Senior Android Developer Interview Prep Guide (7+ years)

1. Android Core & Lifecycle

Q1: Explain Activity, Fragment, and ViewModel lifecycle. A1: Activity: onCreate → onStart → onResume
→ onPause → onStop → onDestroy. Fragment: similar, tied to host Activity. ViewModel survives
configuration changes; tied to lifecycle owner.

Q2: Communication between Activity and Fragment? A2: Shared ViewModel scoped to Activity; LiveData
or StateFlow for reactive updates; avoid passing large objects via Bundle.

Q3: BroadcastReceiver vs ContentProvider vs Service? A3: BroadcastReceiver: event notifications;

ContentProvider: data sharing across apps; Service: background tasks, IntentService deprecated,
WorkManager preferred for background tasks.

2. Memory Management & Performance

Q4: How does Android memory management work? A4: Heap vs Stack; GC cleans unreferenced objects;
prevent leaks by avoiding static Context references, clearing listeners, using WeakReferences; tools:
LeakCanary, MAT, Profiler.

Q5: ANRs and debugging? A5: ANR occurs when main thread blocked >5s. Debug using traces.txt,
Profiler. Move heavy tasks to background threads or coroutines.

Q6: Optimizing startup time? A6: Lazy SDK initialization, deferred Room setup, Baseline Profiles, App
Startup library, lightweight layouts, avoid reflection-heavy DI at startup.

3. Concurrency & Coroutines

Q7: Threads vs AsyncTask vs Executor vs RxJava vs Coroutines? A7: Threads: manual; AsyncTask:
deprecated; Executor: parallel tasks; RxJava: reactive; Coroutines: structured concurrency, suspend
functions, use Dispatchers.IO for background.

Q8: Long-running tasks post Android 12? A8: WorkManager for deferred tasks; ForegroundService if
immediate execution; respect battery optimization.

Q9: Coroutine scopes? A9: GlobalScope (avoid), viewModelScope (tied to VM), lifecycleScope (tied to
lifecycle), SupervisorJob for isolated error handling.

4. Database & Storage Optimization

Q10: Room optimization for large datasets? A10: Paging3 for lists, indices for queries, bulk inserts in
transactions, Flow/LiveData for reactive updates, avoid main-thread queries.

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Q11: Data sharing across apps? A11: ContentProvider, FileProvider, AIDL/Binder for IPC, Broadcasts for
messages (beware security).

5. Networking & API Efficiency

Q12: Reduce network latency & battery usage? A12: OkHttp caching, conditional GETs, batch requests,
WorkManager for sync, GZIP/Protobuf payloads, HTTP/2 keep-alive connections.

Q13: API versioning? A13: Backward-compatible responses, feature flags, handle deprecated fields
gracefully, use sealed classes or Result wrappers.

6. UI, Graphics & Compose Optimization

Q14: Optimize RecyclerView / LazyColumn for 10k+ items? A14: Paging3, DiffUtil, ViewHolder reuse,
placeholders, snapshotFlow in Compose.

Q15: UI rendering optimization? A15: Shallow view hierarchy, ConstraintLayout, avoid overdraw, recycle
bitmaps, use remember in Compose, hardware acceleration profiling.

Q16: Custom Views drawing? A16: Override onMeasure, onLayout, onDraw, minimize object allocations
in onDraw, cache Paint objects.

7. Navigation & Architecture

Q17: Navigation Components vs Compose Navigation? A17: XML-based: nav_graph.xml, fragments,
SafeArgs; Compose: NavHost in code, composable routes, navArguments. Backstack handled by
NavController.

Q18: Multi-module project structure? A18: - app/: entry point - core/: network, DB, UI components -
domain/: models, use cases - feature/: login, profile, dashboard Dependency: app → feature → domain
→ core.

Q19: Offline-first architecture? A19: Room cache → WorkManager for sync → conflict resolution
(timestamps) → paging for large datasets → reactive UI updates.

8. Security & App Hardening

Q20: Secure sensitive data? A20: EncryptedSharedPreferences, EncryptedFile, avoid storing secrets in
APK, certificate pinning, obfuscation with R8.

Q21: Prevent reverse engineering? A21: Code obfuscation, resource shrinking, dynamic features,
runtime checks.

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9. Debugging & Profiling
Q22: Performance bottleneck analysis? A22: Android Studio Profiler (CPU, Memory, Network), Systrace/
Perfetto for frame drops, Logcat for ANRs, Traceview for method-level profiling.

Q23: Measuring battery consumption? A23: Energy Profiler in Android Studio, ADB Battery Historian,
optimize network calls, wake locks, background jobs, test on real devices.

10. Advanced Topics

Q24: JNI / NDK usage? A24: Native code for performance-critical tasks (image processing, crypto),
reduce Java overhead.

Q25: Animations? A25: ValueAnimator vs ObjectAnimator vs Compose animation APIs, hardware-

accelerated, avoid allocations during onDraw.

Q26: Dynamic Feature Modules? A26: Split APKs for on-demand features, reduces initial download size,
enables modular development.

11. Behavioral / Leadership Questions

Q27: Prioritize features vs tech debt? A27: Assess business value vs risk, timebox tech debt fixes,
communicate trade-offs, automate tests to prevent new debt.

Q28: Mentoring juniors & ensuring code quality? A28: Code reviews, pair programming, knowledge
sharing sessions, CI/CD pipelines, documentation.

Q29: Performance improvement story? A29: STAR method: Identify issue → analyze profiler → defer
SDK init → optimize DB → reduce PNG → result: startup 6s → 2.5s, memory usage improved.

Q30: Architecture trade-off decision? A30: Example: Hilt vs manual DI for build speed vs APK size,
justified decision with trade-offs.

Visual Diagrams (to include in PDF / prep sheet)

1. Multi-module project: app → feature → domain → core (boxes & arrows)

2. Navigation flow: NavController, NavHost, composables, fragment-based flow
3. Offline-first sync: Room DB cache → WorkManager → remote API → UI

This guide can be converted into a 1–2 page PDF cheat sheet with diagrams for quick revision before
interviews.