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Android Interview Questions

Android Interview Questions

Android Interview Questions - Your Cheat Sheet For Android Interview

Prepared and maintained by Amit Shekhar who is having experience of taking interviews of many Android developers and cracking interviews of top companies.

Hi, I am Amit Shekhar, I have mentored many developers, and their efforts landed them high-paying tech jobs, helped many tech companies in solving their unique problems, and created many open-source libraries being used by top companies. I am passionate about sharing knowledge through open-source, blogs, and videos.

High-quality blogs to prepare for Android Interview - Check here - Blog by Amit Shekhar

Things to know in Kotlin for Android Interview

Get Mentorship: amitshekhar.me

Contents - Android Interview Questions

Core Android

Android Interview Questions:

Base

  • Why does an Android App lag? - Learn from here

  • What is Context? How is it used? - Context In Android Application

  • Tell all the Android application components. - Learn from here

  • What is the project structure of an Android Application? - Learn from here

  • What is AndroidManifest.xml?

  • What is Application class?

    • The Application class in Android is the base class within an Android app that contains all other components such as activities and services. The Application class, or any subclass of the Application class, is instantiated before any other class when the process for your application/package is created.

Activity and Fragment

  • What is Activity and its lifecycle?

  • What is the difference between onCreate() and onStart()

  • When only onDestroy is called for an activity without onPause() and onStop()?

  • Why do we need to call setContentView() in onCreate() of Activity class?

  • What is onSavedInstanceState() and onRestoreInstanceState() in activity?

    • onSavedInstanceState() - This method is used to store data before pausing the activity.
    • onRestoreInstanceState() - This method is used to recover the saved state of an activity when the activity is recreated after destruction. So, the onRestoreInstanceState() receive the bundle that contains the instance state information.

  • What is Fragment and its lifecycle.

  • What are "launch modes"? - Learn from here

  • What is the difference between a Fragment and an Activity? Explain the relationship between the two. - Learn from here

  • When should you use a Fragment rather than an Activity?

    • When you have some UI components to be used across various activities
    • When multiple view can be displayed side by side just like viewPager

  • What is the difference between FragmentPagerAdapter vs FragmentStatePagerAdapter?

    • FragmentPagerAdapter: Each fragment visited by the user will be stored in the memory but the view will be destroyed. When the page is revisited, then the view will be created not the instance of the fragment.
    • FragmentStatePagerAdapter: Here, the fragment instance will be destroyed when it is not visible to the user, except the saved state of the fragment.

  • What is the difference between adding/replacing fragment in backstack? - Learn from here

  • Why is it recommended to use only the default constructor to create a Fragment? - Learn from here

  • How would you communicate between two Fragments?

  • What is retained Fragment?

    • By default, Fragments are destroyed and recreated along with their parent Activity’s when a configuration change occurs. Calling setRetainInstance(true) allows us to bypass this destroy-and-recreate cycle, signaling the system to retain the current instance of the fragment when the activity is recreated.

  • What is the purpose of addToBackStack() while commiting fragment transaction?

    • By calling addToBackStack(), the replace transaction is saved to the back stack so the user can reverse the transaction and bring back the previous fragment by pressing the Back button. For more Learn from here

Views and ViewGroups

  • What is View in Android?

  • Difference between View.GONE and View.INVISIBLE? - Learn from here

  • Can you a create custom view? How?

  • What are ViewGroups and how they are different from the Views?

    • View: View objects are the basic building blocks of User Interface(UI) elements in Android. View is a simple rectangle box which responds to the user’s actions. Examples are EditText, Button, CheckBox etc. View refers to the android.view.View class, which is the base class of all UI classes.
    • ViewGroup: ViewGroup is the invisible container. It holds View and ViewGroup. For example, LinearLayout is the ViewGroup that contains Button(View), and other Layouts also. ViewGroup is the base class for Layouts.

  • What is a Canvas?

  • What is a SurfaceView? - Learn from here

  • Relative Layout vs Linear Layout.

  • Tell about Constraint Layout

  • Do you know what is the view tree? How can you optimize its depth? - Learn from here

  • How does the Touch Control and Events work in Android?

Displaying Lists of Content

  • What is the difference between ListView and RecyclerView? - Learn from here

  • How does RecyclerView work internally?

  • What is the ViewHolder pattern? Why should we use it? - Learn from here

  • RecyclerView Optimization - Scrolling Performance Improvement - Learn from here

  • Optimizing Nested RecyclerView - Learn from here

  • What is SnapHelper? - Learn from here: SnapHelper

Dialogs and Toasts

Intents and Broadcasting

  • What is Intent?

