What do Android Developers do?

Android developers design and build applications for mobile devices running Google’s Android operating system. They are responsible for app design and development, code maintenance, quality assurance, bug fixing and app updates.

Android Engineering Interview Course

Nail Your Next Android Engineering Interview

4.42

Designed and taught by FAANG+ engineers, this course will help you ace every interview you give. Master everything from core tech interview concepts to soft skills in just 15 weeks.

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Course Overview

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Get all the information about the course and pricing in our live webinar with Q&A.

Best suited for

Why choose this course?

Program designed by FAANG+ leads

Covering data structures, algorithms, interview-relevant topics, and career coaching

Individualized teaching and 1:1 help

Technical coaching, homework assistance, solutions discussion, and individual session

Mock interviews with Silicon Valley engineers

Live interview practice in real-life simulated environments with FAANG and top-tier interviewers

Personalized feedback

Constructive, structured, and actionable insights for improved interview performance

Career skills development

Resume building, LinkedIn profile optimization, personal branding, and live behavioral workshops

50% Money-Back Guarantee*

If you do well in our course but still don't land a domain-relevant job within the post-program support period, we'll refund 50% of the tuition you paid for the course.*

It's Free

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Meet your instructors

Our highly experienced instructors are active hiring managers and employees at FAANG+ companies and know exactly what it takes to ace tech and managerial interviews.

WeiSheng Su

Sr. Software Engineer

10+ years experience

A typical week at Interview Kickstart

This is how we structure and organize your interview prep with our high-quality, content-rich course. Our learners devote 10 to 12 hours per week to this course.

Thu

Get foundational content

Get high-quality videos and course material for the upcoming week's live class

Covers introduction to fundamentals, interview-relevant topics, and case studies

Assignment review session

Focused group discussions involving learners and the instructor on the assignment's solution

Interview-like drill down into key techniques and design choices

Sun

Attend online live sessions

Attend 4-hour sessions covering interview-relevant Android Engineering concepts

Each class covers a wide variety of interview problems, including open-ended questions and how to approach these questions

Live feedback from a Tier-1 tech instructor

Mon-Wed

Practice problems & assignments

Practice the concepts taught in live sessions to solve assignment questions

Work on interview-oriented assignment problems and discuss the solutions

Live doubt-solving with FAANG+ instructors

Everyday

1:1 access to instructors

Personalized coaching from FAANG+ Android instructors

Individualized and detailed attention to your questions

Solution walkthroughs

Android Engineering Interview Course details and curriculum

Data structures and Algorithms

Sorting

Introduction to Sorting
Basics of Asymptotic Analysis and Worst Case & Average Case Analysis
Different Sorting Algorithms and their comparison
Algorithm paradigms like Divide & Conquer, Decrease & Conquer, Transform & Conquer
Presorting
Extensions of Merge Sort, Quick Sort, Heap Sort
Common sorting-related coding interview problems

Recursion

Recursion as a Lazy Manager’s Strategy
Recursive Mathematical Functions
Combinatorial Enumeration
Backtracking
Exhaustive Enumeration & General Template
Common recursion- and backtracking-related coding interview problems

Trees

Dictionaries & Sets, Hash Tables
Modeling data as Binary Trees and Binary Search Tree and performing different operations over them
Tree Traversals and Constructions
BFS Coding Patterns
DFS Coding Patterns
Tree Construction from its traversals
Common trees-related coding interview problems

Graphs

Overview of Graphs
Problem definition of the 7 Bridges of Konigsberg and its connection with Graph theory
What is a graph, and when do you model a problem as a Graph?
How to store a Graph in memory (Adjacency Lists, Adjacency Matrices, Adjacency Maps)
Graphs traversal: BFS and DFS, BFS Tree, DFS stack-based implementation
A general template to solve any problems modeled as Graphs
Graphs in Interviews
Common graphs-related coding interview problems

Dynamic Programming

Dynamic Programming Introduction
Modeling problems as recursive mathematical functions
Detecting overlapping subproblems
Top-down Memorization
Bottom-up Tabulation
Optimizing Bottom-up Tabulation
Common DP-related coding interview problems

System Design

Online Processing Systems

The client-server model of Online processing
Top-down steps for system design interview
Depth and breadth analysis
Cryptographic hash function
Network Protocols, Web Server, Hash Index
Scaling
Performance Metrics of a Scalable System
SLOs and SLAs
Proxy: Reverse and Forward
Load balancing
CAP Theorem
Content Distribution Networks
Cache
Sharding
Consistent Hashing
Storage
Case Studies: URL Shortener, Instagram, Uber, Twitter, Messaging/Chat Services

