Mobile App Architecture – Part 1: MVC (Model-View-Controller)
Rahul Pahuja
Staff Software Engineer @ CyberArk | Expertise in Android ,iOS | Jetpack | SwiftUi | MVC | MVVM | Java | Kotlin | Swift | Unit Testing | Automation Testing using Python Appium | Bits Pilani Alumni.
Model-View-Controller (MVC) is one of the oldest architectural patterns, forming the backbone of many iOS and Android applications. While it provides a clear separation of concerns, it comes with certain trade-offs that developers need to manage.
🔹 What is MVC?
MVC divides an application into three core components:
Model – Handles data and business logic.
View – Displays UI elements and interacts with the user.
Controller – Bridges the Model and View, processing user inputs and updating the UI.
🔹 Example of MVC in iOS (UIKit)
🔹 Example of MVC in Android
✅ Advantages of MVC
🔹 Simple & Familiar – MVC is widely used, making it easy to adopt. 🔹 Better Organization – Code is divided into logical layers. 🔹 Reusable Views – The same UI component can be used across different controllers.
❌ Drawbacks of MVC
🚨 Massive View Controllers (iOS) – Controllers often end up handling too much logic. 🚨 Tight Coupling – The View and Controller are closely linked, making testing harder. 🚨 Difficult Code Reviews – Large controllers make understanding and reviewing code challenging. 🚨 Limited Scalability – As the app grows, maintaining MVC becomes harder.
🛠 Testing & Maintainability
✅ Unit Testing – The Model is testable, but ViewControllers in iOS and Activities in Android can be hard to mock. ✅ Code Reviews – Clear separation of concerns helps, but massive controllers slow down reviews. ❌ Refactoring Challenges – Decoupling tightly coupled components requires significant effort.
⚡ When to Use MVC?
✅ For small apps with minimal business logic ✅ When working with UIKit (iOS) or legacy Android apps ✅ When rapid prototyping is needed
🚫 Avoid MVC for complex applications where maintainability and testability are priorities.
Final Thoughts
MVC is an easy-to-learn pattern but struggles with scalability, testability, and code maintainability in large applications. If your app grows, consider switching to MVP or MVVM for better separation of concerns.
Next up: MVP (Model-View-Presenter) – Stay tuned! 🚀
#MobileArchitecture #MVC #iOS #Android #SoftwareEngineering