Senior Mobile Developer (Android) Interview Questions: Complete Guide

Milad Bonakdar
Author
Master advanced Android development with essential interview questions covering architecture patterns, performance optimization, dependency injection, testing, security, and system design for senior developers.
Introduction
Senior Android developers are expected to architect scalable, maintainable applications while ensuring high performance and code quality. This role demands deep expertise in Android frameworks, architectural patterns, dependency injection, testing strategies, and the ability to make informed technical decisions.
This comprehensive guide covers essential interview questions for Senior Android Developers, spanning advanced Kotlin concepts, architectural patterns, performance optimization, dependency injection, testing, and system design. Each question includes detailed answers, rarity assessment, and difficulty ratings.
Advanced Kotlin & Language Features (5 Questions)
1. Explain Kotlin Coroutines and their advantages over threads.
Answer: Coroutines are lightweight concurrency primitives that allow writing asynchronous code in a sequential manner.
- Advantages over Threads:
- Lightweight: Can create thousands of coroutines without performance issues
- Structured Concurrency: Parent-child relationship ensures proper cleanup
- Cancellation Support: Built-in cancellation propagation
- Exception Handling: Structured exception handling
- Key Components:
- CoroutineScope: Defines lifecycle
- Dispatchers: Control execution context (Main, IO, Default)
- suspend functions: Can be paused and resumed
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Hard
2. What are Sealed Classes and when should you use them?
Answer: Sealed classes represent restricted class hierarchies where all subclasses are known at compile time.
- Benefits:
- Exhaustive
whenexpressions - Type-safe state management
- Better than enums for complex data
- Exhaustive
- Use Cases: Representing states, results, navigation events
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Medium
3. Explain Kotlin Flow and how it differs from LiveData.
Answer: Flow is Kotlin's cold asynchronous stream that emits values sequentially.
- Flow vs LiveData:
- Flow: Cold stream, supports operators, not lifecycle-aware, more flexible
- LiveData: Hot stream, lifecycle-aware, Android-specific, simpler for UI
- Flow Types:
- Flow: Cold stream (starts on collection)
- StateFlow: Hot stream with current state
- SharedFlow: Hot stream for events
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Hard
4. What are Inline Functions and when should you use them?
Answer: Inline functions copy the function body to the call site, avoiding function call overhead.
- Benefits:
- Eliminates lambda allocation overhead
- Allows non-local returns from lambdas
- Better performance for higher-order functions
- Use Cases: Higher-order functions with lambda parameters
- Trade-off: Increases code size
Rarity: Medium Difficulty: Hard
5. Explain Delegation in Kotlin.
Answer: Delegation allows an object to delegate some of its responsibilities to another object.
- Class Delegation:
bykeyword - Property Delegation: Lazy, observable, delegates
- Benefits: Code reuse, composition over inheritance
Rarity: Medium Difficulty: Medium
Architecture Patterns (6 Questions)
6. Explain MVVM architecture and its benefits.
Answer: MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) separates UI logic from business logic.
- Model: Data layer (repositories, data sources)
- View: UI layer (Activities, Fragments, Composables)
- ViewModel: Presentation logic, survives configuration changes
- Benefits: Testable, separation of concerns, lifecycle-aware
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Medium
7. What is Clean Architecture and how do you implement it in Android?
Answer: Clean Architecture separates code into layers with clear dependencies.
- Presentation: UI, ViewModels
- Domain: Use Cases, Business Logic, Entities
- Data: Repositories, Data Sources (API, Database)
- Dependency Rule: Inner layers don't know about outer layers
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Hard
8. Explain Dependency Injection and Dagger/Hilt.
Answer: Dependency Injection provides dependencies to classes instead of creating them internally.
- Benefits: Testability, loose coupling, reusability
- Dagger: Compile-time DI framework
- Hilt: Simplified Dagger for Android
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Hard
9. What is the Repository pattern and why use it?
Answer: Repository pattern abstracts data sources, providing a clean API for data access.
- Benefits:
- Single source of truth
- Centralized data logic
- Easy to switch data sources
- Testable
- Implementation: Coordinates between multiple data sources
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Medium
10. Explain the Single Activity architecture.
Answer: Single Activity architecture uses one Activity with multiple Fragments, managed by Navigation Component.