  • What is an Implicit Intent?

  • What is an Explicit Intent?

  • What is a BroadcastReceiver? - Learn from here

  • What is a LocalBroadcastManager?

  • What is the function of an IntentFilter? - Learn from here

  • What is a Sticky Intent?

    • Sticky Intents allows communication between a function and a service. sendStickyBroadcast() performs a sendBroadcast(Intent) known as sticky, i.e. the Intent you are sending stays around after the broadcast is complete, so that others can quickly retrieve that data through the return value of registerReceiver(BroadcastReceiver, IntentFilter). For example, if you take an intent for ACTION_BATTERY_CHANGED to get battery change events: When you call registerReceiver() for that action — even with a null BroadcastReceiver — you get the Intent that was last Broadcast for that action. Hence, you can use this to find the state of the battery without necessarily registering for all future state changes in the battery.

  • Describe how broadcasts and intents work to be able to pass messages around your app? - Learn from here

  • What is a PendingIntent?

    • If you want someone to perform any Intent operation at future point of time on behalf of you, then we will use Pending Intent.

  • What are the different types of Broadcasts? - Learn from here

Services

Inter-process Communication

  • How can two distinct Android apps interact? - Learn from here

  • Is it possible to run an Android app in multiple processes? How? - Learn from here

  • What is AIDL? Enumerate the steps in creating a bounded service through AIDL. - Learn from here

  • What can you use for background processing in Android? - Learn from here

  • What is a ContentProvider and what is it typically used for? - Learn from here and here

Long-running Operations

  • How to run parallel tasks in Java or Android, and get callback when all complete? - Long-running tasks in parallel with Kotlin Flow

  • Why should you avoid to run non-ui code on the main thread? - Learn from here

  • What is ANR? How can the ANR be prevented? - Learn from here

  • What is an AsyncTask(Deprecated in API level 30) ?

  • What are the problems in AsyncTask?

  • When would you use java thread instead of an AsyncTask? - Learn from here

  • What is a Loader? (Deprecated) - Learn from here

  • What is the relationship between the life cycle of an AsyncTask and an Activity? What problems can this result in? How can these problems be avoided?

    • An AsyncTask is not tied to the life cycle of the Activity that contains it. So, for example, if you start an AsyncTask inside an Activity and the user rotates the device, the Activity will be destroyed (and a new Activity instance will be created) but the AsyncTask will not die but instead goes on living until it completes.

    • Then, when the AsyncTask does complete, rather than updating the UI of the new Activity, it updates the former instance of the Activity (i.e., the one in which it was created but that is not displayed anymore!). This can lead to an Exception (of the type java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: View not attached to window manager if you use, for instance, findViewById to retrieve a view inside the Activity).

    • There’s also the potential for this to result in a memory leak since the AsyncTask maintains a reference to the Activity, which prevents the Activity from being garbage collected as long as the AsyncTask remains alive.

    • For these reasons, using AsyncTasks for long-running background tasks is generally a bad idea . Rather, for long-running background tasks, a different mechanism (such as a service) should be employed.

    • Note: AsyncTasks by default run on a single thread using a serial executor, meaning it has only 1 thread and each task runs one after the other.

  • Explain Looper, Handler and HandlerThread.

  • Android Memory Leak and Garbage Collection

Working With Multimedia Content

  • How do you handle bitmaps in Android as it takes too much memory? - Learn from here and here

  • What is the difference between a regular Bitmap and a nine-patch image?

    • In general, a Nine-patch image allows resizing that can be used as background or other image size requirements for the target device. The Nine-patch refers to the way you can resize the image: 4 corners that are unscaled, 4 edges that are scaled in 1 axis, and the middle one that can be scaled into both axes.

  • Tell about the Bitmap pool. - Learn from here

  • How image compression is preformed?

Data Saving

  • How to persist data in an Android app?

  • What is ORM? How does it work?

  • How would you preserve Activity state during a screen rotation? - Learn from here

  • What are different ways to store data in your Android app?

  • Explain Scoped Storage in Android.

  • How to encrypt data in Android?

  • What is commit() and apply() in SharedPreferences?

    • commit() returns a boolean value of success or failure immediately by writing data synchronously.
    • apply() is asynchronous and it won't return any boolean response. If you have an apply() outstanding and you are performing commit(), then the commit() will be blocked until the apply() is not completed.