Batch Processing Systems

Inverted Index
External Sort Merge
K-way External Sort-Merge
Distributed File System
Map-reduce Framework
Distributed Sorting
Case Studies: Search Engine, Graph Processor, Typeahead Suggestions, Recommendation Systems

Stream Processing Systems

Case Studies: on APM, Social Connections, Netflix, Google Maps, Trending Topics, YouTube

Android Engineering Concepts

Module 1: Android UI Programming

Master common Android interview scenarios, including designing responsive UIs, optimizing state management, and implementing modern navigation flows. Build expertise in scalable, user-centric app interfaces with case studies. This module covers:

UI Development: Create dynamic UIs with RecyclerView, grid layouts, pagination, and infinite scrolling.
Custom Views: Solve design challenges by building reusable and efficient custom components.
State Management: Leverage LiveData, ViewModel, and StateFlow for robust data handling.
Navigation: Implement Jetpack Navigation for seamless app flows and backstack management.

Module 2: Network and Memory Management

Master interview scenarios in Android, including handling configuration changes, optimizing app memory usage, and implementing scalable network solutions. Gain insights into designing efficient, user-friendly Android apps with case studies. This module covers:

Configuration Changes: Manage state preservation during screen rotations and app interruptions.
Memory Management: Detect and fix memory leaks with tools like LeakCanary and optimize garbage collection.
Local Storage: Implement persistent data solutions using SharedPreferences and Room.
Networking: Optimize API requests with Retrofit, caching, pagination, and asynchronous patterns.

Module 3: Concurrency, Debugging, and Profiling

Gain the skills needed for essential Android concurrency and debugging techniques to excel in technical interviews. Gain insights into building performant, scalable Android apps. This module covers:

Concurrency and Threading: Manage tasks with ExecutorService, RxJava, and coroutines while solving ANRs, deadlocks, and race conditions.
Background Work: Optimize deferred tasks using WorkManager, JobScheduler, and services for long-running operations.
Debugging and Testing: Debug effectively with ADB, Logcat, and Profiler; test apps with unit and instrumentation tests.
Content Providers: Enable secure data sharing and integration with widgets, search, and external apps.

Module 4: Modular Architecture Design

Prepare for Android system design interviews by mastering modular architectures, dependency injection, and scalable design principles. This module covers:

Android Build System: Understand Gradle, build configurations, product flavors, and optimizing app builds.
System Design: Approach interview problems with clear requirements, layouts, and reusable components.
Dependency Injection: Learn Dagger and Hilt for building maintainable, testable Android apps.
Design Patterns: Explore MVC, MVP, MVVM, VIPER, and RIBs for scalable app architectures.
Modularization Techniques: Implement feature and layer modularization for faster builds and reusable code.

Career Session Orientation

Interview Strategy and Success

Behavioral Interview Prep

Offers and Negotiation

Support Period

15 mock interviews

Take classes you missed/retake classes/tests

1:1 technical/career coaching

Interview strategy and salary negotiation support

It's Free

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Practice and track progress on UpLevel

UpLevel will be your all-in-one learning platform to get you FAANG-ready, with 10,000+ interview questions, timed tests, videos, mock interviews suite, and more.

Mock interviews suite

On-demand timed tests

In-browser online judge

10,000 interview questions

100,000 hours of video explanations

Class schedules & activity alerts

Real-time progress update

11 programming languages

Get upto 15 mock interviews with

hiring managers

What makes our mock Interviews the best:

Hiring managers from Tier-1 companies like Google & Apple

Interview with the best. No one will prepare you better!

Domain-specific interviews

Practice for your target domain - Android Engineering

Detailed personalized feedback

Identify and work on your improvement areas

Transparent, non-anonymous interviews

Get the most realistic experience possible

More about mock interviews

1. Flexible schedule

Pick timings convenient to you

4. Technical and behavioral interviews

Uplevel your technical and behavioral interview skills

2. Remote interview experience

Mirrors the current format of remote interviews

5. Level-specific interviews

Because an L4 at Google can be quite different from an E7 at Meta

3. Feedback documentation

All the feedback you’ve ever wanted, recorded and documented

6. Interviewer of your choice

Choose based on company and/or domain

Career impact

Our engineers land high-paying and rewarding offers from the biggest tech companies, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Netflix.

