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package/skills/ios/swift-concurrency/references/performance.md

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+# Performance
+
+Use this when:
+
+- Async code is slower than expected or causing UI hangs.
+- You need to choose between synchronous, asynchronous, and parallel execution.
+- You are profiling concurrency overhead with Instruments.
+
+Skip this file if:
+
+- The issue is a compiler diagnostic about isolation or Sendable. Use `actors.md` or `sendable.md`.
+- You mainly need to fix a memory leak. Use `memory-management.md`.
+
+Jump to:
+
+- Core Principles
+- Common Performance Issues
+- Using Xcode Instruments
+- Suspension Points / Reducing Suspensions
+- Choosing Execution Style
+- Parallelism Costs
+- Optimization Checklist
+
+## Core Principles
+
+### Measurement is essential
+
+Can't improve what you don't measure. Establish baseline before optimizing.
+
+### Start simple, optimize later
+
+```
+Synchronous → Asynchronous → Parallel
+```
+
+Move right only when proven necessary.
+
+### Three phases of concurrency
+
+1. **No concurrency** - Synchronous method
+2. **Suspend without parallelism** - Asynchronous method
+3. **Advanced concurrency** - Parallel execution
+
+## Common Performance Issues
+
+### UI hangs
+
+Too much work on main thread causes interface freezes.
+
+### Poor parallelization
+
+Heavy work funneled into single task instead of parallel execution.
+
+### Actor contention
+
+Tasks waiting on busy actor, causing unnecessary suspensions.
+
+## Using Xcode Instruments
+
+### Swift Concurrency template
+
+Profile with CMD + I → Select "Swift Concurrency" template.
+
+**Instruments included**:
+- **Swift Tasks**: Track running, alive, total tasks
+- **Swift Actors**: Show actor execution and queue size
+
+### Key metrics
+
+```
+Tasks:
+- Total count
+- Running vs suspended
+- Task states (Creating, Running, Suspended, Ending)
+
+Actors:
+- Queue size
+- Execution time
+- Contention points
+
+Main Thread:
+- Hangs
+- Blocked time
+```
+
+### Task states
+
+- **Creating**: Task being initialized
+- **Running**: Actively executing
+- **Suspended**: Waiting (at await)
+- **Ending**: Completing
+
+> **Course Deep Dive**: This topic is covered in detail in [Lesson 10.1: Using Xcode Instruments to find performance bottlenecks](https://www.swiftconcurrencycourse.com?utm_source=github&utm_medium=agent-skill&utm_campaign=lesson-reference)
+
+## Identifying Issues
+
+### Main thread blocked
+
+```swift
+// ❌ All work on main thread
+@MainActor
+func generateWallpapers() {
+    Task {
+        for _ in 0..<100 {
+            let image = generator.generate() // Blocks main thread
+            wallpapers.append(image)
+        }
+    }
+}
+```
+
+**Instruments shows**: Long main thread hang, no parallelism.
+
+### Solution: Move to background
+
+```swift
+@MainActor
+func generateWallpapers() {
+    Task {
+        for _ in 0..<100 {
+            let image = await backgroundGenerator.generate()
+            wallpapers.append(image)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+actor BackgroundGenerator {
+    func generate() -> Image {
+        // Heavy work in background
+    }
+}
+```
+
+### Actor contention
+
+```swift
+actor Generator {
+    func generate() -> Image {
+        // Heavy work
+    }
+}
+
+// ❌ Sequential through actor
+for _ in 0..<100 {
+    let image = await generator.generate() // Queue size = 1
+}
+```
+
+**Instruments shows**: Actor queue never exceeds 1, no parallelism.
+
+### Solution: Remove unnecessary actor
+
+```swift
+struct Generator {
+    @concurrent
+    static func generate() async -> Image {
+        // Heavy work, no shared state
+    }
+}
+
+// ✅ Parallel execution
+for i in 0..<100 {
+    Task(name: "Image \(i)") {
+        let image = await Generator.generate()
+        await addToCollection(image)
+    }
+}
+```
+
+## Suspension Points
+
+### What creates suspension
+
+Every `await` is potential suspension point:
+
+```swift
+let data = await fetchData() // May suspend
+```
+
+**Not guaranteed** - if isolation matches, may not suspend.
+
+### Suspension surface area
+
+Code between suspension points. Larger = harder to reason about:
+- Actor invariants
+- Performance
+- Thread hops
+- Reentrancy
+- State consistency
+
+### Goal
+
+- Do work before crossing isolation
+- Cross once
+- Finish job
+- Only cross again when necessary
+
+## Reducing Suspensions
+
+### 1. Use synchronous methods
+
+```swift
+// ❌ Unnecessary async
+private func scale(_ image: CGImage) async { }
+
+func process(_ image: CGImage) async {
+    let scaled = await scale(image) // Suspension point
+}
+
+// ✅ Synchronous helper
+private func scale(_ image: CGImage) { }
+
+func process(_ image: CGImage) async {
+    let scaled = scale(image) // No suspension
+}
+```
+
+**Rule**: If method doesn't need to suspend, don't mark async.