Look and Feel

  • What is a Spannable?

  • What is a SpannableString?

    • A SpannableString has immutable text, but its span information is mutable. Use a SpannableString when your text doesn't need to be changed but the styling does. Spans are ranges over the text that include styling information like color, heighliting, italics, links, etc

  • What are the best practices for using text in Android?

  • How to implement Dark mode in any application?

  • How to generate dynamic colors based in image?

  • Explain about Density Independence Pixel

Memory Optimizations

  • What is the onTrimMemory() method? - Learn from here

  • How does the OutOfMemory happens?

  • How do you find memory leaks in Android applications?

Battery Life Optimizations

Supporting Different Screen Sizes

Permissions

  • What are the different protection levels in permission?

Native Programming

Android System Internal

  • What is the Dalvik Virtual Machine?

  • What is the difference JVM, DVM and ART?

  • What are the differences between Dalvik and ART?

  • What is DEX? - Learn from here

  • Can you manually call the Garbage collector? - Learn from here

Android Jetpack

  • What is Android Jetpack and why to use this?

  • What are Android Architecture Components?

  • What is LiveData in Android?

  • How LiveData is different from ObservableField?

  • What is the difference between setValue and postValue in LiveData?

  • How to share ViewModel between Fragments in Android?

  • Explain Work Manager in Android.

  • Use-cases of WorkManager in Android.

  • How ViewModel work internally?

Others

  • Why Bundle class is used for data passing and why cannot we use simple Map data structure? - Learn from here

  • How do you troubleshoot a crashing application? - Learn from here

  • Explain Android notification system?

  • What is the difference between Serializable and Parcelable? Which is the best approach in Android?

  • What is AAPT? - Learn from here

  • What is the best way to update the screen periodically? - Learn from here

  • FlatBuffers vs JSON.

  • HashMap, ArrayMap and SparseArray

  • What are Annotations?

  • How to create custom Annotation?

  • How to handle multi-touch in android?

  • What is the support library? Why was it introduced?

  • What is Android Data Binding?

  • How to check if Software keyboard is visible or not?

  • How to take screenshot in Android programmatically?

Android Libraries

Android Interview Questions:

Android Architecture

Android Interview Questions:

  • Describe the architecture of your last app.

  • Describe MVP.

  • Describe MVVM. - MVVM Architecture

  • MVC vs MVP vs MVVM architecture.

  • What is presenter?

  • What is model?

  • Describe MVC.

  • Describe MVI

  • Describe the repository pattern

  • What is controller?

  • Tell something about clean code

Android Design Problem

Android Interview Questions:

  • Design Uber App. - Learn from here

  • Design Facebook App.

  • Design Facebook Near-By Friends App.

  • Design WhatsApp.

  • Design SnapChat.

  • Design problems based on location based app.

  • How to build offline-first app? Explain the architecture.

  • Design LRU Cache.

  • Design File Downloader - Learn from here

  • Design an Image Loading Library - Learn from here, here and here

  • HTTP Request vs HTTP Long-Polling vs WebSockets - Learn from here

  • How do Voice And Video Call Work? - Learn from here

Android Unit Testing

Android Interview Questions:

Android Tools And Technologies

Android Interview Questions:

  • What is ADB? - Learn from here

  • What is DDMS and what can you do with it? - Learn from here

  • What is the StrictMode? - Learn from here: StrictMode

  • What is Lint? What is it used for?

  • Git.

  • Android Development Useful Tools.

  • Firebase. - Learn from here

  • How to measure method execution time in Android?

  • Can you access your database of SQLite Database for debugging? - Learn from here

  • What are things that we need to take care while using Proguard?

  • What is Multidex in Android?

  • How to use Android Studio Memory Profiler?

  • How to use Firebase realtime database in your app?

  • What is Gradle?

  • APK Size Reduction.

  • How can you speed up the Gradle build?

  • About gradle build system.

  • About multiple apk for android application.

  • What is proguard used for?

  • What is obfuscation? What is it used for? What about minification?

  • How to change some parameters in an app without app update?

Java and Kotlin

Android Interview Questions:

OOP

  • Explain OOP Concepts.

  • What is the difference between a constructor and a method?

    • The name of the constructor is same as that of the class name, whereas the name of the method can be anything.

    • There is no return type of a constructor.

    • When you make an object of a class, then the constructor of that class will be called automatically. But for methods, we need to call it explicitely.