Ian Hwang

Software Engineer

Placed at:

I attended IK and I've got a lot of knowledge that helped me get into Microsoft. Their Curriculum (algorithms and data structures) is organized very well and explanations are so helpful. And mock interviews and the feedback helped me a lot. It was worth it!

Neetika Srivastava

Software Engineer

Placed at:

I really like how the program is structured and how it caters to different domains. It is really helpful. The patterns that they teach you at Interview Kickstart are really useful because you can apply those patterns to any new problem. Knowing those patterns, you can solve basically any question because you can relate it to problems you have already solved, which gives you confidence.

Chun Wu

Senior Software Engineer

Placed at:

I joined iK after stumbling across it while reviewing some other interview prep materials after doing poorly in an interview at Linkedin. I knew that doing well in these interviews would require dedication and investment of my time - but with so many resources online I didn't have structure. This is what the IK platform provided me.

Shrey Shrivastava

Software development Engineer ll

Placed at:

The Interview Kickstart course is very structured and informative. They teach you about DS and algo fundamentals very thoroughly and also prepare you for the software engineering interview. I really like the live classes by FAANG engineers, and the homework and tests definitely help you toprepare for a real interview. If you have been looking for a bootcamp that prepares you for software engineering interviews, I would say this is definitely the right place to do it.

Sridhar Gandham

Senior Software Engineer

Placed at:

My experience at IK was extremely positive. I was preparing for FAANG companies using the standard techniques that you find on the internet. When I started preparing, there was no structure to the madness. For example, a simple quicksort can be implemented in multiple ways. So solving a medium problem would take me about 30 minutes. The biggest benefit that I got from IK was a clear, structured way of solving problems. After IK, I could solve medium problems in 10 minutes!

How to enroll for the Android Engineering Interview Course?

Learn more about Interview Kickstart and the Android Engineering Interview Course by joining the free webinar hosted by Ryan Valles, co-founder of Interview Kickstart.

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A Free Guide to Kickstart Your Android Engineering Career at FAANG+

From the interview process and career path to interview questions and salary details — learn everything you need to know about Android Engineering careers at top tech companies.

Register for webinar

It's Free

Interview Strategy and Success

Interview Questions

Career Path

Salary and Levels at FAANG

Frequently Asked Questions

Android Engineering Interview Process Outline

A typical Android Engineering interview process at FAANG+ and other Tier-1 companies looks like this:

Initial technical screening: This usually involves a DSA-based coding round and a discussion of your past projects and Android fundamentals.

4-6 on-site rounds:

General coding rounds – Leetcode-styled questions [language agnostic; better if one can code in Kotlin or Java]; your coding skills are evaluated.
Android-specific interviews – Mix of Android flavored DSA questions; Android Domain knowledge testing through trivia questions.
System design – Client-side system design – Whiteboarding solution; general structured problem solving is evaluated with questions such as, “Design Instagram.”

At other Tier-1 companies like Uber, Pinterest, Airbnb, Doordash, etc., following rounds are also a part of the interview process.

Take-home assignments
Live coding – Coding an Android application from scratch within time limits
Code slicing – Understanding an existing piece of code and building some features on top of it
Code debugging – Identifying and fixing bugs in the project

Behavioral round: Open-ended questions asked by hiring managers to gauge whether you’re a cultural fit for the company

What to Expect at Android Engineer Interviews at FAANG+ Companies

Initial technical screening

This usually involves a coding round and a discussion of your past projects and Android fundamentals. The coding questions are typically at an Easy/Medium level on Leetcode.

Follow-up technical phone screen

Conducted by Android Engineers through a phone screen, this is an option round of interviews and is conducted for only some of the candidates.

On-site (around 4-6 rounds)

On-site rounds vary a lot from company to company. Some companies have all the following components in all of their rounds. Some companies prefer to have 2-3 explicit algorithmic coding rounds first then, followed by a couple of rounds on Android domain concepts and Android system design.

Algorithmic questions: Depending on the total years of experience, you go through 2 to 3 coding (DSA-based) rounds. Usually, the difficulty level of these questions is LC easy/medium, but occasionally LC hard questions are also thrown into the mix.
Android Fundamentals Round: You are grilled on their knowledge of Android development- Design patterns, views, and User Interaction. You might also be asked to develop an Android app.
Bug fixing: Fix bugs in a given app codebase within a given time interval.
Slicing of code: Explain the working of a given piece of code.
Android Systems Design Rounds (Generally for experienced candidates): The number of design rounds typically increases with your work experience and applied level. You are also expected to explain low-level design implementation as well for some parts of the HLD. You are also tested on high-level design architectures for real-life products.