- Benefits:
- Simplified navigation
- Shared ViewModels between fragments
- Better animations
- Easier deep linking
- Navigation Component: Handles fragment transactions, back stack, arguments
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Medium
11. What is MVI (Model-View-Intent) architecture?
Answer: MVI is a unidirectional data flow architecture inspired by Redux.
- Components:
- Model: Represents UI state
- View: Renders state, emits intents
- Intent: User actions/events
- Benefits: Predictable state, easier debugging, time-travel debugging
Rarity: Medium Difficulty: Hard
Performance & Optimization (5 Questions)
12. How do you optimize RecyclerView performance?
Answer: Multiple strategies improve RecyclerView scrolling performance:
- ViewHolder Pattern: Reuse views (built-in)
- DiffUtil: Efficient list updates
- Stable IDs: Override
getItemId()andsetHasStableIds(true) - Prefetching: Increase prefetch distance
- Image Loading: Use libraries like Glide/Coil with proper sizing
- Avoid Heavy Operations: Don't perform expensive calculations in
onBindViewHolder - Nested RecyclerViews: Set
setRecycledViewPool()andsetHasFixedSize(true)
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Medium
13. How do you detect and fix memory leaks in Android?
Answer: Memory leaks occur when objects are held in memory longer than needed.
- Common Causes:
- Context leaks (Activity/Fragment references)
- Static references
- Anonymous inner classes
- Listeners not unregistered
- Coroutines not cancelled
- Detection Tools:
- LeakCanary library
- Android Studio Memory Profiler
- Heap dumps
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Medium
14. How do you optimize app startup time?
Answer: Faster startup improves user experience:
- Lazy Initialization: Initialize objects only when needed
- Avoid Heavy Work in Application.onCreate():
- Move to background thread
- Defer non-critical initialization
- Content Providers: Minimize or lazy-load
- Reduce Dependencies: Fewer libraries = faster startup
- App Startup Library: Structured initialization
- Baseline Profiles: Ahead-of-time compilation hints
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Medium
15. How do you handle bitmap loading and caching efficiently?
Answer: Efficient image handling is crucial for performance:
- Libraries: Glide, Coil (handle caching automatically)
- Manual Optimization:
- Downsampling (load smaller images)
- Memory cache (LruCache)
- Disk cache
- Bitmap pooling
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Hard
16. What is ANR and how do you prevent it?
Answer: ANR (Application Not Responding) occurs when the main thread is blocked for too long.
- Causes:
- Heavy computation on main thread
- Network calls on main thread
- Database operations on main thread
- Deadlocks
- Prevention:
- Move heavy work to background threads
- Use coroutines with proper dispatchers
- Avoid synchronized blocks on main thread
- Use WorkManager for background tasks
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Easy
Testing (3 Questions)
17. How do you write unit tests for ViewModels?
Answer: ViewModels should be tested in isolation with mocked dependencies.
Rarity: Very Common Difficulty: Medium
18. What is the difference between Unit, Integration, and UI tests?
Answer:
- Unit Tests:
- Test individual components in isolation
- Fast, run on JVM
- Mock dependencies
- Example: ViewModel, Repository, Use Case tests
- Integration Tests:
- Test how components work together
- May require Android framework
- Example: Repository with real database
- UI Tests (Instrumented):
- Test user interactions
- Run on device/emulator
- Slower but verify actual behavior
- Example: Espresso tests
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Easy
19. How do you test Coroutines and Flow?
Answer: Use testing libraries designed for coroutines.
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Medium
Security & Best Practices (2 Questions)
20. How do you secure sensitive data in Android?
Answer: Multiple layers protect app and user data:
- EncryptedSharedPreferences: Encrypt preferences
- Keystore: Secure key storage
- Network Security: HTTPS, certificate pinning
- ProGuard/R8: Code obfuscation
- Root Detection: Detect compromised devices
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Hard
21. What are Android best practices for production apps?
Answer: Key practices for production-ready apps:
- Architecture: Use MVVM/Clean Architecture
- Dependency Injection: Hilt for testability
- Error Handling: Proper exception handling, user-friendly messages
- Logging: Structured logging, crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics)
- Testing: Unit, integration, and UI tests
- Performance: Monitor with Firebase Performance
- Security: Encrypt sensitive data, use HTTPS
- Offline Support: Cache data, handle network errors
- Accessibility: Support TalkBack, content descriptions
- Localization: Support multiple languages
Rarity: Common Difficulty: Medium