    • Constructors can't be inherited but you can call the constructor of the parent class by calling super().

    • Constructor and a method they both run a block of code but the difference is in calling them.

    • We can call method directly using their name.

    • Constructor Syntax -

      public class SomeClassName{
    SomeClassName(parameter_list){ 
        ...
    } 
    ...
}

    • Note: In the above syntax, the name of the constructor is the same as that of class and it has no return type.

    • Method Syntax

      public class SomeClassName{
    public void someMethodName(parameter_list){
        ...
    }
    // call method
    someMethodName(parameter_list)
}

  • Differences between abstract classes and interfaces?

    • An abstract class, is a class that contains both concrete and abstract methods (methods without implementations). An abstract method must be implemented by the abstract class sub-classes. Abstract classes cannot be instantiated and need to be extended to be used.
    • An interface is like a blueprint/contract of a class (or it may be thought of as a class with methods, but without their implementation). It contains empty methods that represent, what all of its subclasses should have in common. The subclasses provide the implementation for each of these methods. Interfaces are implemented.

  • What is the difference between iterator and enumeration in java?

    • In Enumeration we don't have remove() method and we can only read and traverse through a collection.
    • Iterators can be applied to any collection. In Iterator, we can read and remove items from a collection.

  • Do you agree we use composition over inheritance?

  • Difference between method overloading and overriding.

    Overloading and Overriding

    • Overloading happens at compile-time while Overriding happens at runtime: The binding of overloaded method call to its definition happens at compile-time however binding of overridden method call to its definition happens at runtime. More info on static vs. dynamic binding: StackOverflow.

    • Static methods can be overloaded which means a class can have more than one static method of same name. Static methods cannot be overridden, even if you declare a same static method in child class it has nothing to do with the same method of parent class as overridden static methods are chosen by the reference class and not by the class of the object.

      So, for example:

      public class Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The static method in Animal");
    }

    public void testInstanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("The instance method in Animal");
    }
}

public class Cat extends Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The static method in Cat");
    }

    public void testInstanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("The instance method in Cat");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Cat myCat = new Cat();
        myCat.testClassMethod();
        Animal myAnimal = myCat;
        myAnimal.testClassMethod();
        myAnimal.testInstanceMethod();
    }
}

      Will output:

      The static method in Cat    // testClassMethod() is called from "Cat" reference

The static method in Animal // testClassMethod() is called from "Animal" reference,
                            // ignoring actual object inside it (Cat)

The instance method in Cat  // testInstanceMethod() is called from "Animal" reference,
                            // but from "Cat" object underneath

      The most basic difference is that overloading is being done in the same class while for overriding base and child classes are required. Overriding is all about giving a specific implementation to the inherited method of parent class.

      Static binding is being used for overloaded methods and dynamic binding is being used for overridden/overriding methods. Performance: Overloading gives better performance compared to overriding. The reason is that the binding of overridden methods is being done at runtime.

      Private and final methods can be overloaded but they cannot be overridden. It means a class can have more than one private/final methods of same name but a child class cannot override the private/final methods of their base class.

      Return type of method does not matter in case of method overloading, it can be same or different. However in case of method overriding the overriding method can have more specific return type (meaning if, for example, base method returns an instance of Number class, all overriding methods can return any class that is extended from Number, but not a class that is higher in the hierarchy, like, for example, Object is in this particular case).

      Argument list should be different while doing method overloading. Argument list should be same in method Overriding. It is also a good practice to annotate overridden methods with @Override to make the compiler be able to notify you if child is, indeed, overriding parent's class method during compile-time.

  • What are the access modifiers you know? What does each one do?

    • There are four access modifiers in Java language (from strictest to the most lenient):
      1. private variables, methods, constructors or inner classes are only visible to its' containing class and its' methods. This modifier is most commonly used, for example, to allow variable access only through getters and setters or to hide underlying implementation of classes that should not be used by user and therefore maintain encapsulation. Singleton constructor is also marked private to avoid unwanted instantiation from outside.
      2. Default (no keyword is used) this modifier can be applied to classes, variables, constructors and methods and allows access from classes and methods inside the same package.
      3. protected can be used on variables, methods and constructors therefore allowing access only to subclasses and classes that are inside the same package as protected members' class.
      4. public modifier is widely-used on classes, variables, constructors and methods to grant access from any class and method anywhere. It should not be used everywhere as it implies that data marked with public is not sensitive and can not be used to harm the program.