Behavioral round

This is conducted by the hiring manager. Expect questions related to your job experience, discussions on past projects, and open-ended questions to gauge if you’re a “good fit.”

You can apply for the open job roles through online channels or through recruiters. Once your profile is shortlisted, you’ll go through these rounds of interviews. The entire interview process takes around 4 to 8 weeks.

Android Engineering Interview Questions

As Android is the most popular operating system in the world, the demand for qualified professionals is always increasing. To clear the interview questions at the top tech companies, you’ll need to know which Android Engineering interview questions to prepare.

To help you get started, we’ve divided them into the following categories:

Android Engineering Interview Questions on Coding

How do you convert a String into int like the atoi()?

What’s the process of reversing a linked list in place?

How would you remove duplicates if given an array in Java?

What’s the process of determining whether a given number is a palindrome?

How would you implement the Sieve of Eratosthenes Algorithms for Prime Number?

Domain-Specific Android Engineering Interview Questions

Evaluate two different ways to design an app that horizontally scrolls, like when you select an email in Gmail:

Come up with how to implement a horizontal scroll where:

- The user can scroll multiple items at a time
- The user can’t, and each item snaps stop

Describe how you would:

- Figure out which one is in the middle
- Update the elements on the top/bottom of the screen to match the data that’s in the middle

How would you implement the feature in an existing application?

Scroll position persistence

- Given: A user has navigated to a location within the minute data list
- When: the user closes the app and relaunches it
- Then: the minute data list scroll position is the same

Navigation persistence

- Given: A user has navigated to a specific minute’s detail screen
- When: the user closes the app and relaunches it
- Then: the minute data detail screen is the same, and a back press takes the user back to the list screen.

The app has a login and logout button, and if the user tries to log in (simply by pressing the login button), all buttons should not work. Please check out how to solve this ANR so that the static simulation works (i.e., the top right button).

Design a messenger application with the following requirements:

Design a messenger app where users can send messages to each other
We do not need to implement group chat
Provide support for offline (view contacts, send messages, not receiving messages, though, obviously)
Users can share images in the chat

Architect and write the fragment + adapter code to implement infinite scroll for an application.

Why do you need an AndroidManifest.xml file?

Differentiate between Implicit and Explicit Intent.

What is meant by ANR in Android, and how can it be avoided?

What troubleshooting techniques can you use if an application crashes frequently?

In Android Development, what is the role of Dalvik?

How would you implement a GDPR program for Google Services?

What’s the importance of the .dex file?

Define Job Scheduler.

What are the drawbacks of Android?

Explain the four essential activity states.

Android Engineering Interview Questions on Behavioral Skills

Have you ever had to work on several projects at once? How did you deal with it?

How do you handle arguments with coworkers?

Have you ever worked with developers and Engineers to debug an application? What was your role?

What was the latest application installed on your phone, and why?

According to you, which application does our company need right now?

To further improve your behavioral skills, check out 9 Behavioral Questions for Your Next Big Interview.

Android Engineering Career

Millions of new job opportunities in the Android app development space are expected to emerge. Android Engineering is a great career choice for engineers because it is the most widely used operating system in every industry.

Android Engineer Job Roles and Responsibilities

As an Android Engineer, you’ll be responsible for:

Elevating code into the development, test, and production environments on schedule

Participating in code reviews and weekly Android team remote meetups

Working closely with the product, design, and engineering teams

Managing the design and architecture of modules in the overall product. Helping with troubleshooting production problems, root cause analysis, and debugging

Diagnosing complex issues, evaluating, recommending, and implementing the best resolution

Communicating frequently with clients, including project plans and scope

Direct internal and external resources in software development to deliver assigned modules

Actively engaging in development activities associated with developing new solutions and refining current solutions

Performing detailed technical design and implementation of complex Android applications

Leading meetings and reviewing designs with the business

Assuming a lead role on an agile team responsible for Android solutions

Actively contribute to building top-quality engineering teams and technology practices

Staying up to date with new Growth and Personalization tools

Required Qualifications for Android Engineers

Bachelor’s or Graduate’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field

