Swift Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Swift facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What is the best way to describe an algorithm? → A step-by-step series of operations
2. Which SWIFT service allows banks to confirm whether a beneficiary account is active and matches the expected name before sending a payment? → Pre-validation
3. What is the maximum length of a SWIFT BIC (Business Identifier Code)? → 11 characters
4. Which approach best demonstrates professional competency in Swift practice? → Integrating continuing education, practical experience, and evidence-based decision making
5. You're refactoring a legacy codebase where many functions return `-1` to signal errors. Which modern Swift pattern replaces this anti-pattern? → Returning `Int?` with nil for errors, or throwing a typed Error
6. Which ISO 20022 message replaces the MT 202 financial institution credit transfer? → pacs.009
7. A `Result` is returned from a fetch function. You need to map each post's title to uppercase on success. Which approach is most concise? → `result.map { posts in posts.map { $0.title.uppercased() } }`
8. Why is Swift good for game development? → B & D
9. What does a SWIFT Business Continuity (BC) plan specifically need to address for messaging infrastructure? → Redundant SWIFT connectivity and failover procedures for service restoration
10. Which organization serves as the Registration Authority for the ISO 20022 standard? → SWIFT
11. What is SWIFT gpi (Global Payments Innovation) designed to improve? → Speed, transparency, and tracking of cross-border payments
12. Which ISO 20022 messages replace MT 940, MT 941, and MT 942 for account balance and transaction reporting? → camt.052, camt.053, and camt.054
13. A payment operations team notices an increase in returned SWIFT payments from a specific corridor. What is the first stakeholder communication step? → Notify senior management and the correspondent bank with supporting data
14. In ISO 20022 pacs messages, what does the 'InstructedAmount' field represent? → The original amount instructed by the debtor before any charges or conversion
15. How should an Swift professional respond to a compliance violation? → Report it promptly, investigate the root cause, and implement corrective actions
16. What exactly is coding? → Telling a ​computer what to do.
17. You want SwiftUI's `ProfileView` to automatically re-render when `user.name` changes. `User` is a reference type shared across views. What is the correct setup? → Make `User` a class conforming to `ObservableObject` with `@Published var name`
18. Which service on SWIFTNet is used for store-and-forward messaging (such as MT messages)? → FIN (Financial Application)
19. What is reflective practice in Swift professional development? → Systematically examining experiences to gain insight and improve future practice
20. What does the 'camt' message category handle in ISO 20022? → Cash Management reporting and notifications
21. Which approach to correspondent banking risk management does FATF recommend over wholesale de-risking? → Risk-based approach with enhanced due diligence for higher-risk relationships
22. What is the first step in risk assessment for Swift professionals? → Identifying potential hazards and vulnerabilities in the specific context
23. In UIKit, which method must you call to ensure UI updates happen on the correct thread? → DispatchQueue.main.async
24. What does 'pacs' stand for in ISO 20022 message naming conventions? → Payments Clearing and Settlement
25. Which SWIFT service helps banks proactively communicate the data quality of their payment messages before submission? → SWIFT Payment Data Quality (PDQ) service
26. In SWIFT MT103 messages, which fields carry the originator information required under the Travel Rule? → Field 50 (Ordering Customer) and Field 52 (Ordering Institution)
27. Pixel Art is a term that describes a type of art that is made up → Individual pixels in an image
28. What does the FATF Recommendation 16 (the 'Travel Rule') require in SWIFT payments? → Originator and beneficiary information must accompany wire transfers
29. How do Swift professionals transfer knowledge from training to practice? → Through supervised practice, mentoring, gradual independence, and ongoing feedback
30. What is the ISO 20022 message used for account statements (equivalent to MT940)? → camt.053