  • Can an Interface implement another Interface?

    • Yes, an interface can implement another interface (and more than one), but it needs to use extends, rather than implements keyword. And while you can not remove methods from parent interface, you can add new ones freely to your sub-interface.

  • What is Polymorphism? What about Inheritance?

    • Polymorphism in Java has two types: Compile time polymorphism (static binding) and Runtime polymorphism (dynamic binding). Method overloading is an example of static polymorphism, while method overriding is an example of dynamic polymorphism.

      An important example of polymorphism is how a parent class refers to a child class object. In fact, any object that satisfies more than one IS-A relationship is polymorphic in nature.

      For instance, let’s consider a class Animal and let Cat be a subclass of Animal. So, any cat IS animal. Here, Cat satisfies the IS-A relationship for its own type as well as its super class Animal.

    • Inheritance can be defined as the process where one class acquires the properties (methods and fields) of another. With the use of inheritance the information is made manageable in a hierarchical order.

      The class which inherits the properties of other is known as subclass (derived class, child class) and the class whose properties are inherited is known as superclass (base class, parent class).

      Inheritance uses the keyword extends to inherit the properties of a class. Following is the syntax of extends keyword.

      class Super {
   .....
   .....
}
class Sub extends Super {
   .....
   .....
}

  • Multiple inheritance in Classes and Interfaces in java

  • What are the design patterns?

Collections and Generics

  • Arrays Vs ArrayLists - Learn from here

  • HashSet Vs TreeSet - Learn from here

  • HashMap Vs Set - Learn from here

  • Stack Vs Queue

  • Explain Generics in Java?

    • Generics were included in Java language to provide stronger type checks, by allowing the programmer to define, which classes can be used with other classes

      In a nutshell, generics enable types (classes and interfaces) to be parameters when defining classes, interfaces and methods. Much like the more familiar formal parameters used in method declarations, type parameters provide a way for you to re-use the same code with different inputs. The difference is that the inputs to formal parameters are values, while the inputs to type parameters are types. (Official Java Documentation)

    • This means that, for example, you can define:

      List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<>();

      And let the compiler take care of noticing, if you put some object, of type other than Integer into this list and warn you.

    • It should be noted that standard class hierarchy does not apply to generic types. It means that Integer in List<Integer> is not inherited from <Number> - it is actually inherited directly from <Object>. You can still put some constraints on what classes can be passed as a parameter into a generic by using wildcards like <?>, <? extends MyCustomClass> or <? super Number>.

    • While generics are very useful, late inclusion into Java language has put some restraints on their implementation - backward compatibility required them to remain just "syntactic sugar" - they are erased (type erasure) during compile-time and replaced with object class.

  • What is Java PriorityQueue? - In Priority Queue, each element is having some priority and all the elements are present in a queue. The operations are performed based on the priority.

Objects and Primitives

  • How is String class implemented? Why was it made immutable?

    • There is no primitive variant of String class in Java language - all strings are just wrappers around underlying array of characters, which is declared final. This means that, once a String object is instantiated, it cannot be changed through normal tools of the language (Reflection still can mess things up horribly, because in Java no object is truly immutable). This is why String variables in classes are the first candidates to be used, when you want to override hashCode() and equals() of your class - you can be sure, that all their required contracts will be satisfied.

      Note: The String class is immutable, so that once it is created a String object cannot be changed. The String class has a number of methods, some of which will be discussed below, that appear to modify strings. Since strings are immutable, what these methods really do is create and return a new string that contains the result of the operation. (Official Java Documentation)

      This class is also unique in a sense, that, when you create an instance like this:

      String helloWorld = "Hello, World!";

      "Hello, World!" is called a literal and compiler creates a String object with its' value. So

      String capital = "Hello, World!".toUpperCase();

      is a valid statement, that, firstly, will create an object with literal value "Hello, World!" and then will create and return another object with value "HELLO, WORLD!"

    • String was made immutable to prevent malicious manipulation of data, when, for example, user login or other sensitive data is being send to a server.

  • What does it means to say that a String is immutable?

    • It means that once created, String object's char[] (its' containing value) is declared final and, therefore, it can not be changed during runtime.

  • What is String.intern()? When and why should it be used?

    • String.intern() is used to mange memory in Java code. It is used when we have duplicates value in different strings. When you call the String.intern(), then if in the String pool that string is present then the equals() method will return true and it will return that string only.

  • Can you list 8 primitive types in java?

