Android Interview
Interviews become unnerving at times. But, in spite of whatever one thinks about it, you still have to go through it in order to get the job to leverage your geniuses and earn the income to fulfil your life goals. This straight-to-the-point guide will introduce you to the resources as well as do’s and don’ts you can practice to keep interview nerves at bay and ace your Android interview.
It is recommended to you that in the process of preparation, go through these tips before each of your interviews to remind yourself of them.
Know About the Software Development Profession
Software development isn’t just programming. Programming is a large part of it, but just knowing how to code isn’t going to take you very far—beyond knowing the programming languages necessary to do the job, there are certain requirements that are essential for becoming a good programmer with skills that will attract the employer.
Acquire impressive technical skills about the programming language, framework, architecture, and key constructs essential for you to develop the solution using best practices and methodologies.
Ability to learn and adapt
Technology is always evolving and the skills and abilities a programmer has today will likely be outdated in a few years. It’s important to the employer that you follow the latest trends and are eager to learn and adopt new technologies and when concepts as newer opportunities evolve.
Debugging skills
Creating high-quality software code is only one part of a programmer’s job. Instead of spending hours blindly making changes, you need to learn the skills to carefully investigate code and research potential issues to find the solution that will produce the desired result.
Problem-solving skills
A good programmer thrives on finding ways to make things work, despite the odds.
Passion for the work
As a good programmer, you should have a passion for spending your time learning new ways to get things done, improving processes, building servers, contributing to open source projects, or creating apps. This will keep you in the trade and gradually help you develop a good reputation in the community.
People skills
On some projects, you may be expected to interact with managers, co-workers, and clients, so the ability to work well with others is a must. This is especially true if you are asked to participate in client meetings and explain how a system works.
A business perspective
It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture while focusing on creating one piece of software. When asked about the application that you’ve worked, you should be able to provide the objectives, business perspective and the problem that the application solved for the users.
Ability to plan
To build a modern world application, you need to learn to plan, design the program structure and outline the actions steps before typing the first line of code.
Ability to handle failure
It’s very rare to get everything right on the first try. It’s important that you see errors and bugs as a challenge rather than a sign of defeat. Persistence is important, as well as the ability to start over if necessary, even after hours of work.
Ability to work in a team
You are rarely going to work alone, even if you are the only developer in a company. The ability to work with stakeholders, business users, marketing and sales staff, and fellow programmers is essential.
Respect for deadlines
As a programmer, a large part of your work will involve delivering projects with deadlines. While it’s important that managers Understand a reasonable turnaround time for coding a new application or repairing an existing one, you should practice adhering to the schedule and deadlines.
Programming language knowledge
Go through the link below to learn about the software development profession related questions you can expect to be asked during your next interview and frame your answers considering the points above:
The Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions
Android Developer related interview preparation
Because every interview is a bit different, your aim should be to get general ideas of what you need to know and then work on the specifics yourself. You should master the skills required to solve coding problems by gaining a good working knowledge of:
Data Structures
A solid conceptual and solving problems with coding arrays, strings, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs
Algorithmic programming
Including bit manipulation, train teasers, basic mathematics, probability, object-oriented design, recursion, dynamic programming, scalability, memory limits, sorting, searching and testing the code.
Familiarise yourself with the major programming language concept like Java, Kotlin, Android Framework, Third Party Libraries, MVC, Database, Memory leaks, threads, Locks, etc. Go through these resources to practice and perfect your concepts related to Android specific interview questions:
Android Interview Questions
Android interview related submission on Glassdoor
50+ Ultimate resource to Master Android Development
An absolute essential community for Android developers on Reddit
Prior to Entering the Interview Venue
- Enter your interview venue at least 10 minutes prior to your scheduled time
- Greet everyone with the smile and firm handshake.
- Turn off the mobile phone or switch to a silent mode with no vibration.
- Stay calm and composed. Take a few deep breaths. Remind yourself that this is just part of the process to see if you are a good fit for the position
During the Interview
- Maintain firm posture and eye contact.
- Speak in an easy to hear the voice, but not loud.
- Use polite phrasing – please; thank you; I’d like that; If you don’t mind.
- Take your time to paraphrase well and then respond to questions.
- If asked to type/write code, explain what you are coding/typing to the interviewer, and what you are trying to achieve.
- Practice good coding style. Clear variable names, consistent operator spacing, proper indentation, etc.
- Write actual compilable code, not pseudocode.
- Write modular code to show that you have good coding practice and aware of writing easy to read and maintainable code.
- Keep your attention on the hints by the interviewer.
- Demonstrate reasonable mastery of your chosen programming language. I always recommend knowing one programming language really well.
- Demonstrate technical knowledge about data structures and algorithms.
- Check for nulls, empty collections, etc. Can omit if input validity has been clarified with the interviewer.
- End interview with appreciation, enthusiasm, agreement on the next step.
During Coding
- Explain what you are coding/typing to the interviewer, what you are trying to achieve.
- Practice good coding style. Clear variable names, consistent operator spacing, proper indentation, etc.
- Type/write at a reasonable speed.
- As much as possible, write actual compilable code, not pseudocode.
- Write in a modular fashion. Extract out chunks of repeated code into functions.
- Ask for permission to use trivial functions without having to implement them; saves you some time.
- Use the hints given by the interviewer.
- Demonstrate mastery of your chosen programming language.
- Demonstrate technical knowledge in data structures and algorithms.
- If you are cutting corners in your code, state that out loud to your interviewer and say what you would do in a non-interview setting (no time constraints). E.g., I would write a regex to parse this string rather than using split()which may not cover all cases.
- Practice whiteboard space-management skills.
- Reasonable defensive coding. Check for nulls, empty collections, etc. Can omit if input validity has been clarified with the interviewer.
After the Interview
- You can ask questions related to your day to day responsibility, expectations, challenges, vision, career progression, etc. Ask good, intelligent and engaging questions that are tailored to the company!
- Thank the interviewer for their time.
- Wait for the instruction for them for the next step. If you’ve done well, you’ll enter into another round with HR.
- Following all the steps in this guide will not only turn you into a rockstar developer but also get you the company you’ve dreamt about all this while. All you need to do is put your head down, work hard and results will follow.
Coding interviews are tough. But fortunately, you can get better at them by studying and practising for them, and doing mock interviews. To recap, to do well in coding interviews:
- Decide on a programming language
- Study CS fundamentals
- Practice solving algorithm questions
- Internalize the before, during and after the interview process
- Practice doing mock interviews
- Interview successfully to get the job
By following these steps, you will improve your Android coding interview skills, and be ready to land your dream job.