+
+### 2. Prevent actor reentrancy
+
+```swift
+// ❌ Reenters actor
+actor BankAccount {
+    func deposit(_ amount: Int) async {
+        balance += amount
+        await logTransaction() // Leaves actor
+        balance += bonus // Reenters - state may have changed
+    }
+}
+
+// ✅ Complete work before leaving
+actor BankAccount {
+    func deposit(_ amount: Int) async {
+        balance += amount
+        balance += bonus
+        await logTransaction() // Leave after state changes
+    }
+}
+```
+
+### 3. Inherit isolation
+
+```swift
+// ❌ Switches isolation
+@MainActor
+func update() async {
+    await process() // Switches away from main actor
+}
+
+// ✅ Inherits isolation (still requires await -- but no executor hop)
+@MainActor
+func update() async {
+    await process() // Stays on main actor when nonisolated(nonsending)
+}
+
+nonisolated(nonsending) func process() async { }
+```
+
+> **Course Deep Dive**: This topic is covered in detail in [Lesson 10.2: Reducing suspension points by managing isolation effectively](https://www.swiftconcurrencycourse.com?utm_source=github&utm_medium=agent-skill&utm_campaign=lesson-reference)
+
+### 4. Use non-suspending APIs
+
+```swift
+// ❌ May suspend
+try await Task.checkCancellation()
+
+// ✅ No suspension
+if Task.isCancelled {
+    return
+}
+```
+
+### 5. Embrace parallelism
+
+```swift
+// ❌ Sequential
+for url in urls {
+    let image = await download(url)
+    images.append(image)
+}
+
+// ✅ Parallel
+await withTaskGroup(of: Image.self) { group in
+    for url in urls {
+        group.addTask { await download(url) }
+    }
+    for await image in group {
+        images.append(image)
+    }
+}
+```
+
+## Analyzing Suspensions in Instruments
+
+### View task states
+
+1. Select Swift Tasks instrument
+2. Switch to "Task States" view
+3. Look for Suspended states
+4. Check suspension duration
+
+### Navigate to code
+
+1. Click task state (Running/Suspended)
+2. Open Extended Detail
+3. Click related method
+4. Use "Open in Source Viewer"
+
+### Predict suspensions
+
+```swift
+Task {
+    // State 1: Running
+    // State 2: Suspended (switch to background)
+    let data = await backgroundWork()
+    // State 3: Running (in background)
+    // State 4: Suspended (switch to main actor)
+    // State 5: Running (on main actor)
+    await MainActor.run {
+        updateUI(data)
+    }
+}
+```
+
+### Optimization example
+
+```swift
+// Before: Two suspensions
+Task {
+    let data = await generate() // Suspension 1
+    self.items.append(data) // Suspension 2 (back to main)
+}
+
+> **Course Deep Dive**: This topic is covered in detail in [Lesson 10.3: Using Xcode Instruments to detect and remove suspension points](https://www.swiftconcurrencycourse.com?utm_source=github&utm_medium=agent-skill&utm_campaign=lesson-reference)
+
+// After: One suspension
+Task { @concurrent in
+    let data = generate() // No suspension (synchronous)
+    await MainActor.run {
+        self.items.append(data) // Suspension 1 (to main)
+    }
+}
+```
+
+## Choosing Execution Style
+
+### Decision checklist
+
+**Use async/parallel if**:
+- [ ] Blocks main actor visibly (>16ms)
+- [ ] Scales with data (N items → N cost)
+- [ ] Involves I/O (network, disk)
+- [ ] Benefits from combining operations
+- [ ] Called frequently
+
+**2+ checks** → async/parallel justified.
