Android Developer

Core Fundamentals :

These are the non-negotiables every Android developer should know:

• Java / Kotlin

  Strong in Kotlin (modern Android language), and familiar with Java (legacy codebases).

• Android SDK

  Understanding of core components:
• Activities, Fragments, Services, Broadcast Receivers, Content Providers
• Views, Layouts, Resources

• UI/UX Basics

  Working with XML layouts, themes/styles, and responsive UI (ConstraintLayout, Jetpack Compose).

• Lifecycle Management

  Activities, Fragments, ViewModels.

Modern Android Development (MAD) Stack

This is what Google recommends today:

• Jetpack Components

  :
• ViewModel, LiveData / StateFlow
• Navigation Component
• Room (Database), DataStore (Preferences)
• WorkManager

• Jetpack Compose

  Declarative UI toolkit (increasingly standard).

• Coroutines / Flow

  – Asynchronous programming.

• Dependency Injection

  – Dagger / Hilt / Koin.

• Architecture Patterns

  – MVVM, MVI, Clean Architecture.

Networking & APIs

• Retrofit / OkHttp / Ktor

  – For API calls.

• Gson / Moshi / Kotlinx.serialization

  – For JSON parsing.

• Handling Connectivity

  – Network callbacks, offline caching.

Testing

• Unit Testing

  – JUnit, Mockito/Kotlin MockK.

• UI Testing

  – Espresso, UI Automator.

• Snapshot/Golden Tests

  – Paparazzi, Shot (for Compose).

Build & Release

• Gradle

  – Build scripts, custom build variants, flavors.

• CI/CD

  – Fastlane, Bitrise, GitHub Actions, Jenkins.

• Play Store Deployment

  – AAB (Android App Bundle), signing configs, release notes.

Device/Hardware Knowledge

• Sensors & Permissions

  – Location, Camera, Bluetooth, etc.

• SIM /eSIM / Telephony Manager

  – For network-based apps.

• Background Tasks

  – Services, Job Scheduler, Work Manager.

Third-Party Libraries

Familiarity with widely used ones:

• Glide / Coil / Picasso (Image loading)
• Firebase (Analytics, Crashlytics, Messaging)
• Lottie (Animations)
• Timber (Logging)

Backend Integration

• REST/GraphQL APIs
• Firebase Realtime DB / Firestore
• Push notifications (FCM)

Soft & Cross-Functional Skills

• Git (version control)
• Jira / Agile
• Writing clean, maintainable, testable code
• Code reviews & collaboration with cross-functional teams (QA, Designers, PMs)

Nice-to-Have / Advanced

• Jetpack Compose Animation APIs
• Multimodule Architecture
• Proguard / R8 rules
• Kotlin Multiplatform (KMM)
• Native C++ (NDK) if working with performance/low-level code
• Performance tuning (Systrace, Android Profiler)