    • byte
    • short
    • int
    • long
    • float
    • double
    • char
    • String
    • boolean

  • What is the difference between an Integer and int?

    • int is a primitive data type (with boolean, byte, char, short, long, float and double), while Integer (with Boolean, Byte, Character, Short,Long, Float and Double) is a wrapper class that encapsulates primitive data type, while providing useful methods to perform different tasks with it.

  • What is Autoboxing and Unboxing?

    • Autoboxing and Unboxing is the process of automatic wrapping (putting in a box) and unwrapping (getting the value out) of primitive data types, that have "wrapper" classes. So int and Integer can (almost always) be used interchangeably in Java language, meaning a method void giveMeInt(int i) { ... } can take int as well as Integer as a parameter.

  • Typecast in Java

    • In Java, you can use casts to polymorph one class into another, compatible one. For example: 
          long i = 10l;
    int j = (int) i;
    long k = j;
      Here we see, that, while narrowing (long i -> int j) requires an explicit cast to make sure the programmer realizes, that there may be some data or precision loss, widening (int j -> long k) does not require an explicit cast, because there can be no data loss (long can take larger numbers than int allows).

  • Do objects get passed by reference or value in Java? Elaborate on that.

    • In Java all primitives and objects are passed by value, meaning that their copy will be manipulated in the receiving method. But there is a caveat - when you pass an object reference into a method, a copy of this reference is made, so it still points to the same object. This means, that any changes that you make to the insides of this object are retained, when the method exits. 
      public class Pointer {

    int innerField;

    public Pointer(int a) {
        this.innerField = a;
    }
}
      public class ValueAndReference {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Pointer a = new Pointer(0);
        int b = 1;

        print("Before:");
        print("b = " + b);
        print("a.innerField = " + a.innerField);
        exampleMethod(a, b);
        print("After:");
        print("b = " + b);
        print("a.innerField = " + a.innerField);
    }

    static void exampleMethod(Pointer a, int b) {
        a.innerField = 2;
        b = 10;
    }

    static void print(String text) {
        System.out.println(text);
    }
}
      Will output: 
          Before:

    b = 1

    a.innerField = 0

    After:

    b = 1        // a new local int variable was created and operated on, so "b" didn't change

    a.innerField = 2 // Pointer a got its' innerField variable changed
                     //  from 0 to 2, because method was operating on
                     //  the same reference to an instance

  • What is the difference between instantiation and initialization of an object?

  • What the difference between local, instance and class variables?

    • Local variables exist only in methods that created them, they are stored separately in their respected Thread Stack (for more information, see question about Java Memory Model) and cannot have their reference passed outside of the method scope. That also means that they cannot be assigned any access modifier or made static - because they only exist during enclosing method's execution and those modifiers just do not make sense, since no other outside method can get them anyway.
    • Instance variables are the ones, that are declared in classes and their value can be different from one instance of the class to another, but they always require that class' instance to exist.
    • Class variables are those, that are marked with static keyword in their class' body. They can only have one value across all instances of that class (changing it in one place will change it in their class and, therefore, in all instances) and can even be retrieved without that class' instance (if their access modifier allows it).

Java Memory Model and Garbage Collector

  • What is garbage collector? How does it work?

    • All objects are allocated on the heap area managed by the JVM. As long as an object is being referenced, the JVM considers it alive. Once an object is no longer referenced and therefore is not reachable by the application code, the garbage collector removes it and reclaims the unused memory.

  • What is Java Memory Model? What contracts does it guarantee? How are its' Heap and Stack organized?

  • What is memory leak and how does Java handle it?

  • What are strong, soft, weak and phantom references in Java?

Concurrency

  • What does the keyword synchronized mean?

  • What is a ThreadPoolExecutor? - ThreadPoolExecutor in Android

  • What is volatile modifier?

  • The classes in the atomic package expose a common set of methods: get, set,, lazyset, compareAndSet, and weakCompareAndSet. Please describe them.

Exceptions

  • How does the try{}, catch{}, finally works?

  • What is the difference between a Checked Exception and an Un-Checked Exception?

Others

  • What is serialization? How do you implement it?

    • Serialization is the process of converting an object into a stream of bytes in order to store an object into memory, so that it can be recreated at a later time, while still keeping the object's original state and data. In Android you may use either the Serializable, Externalizable (implements Serializable) or Parcelable interfaces.
    • While Serializable is the easiest to implement, Externalizable may be used if you need to insert custom logic into the process of serialization (although it is almost never used nowadays as it is considered a relic from early versions of Java). But it is highly recommended to use Parcelable in Android instead, as Parcelable was created exclusively for Android and it performs about 10x faster than Serializable, because Serializable uses reflection, which is a slow process and tends to create a lot of temporary objects and it may cause garbage collection to occur more often.
    • To use Serializable all you have to do is implement the interface: 
      // Implementing the Serializable interface is all that is required
public class User implements Serializable {

    private String name;
    private String email;

        public User() {
        }

        public String getName() {
            return name;
        }

        public void setName(final String name) {
            this.name = name;
        }

        public String getEmail() {
            return email;
        }

        public void setEmail(final String email) {
            this.email = email;
        }
    }
    • Parcelable requires a bit more work: 
          public class User implements Parcelable {

        private String name;
        private String email;

        /**
         * Interface that must be implemented and provided as a public CREATOR field
         * that generates instances of your Parcelable class from a Parcel.
         */
        public static final Creator<User> CREATOR = new Creator<User>() {

            /**
             * Creates a new USer object from the Parcel. This is the reason why
             * the constructor that takes a Parcel is needed.
             */
            @Override
            public User createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
                return new User(in);
            }

            /**
             * Create a new array of the Parcelable class.
             * @return an array of the Parcelable class,
             * with every entry initialized to null.
             */
            @Override
            public User[] newArray(int size) {
                return new User[size];
            }
        };

        public User() {
        }

        /**
         * Parcel overloaded constructor required for
         * Parcelable implementation used in the CREATOR
         */
        private User(Parcel in) {
            name = in.readString();
            email = in.readString();
        }

        public String getName() {
            return name;
        }

        public void setName(final String name) {
            this.name = name;
        }

        public String getEmail() {
            return email;
        }

        public void setEmail(final String email) {
            this.email = email;
        }

        @Override
        public int describeContents() {
            return 0;
        }

        /**
         * This is where the parcel is performed.
         */
        @Override
        public void writeToParcel(final Parcel parcel, final int i) {
            parcel.writeString(name);
            parcel.writeString(email);
        }
    }
      Note: For a full explanation of the describeContents() method see StackOverflow. In Android Studio, you can have all of the parcelable code auto generated for you, but like with everything else, it is always a good thing to try and understand everything that is happening.

  • What is transient modifier?

  • What are anonymous classes?

  • What is the difference between using == and .equals on an object?

  • What is the hashCode() and equals() used for?

  • Why would you not call abstract method in constructor? - Learn from here

  • When would you make an object value final?

  • What are these final, finally and finalize keywords?

    • final is a keyword in the java language. It is used to apply restrictions on class, method and variable. Final class can't be inherited, final method can't be overridden and final variable value can't be changed. 
      class FinalExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        final int x=100;
        x=200;//Compile Time Error because x is final
    }
}
    • finally is a code block and is used to place important code, it will be executed whether exception is handled or not. 
      class FinallyExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            int x=300;
        }catch(Exception e) {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());            }
        finally {
            System.out.println("finally block is executed");
        }
    }
}
    • Finalize is a method used to perform clean up processing just before object is garbage collected. 
      class FinalizeExample {
    public void finalize() {
        System.out.println("finalize called");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FinalizeExample f1=new FinalizeExample();
        FinalizeExample f2=new FinalizeExample();
        f1=null;
        f2=null;
        System.gc();
    }
}

  • What is the difference between "throw" and "throws" keyword in Java?

    • throws is just used to indicated which exception is to be thrown. But the throw keyword is used to throw some exception from any static block or any method.

  • What does the static word mean in Java?

    • In case of static variable it means that this variable (its' value or the object it references) spans across all instances of enclosing class (changing it in one instance affects all others), while in case of static methods it means that these methods can be invoked without an instance of their enclosing class. It is useful, for example, when you create util classes that need not be instantiated every time you want to use them.

  • Can a static method be overridden in Java?

    • While child class can override a static method with another static method with the same signature (return type can be down-casted), it is not truly overridden - it becomes "hidden", but both methods can still be accessed under right circumstances (see question about overloading/overriding above).

  • When is a static block run?

    • Code inside static block is executed only once: the first time you make an object of that class or the first time you access a static member of that class (even if you never make an object of that class).

  • What is reflection?

    • You can inspect classes, interfaces, fields, and method at runtime with the help of reflection and the best part is that you need not know the names of these classes, methods, etc.

  • What is Dependency Injection?