Experience with applicable software and programs, including Java, and Kotlin

Experience with Android Software Development and Android Studio

Understanding of Android system design and Android architecture

Fluency in interfacing and unit testing

A knack for problem-solving and critical thinking

Familiar with debugging and working with object-oriented programming

Preferred Qualifications for Android Engineers

Experience in mobile design patterns (MVVM, MVI, VIPER), building mobile frameworks / SDKs, building custom UX widgets, and optimizing apps for performance (Instruments)

Experience writing testable code and automating test regressions

Experience with multi-module applications in a large distributed team environment

Knowledge of professional software engineering practices, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations

Experience developing, releasing, and maintaining an Android app

Familiarity with REST architecture for web services

Comprehensive knowledge of professional software engineering practices & best practices for full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, continuous deployments, testing, and operations

Experience communicating technical problems to both technical and business audiences verbally and in writing

To learn how to list your skills and qualifications on your resume, read:

Android Engineering Career Roadmap

In a FAANG+ company, the career progression for the Android role is similar to that for the general software development role:

SWE I/SWE II Android Development → SWE II → Senior SWE → Staff SWE → Senior Staff SWE or EM/Director → Principal Engineer or Director/VP

Android Engineer Salary and Levels at FAANG

A Android Engineer can exist at different levels in a company. For this reason, the Android Engineers salary varies significantly on that basis. We’ve curated FAANG Technical Program Manager salary data by level for your convenience:

Facebook Android Engineer Salary

On average, a Facebook Android Engineer earns $139,900 per year. Based on the different levels, the Facebook Android Engineer’s salary range has been given below:

Android Engineer at Facebook

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

$176K

$123K

$46K

$15K

$259K

$160K

$80K

$22K

$379K

$194K

$146K

$41K

$609K

$238K

$334K

$59K

Amazon Android Engineer Salary

The average salary of an Android Engineer here is $144,250 per year. According to the different levels at the company, the Amazon Android Engineer’s salary range has been given below:

Android Engineer at Amazon

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

SDE I

$197K

$152K

$32K

$13K

SDE II

$260K

$182K

$78K

SDE III

$483K

$219K

$264K

Apple Android Engineer Salary

An Apple Android Engineer makes $114,500 per year. According to the different levels, the Apple Android Engineer’s salary ranges from:

Android Engineer at Apple

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

ICT2

$170K

ICT4

$323K

$190K

$105K

$27.5K

ICT5

$250K

$200K

$50K

Netflix Android Engineer Salary

An Android Engineer at Netflix earns $152,687 per year, on average. Based on the experience, the salary ranges from:

Android Engineer at Netflix

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

New Grad SW. Engineer

$144K

$95K

$35K

Sr. SW. Engineer

$489K

$478K

$11K

Google Android Engineer Salary

The salary of a Google Android Engineer is $156,806 a year, on average. Based on the different levels, the Google Android Engineer’s salary ranges from:

Android Engineer at Google

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

$195K

$133K

$43K

$23K

$275K

$164K

$84K

$29K

$376K

$196K

$146K

$35K

$502K

$232K

$214K

$57K

$710K

$278K

$349K

$83K

FAQs on Android Engineering Interview Course

What does an Android Developer do?

Android developers design and build applications for mobile devices running Google’s Android operating software. They are responsible for designing and coding the base application, ensuring the quality of the application, fixing application bugs, maintaining the code, and implementing application updates.

What is Android Programming?

The process through which applications are developed for the devices using the Android operating system is known as Android software development. These apps can be written using Kotlin, Java, and C++ languages with the help of the Android software development kit (SDK).

What coding topics are essential for Android interviews, and how does our program approach them?

An excellent understanding of these topics is essential — Arrays, Linked Lists, Stacks & Queues, Dictionaries, Searching and Sorting, Recursion & BackTracking, Strings, Trees, and Graphs. We have coding classes on all these topics. Some of these data structures are also covered in the last 4 weeks, where we teach the application of these data structures using Collections in Swift.

What skills are needed to crack Android Engineering interviews?

Android Engineering Interview rounds for every level have some coding, some design, some domain, and some soft skills, but varying degrees. The more senior you go, the fewer coding rounds you get and more design/domain rounds. But as far as preparation is concerned, one has to prepare for all four areas, and we cover all of those 4 in the program.

What are the different job roles in the field of Android App Development?

The hierarchy in the field of Android App Development is the same as in the traditional software development field. Regarding responsibility, while developing the application, some companies have separate teams for Mobile Application development, backend development, testing, and deployment.