+
+### Start synchronous
+
+```swift
+// Start here
+func processData(_ data: Data) -> Result {
+    // Fast, in-memory work
+}
+```
+
+**Only move to async if**:
+- Instruments show main thread hang
+- User reports sluggishness
+- Work scales with input size
+
+### When to use async
+
+```swift
+func processData(_ data: Data) async -> Result {
+    // Use when:
+    // - Touches persistent storage
+    // - Parses large datasets
+    // - Network communication
+    // - Proven slow by profiling
+}
+```
+
+### When to use parallel
+
+```swift
+await withTaskGroup(of: Result.self) { group in
+    for item in items {
+        group.addTask { await process(item) }
+    }
+}
+
+// Use when:
+// - Multiple independent operations
+// - Time-to-first-result matters
+
+> **Course Deep Dive**: This topic is covered in detail in [Lesson 10.4: How to choose between serialized, asynchronous, and parallel execution](https://www.swiftconcurrencycourse.com?utm_source=github&utm_medium=agent-skill&utm_campaign=lesson-reference)
+// - Work scales with collection size
+// - Proven beneficial by profiling
+```
+
+## Parallelism Costs
+
+### Tradeoffs
+
+**Benefits**:
+- Faster completion (if CPU-bound)
+- Better resource utilization
+- Improved responsiveness
+
+**Costs**:
+- Increased memory pressure
+- CPU scheduling overhead
+- System resource saturation
+- Battery drain
+- Thermal impact
+
+### When parallelism hurts
+
+```swift
+// ❌ Over-parallelization
+for i in 0..<1000 {
+    Task { await lightWork(i) }
+}
+// Creates 1000 tasks for trivial work
+```
+
+**Better**: Batch work or use fewer tasks.
+
+## UX-Driven Decisions
+
+### Smooth animations > raw speed
+
+```swift
+// 80ms on main thread, but animation stutters
+@MainActor
+func process() {
+    heavyWork() // Freezes UI for 1 frame
+}
+
+// 100ms total, but smooth UI
+@MainActor
+func process() async {
+    await backgroundWork() // UI stays responsive
+}
+```
+
+**Perception**: Smooth feels faster than raw speed.
+
+### Progress indication
+
+```swift
+@MainActor
+func loadItems() async {
+    isLoading = true
+    
+    for i in 0..<100 {
+        let item = await fetchItem(i)
+        items.append(item)
+        progress = Double(i) / 100 // Incremental updates
+    }
+    
+    isLoading = false
+}
+```
+
+Background work + progress = feels faster.
+
+## Optimization Checklist
+
+Before optimizing, ask:
+
+- [ ] Have I profiled with Instruments?
+- [ ] Is main thread actually blocked?
+- [ ] Can this be synchronous?
+- [ ] Am I over-parallelizing?
+- [ ] Is actor contention the issue?
+- [ ] Are suspensions necessary?
+- [ ] Does UX require background work?
+- [ ] Will this scale with data?
+
+## Common Patterns
+
+### Move heavy work to background
+
+```swift
+// Before
+@MainActor
+func generate() {
+    for _ in 0..<100 {
+        let item = heavyGeneration()
+        items.append(item)
+    }
+}
+
+// After
+@MainActor
+func generate() async {
+    for _ in 0..<100 {
+        let item = await backgroundGenerate()
+        items.append(item)
+    }
+}
+
+@concurrent
+func backgroundGenerate() async -> Item {
+    // Heavy work off main thread
+}
+```
+
+### Parallelize independent work
+
+```swift
+// Before: Sequential
+for url in urls {
+    let image = await download(url)
+    images.append(image)
+}
+
+// After: Parallel
+await withTaskGroup(of: Image.self) { group in
+    for url in urls {
+        group.addTask { await download(url) }
+    }
+    for await image in group {
+        images.append(image)
+    }
+}
+```
+
+### Reduce actor hops
+
+```swift
+// Before: Multiple hops
+actor Store {
+    func process() async {
+        let a = await fetch1() // Hop 1
+        let b = await fetch2() // Hop 2
+        let c = await fetch3() // Hop 3
+        combine(a, b, c)
+    }
+}
+
+// After: Batch fetches
+actor Store {
+    func process() async {
+        async let a = fetch1()
+        async let b = fetch2()
+        async let c = fetch3()
+        combine(await a, await b, await c) // One hop
+    }
+}
+```
+
+## Best Practices
+
+1. **Profile before optimizing** - measure baseline
+2. **Start synchronous** - add async only when needed
+3. **Use Instruments regularly** - catch issues early
+4. **Name tasks** - easier debugging in Instruments
+5. **Check suspension count** - reduce unnecessary awaits
+6. **Avoid premature parallelism** - has costs
+7. **Consider UX** - smooth > fast
+8. **Batch actor work** - reduce contention
+9. **Test on real devices** - simulators lie
+10. **Monitor in production** - real usage patterns differ
+
+## Debugging Performance
+
+### Instruments workflow
+
+1. Profile with Swift Concurrency template
+2. Identify main thread hangs
+3. Check task parallelism
+4. Analyze actor queue sizes
+5. Review suspension points
+6. Navigate to problematic code
+7. Apply optimizations
+8. Re-profile to verify
+
+### Red flags in Instruments
+
+- Main thread blocked >16ms
+- Actor queue size always 1
+- High suspension count
+- Tasks created but not running
+- Excessive task creation (1000+)
+
+## Further Learning
+
+For real-world optimization examples, profiling techniques, and advanced performance patterns, see [Swift Concurrency Course](https://www.swiftconcurrencycourse.com).
+