  • How is a StringBuilder implemented to avoid the immutable string allocation problem? - Learn from here

  • Difference between StringBuffer and StringBuilder?

  • What is the difference between fail-fast and fail-safe iterators in Java?

    • Fail-safe iterator will not throw any exception even if the collection is modified while iteration over it. But in Fail-safe iterator, it throws a ConcurrentModificationException when you try to modify the collection while using it.

  • Monitor and Synchronization

  • Tell some advantages of Kotlin.

  • What is the difference between val and var? - Learn from here

  • What is the difference between const and val? - Learn from here

  • How to ensure null safety in Kotlin?

  • When to use lateint keyword used in Kotlin? - Learn from here

  • How to check if a lateinit variable has been initialized? - Learn from here

  • How to do lazy initialization of variables in Kotlin? - Learn from here

  • What are companion objects in Kotlin? - Learn from here

  • What are the visibility modifiers in Kotlin?

  • What is the equivalent of Java static methods in Kotlin?

  • What is a data class in Kotlin?

  • How to create a Singleton class in Kotlin?

  • What is the difference between open and public in Kotlin? - Learn from here

  • Explain the use-case of let, run, with, also, apply in Kotlin.

  • Difference between List and Array types in Kotlin

  • What are Labels in Kotlin?

  • What is an Init block in Kotlin? - Learn from here

  • Explain pair and triple in Kotlin.

  • How to choose between apply and with?

  • How to choose between switch with when?

  • What are Coroutines in Kotlin? - Learn from here

  • What is Coroutine Scope? - Learn from here

  • What is Coroutine Context? - Learn from here

  • Launch vs Async in Kotlin Coroutines - Learn from here

  • What is inline function in Kotlin? - Learn from here

  • When to use Kotlin sealed classes?

  • Explain function literals with receiver in Kotlin?

  • Tell about Kotlin DSL.

  • What are higher-order functions in Kotlin? - Learn from here: Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas in Kotlin

  • What are Lambdas in Kotlin - Learn from here: Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas in Kotlin

  • Tell about the Collections in Kotlin

Kotlin Coroutines

Topics you should know in Kotlin Coroutines for Android Interview:

  • coroutines
  • suspend
  • launch, async-await, withContext
  • dispatchers
  • scope, context, job
  • lifecycleScope, viewModelScope, GlobalScope
  • suspendCoroutine, suspendCancellableCoroutine
  • coroutineScope, supervisorScope

You can learn these topics here: Master Kotlin Coroutines

Kotlin Flow API

Topics you should know in Kotlin Flow API for Android Interview:

  • Flow Builder, Operator, Collector
  • flowOn, dispatchers
  • Operators such as filter, map, zip, flatMapConcat, retry, debounce, distinctUntilChanged, flatMapLatest
  • Terminal operators
  • StateFlow, SharedFlow, callbackFlow, channelFlow

You can learn these topics here: Kotlin Flow API

Jetpack Compose

Topics you should know in Jetpack Compose for Android Interview:

  • Compose
  • State: remember, rememberSaveable, MutableState
  • Recomposition
  • State hoisting
  • Side-effects
  • Modifier
  • Theme
  • Layout, List
  • Gestures, Animation
  • CompositionLocal

Other Topics

Android Interview Questions:

  • Describe how REST APIs work. What is REST?

  • Describe SQLite.

  • Describe database.

  • How do you control the application version update to specific number of users?

  • Can we identify users who have uninstalled our application?

  • Android Development Best Practices. - Learn from here: Android Development Best Practices

  • Have you tried Kotlin?

  • What are the metrics that you should measure continuously while android application development? - Learn from here: Android App Performance Metrics

  • What is Chrome Custom Tabs? How to display web content in your app?

  • How to avoid API keys from check-in into VCS?

  • How does the Kotlin Multiplatform work? - Learn from here

  • How to use Memory Heap Dumps data?

  • How to implement Dark Theme in your app?

  • Have you tried Jetpack compose?

  • How to secure the API keys used in an app?

  • How to convert check Java equivalent code of Kotlin?

  • Tell something about memory usage in Android.

  • Can you create transparent activity in Android?

  • Explain Annotation processing.

  • How to increase the Notification delivery rate?

  • How does the notification system work?

  • How to show local Notification at an exact time?

Data Structures and Algorithms

  • Android Developer should know these Data Structures for Next Interview - Check here

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License

   Copyright (C) 2022 Amit Shekhar

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.

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