance and impact of mobile apps has been steadily increasing. Companies are now asking their mobile teams to build more features, to do this faster, and to keep quality high but the field is relatively new and the challenges associated with building mobile apps at scale are unique, only Engineers building thick client Windows, Mac or Linux apps are the closest to relate to such difficulties; as many of these challenges are unbeknown to web or backend engineers, also very little is written about the difficulties. Gergely talks about all the challenges and how they overcame/managed them with solutions/workarounds/trade-offs during his time at Uber.
Must read for any mobile engineer that wants to level up.
Must read for any mobile engineer that wants to level up.
Want to read
August 1, 2022Hello, if you are interested in this topic, I can recommend a mobile application that will help you take care of plant identification google .Today’s mobile market is full of apps that promise to make communicating on your iOS device quicker, easier, and more effective. And yet, there’s only one app on the market today built on a proven, accurate and globally renowned speech platform AND delivers the goods as promised. Not only does Dragon deliver unmatched results and convenience---it does all this and more ! But don’t just take it from us---read what the good folks at Mac Life think about how stacks up against the competition!
February 20, 2025
If you’ve worked as a mobile engineer for at least three months I’d argue there isn’t much to learn from this book. Even an internship would expose you to the majority of the material.
I would recommend this to any body who routinely bumps into mobile engineers at work but are not familiar with their release cycles and workflows. For example, if you’ve run into issues when collaborating with a mobile team and have said “Why can’t we just roll back that build?” or “We’ve released a hot fix why are we still seeing issues?” Then this book may have some material that may useful for the future.
I would recommend this to any body who routinely bumps into mobile engineers at work but are not familiar with their release cycles and workflows. For example, if you’ve run into issues when collaborating with a mobile team and have said “Why can’t we just roll back that build?” or “We’ve released a hot fix why are we still seeing issues?” Then this book may have some material that may useful for the future.
April 21, 2021
This book shows the problems that the developers of apps with millions of users face and how the developers can prevent or solve these problems. It also lists many tools that can be useful when you're working on a large-scale app. Even if you're a developer working on a small app, you should read this book. It gives you an idea of many problems that you may be unaware of and are worth considering from day one.
May 13, 2021
Great book! It summarized most of the problems in building an app. If you're building apps, it's a mandatory read. There's no deep analysis for each one, but the points will open your eyes and mind. Another great point is the many references for cases and articles in different companies and how they solve them, and it's a way for you to go deeper and solve your problem or for a better understanding.
Read
May 19, 2022This is a must-read book for all Engineering Managers who come from a non-mobile background and oversimplify mobile engineering solutions. Scaling does not only mean vertical or horizontal, it can also mean scaling the process in place which can simplify the way apps are built and delivered to millions of users seamlessly. A part of the book talks about it. Read it and a lot of your misconceptions about mobile engineering will be cleared.
May 7, 2021
A book packed full of golden nuggets of what mobile engineering teams have to account for when building more than trivial apps. A great resource for non-mobile engineering teams and managers to understand the level of complexity your fellow "fronted mobile engineers" go through. Having worked on mobile apps at scale, I have encountered all the challenges presented by Gergeley.
June 27, 2021
The book goes through 39 challenges that most engineering teams face in large engineering teams and apps but that's pretty much it. Some parts seem redundant and content is often shallow but nonetheless serves as a great reference for what issues my arise whenever you decide to implement certain features.
Great read for non mobile developers, especially backend and product owners.
Great read for non mobile developers, especially backend and product owners.
June 29, 2021
Very much a breadth over depth book. It is not as technical as I was expecting. I think it does a good job of being approachable by anyone on a team, and is likely most beneficial for product owner and manager roles. Highlights the wide array of things to think about that non-mobile teams just don't have to deal with nearly as seriously.
August 14, 2021
A collection of tacit and practical knowledge on mobile app development, with many useful links. Worth revisiting when running into the various issues covered. Big takeaway being unlike the web that's live with the latest versions, mobile app versions that are old or buggy are much harder to deal with in patching and supporting.
January 22, 2022
A great inspiration for anyone starting with mobile engineers, through mobile team managers, all the way to product managers.
Mobile engineers might already be familiar with some chapters, but it's still worth reading through them and rethinking how you currently approach the problematics at your work.
Mobile engineers might already be familiar with some chapters, but it's still worth reading through them and rethinking how you currently approach the problematics at your work.
August 15, 2023
This book is like a skim-able, digestible entry point to the very complex and rapidly evolving landscape of "scaling" your mobile apps from hundreds to millions of users. I like that every chapter is short, sweet and contains multiple references to continue your learning. I liked the examples from the author's work experience and wish he included more. Nice intro book to the topic!
February 26, 2025
The book presents a range of interesting challenges, but I found the depth of exploration lacking. In most cases, the discussion remained at the surface level, without diving into the technical complexities. It felt more tailored for a non-technical audience rather than engineers looking for a deeper, more rigorous analysis.
April 19, 2021
This book is one-of-a-kind.
A complete and comprehensive guide of the challenges of building native apps with millions of users.
Absolutely recommended if you are serious about building apps. Or if you work with Android and iOS devs and are curious about their challenges.
A complete and comprehensive guide of the challenges of building native apps with millions of users.
Absolutely recommended if you are serious about building apps. Or if you work with Android and iOS devs and are curious about their challenges.
July 3, 2021
I've seen a ref to this book in this epic article: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ub...
An author gave this book for free at that time.
The book is very high-level and very systematic.
An author gave this book for free at that time.
The book is very high-level and very systematic.
February 20, 2022
Very good book for everybody in organization that works around mobile projects and needs a bit more details (ex. PO/SM/PM). However, if you are a mobile developer - probably 99% of things in this book will be your day-to-day work and stuff you already know.
August 21, 2022
As a former iOS engineer I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned some new things. I love the extra resources and the separation by topics that the author considered important. I'm subscribed to the pragmatic engineer newsletter and a fan overall. Keep it up with great content!
August 16, 2023
The author really touches on almost all the issues that a mobile developer may encounter, but the details are usually found in the article links he shares at the end of the chapter, I recommend reading it digitally on iPad for more effective reading.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews