How to be an Expert in Android Development

In this Post I am going to talk about the steps you should follow to be an android developer expert in the market. At the beginning, I would like to say something about that. The corner stone of success in any field is to love what you do so if you do not have passion to learn android development you will waste your time.It is a long journey of learning and practice.To be expert , there are many steps you should follow. Here are the steps:

• Mastering Java Programming and Kotlin
• Mastering Design Patterns
• Mastering Data Structures and Algorithms
• Mastering Android development SDK
• Mastering the trending tools and libraries
• Mastering the Clean Architecture by Uncle Bob
• Version Control and Continuous Integration Tools
• Having Problem Solving Skill
• Having Self Learning Skill
• Having Github,StackOverflow Accounts

Now let us talk more about each point form my point of view to be an android developer expert:

Java is an amazing,easy,portable language used to develop android native applications.There are three versions of Java(J2SE,J2EE,J2ME).For android development we use J2SE(Java Standard Edition). You should learn it very well.The more you practice in Java,The more you will be android ninja.The following are some resources for learning

• Oracle Documentation Site
• Expert Effective Java Book

Kotlin is the new supported language for android development.It is easy,powerful and has more powerful features than Java Language.If you learn it, you will be happy with nice and easy coding and you can code both in Java and kotlin in the same project.Consequently, it is fun.The following are some resources for Kotlin Learning:

• Kotlin Documnetation
• Kotlin For Android Developers book
• Kotlin in Action Book

Design patterns are group of solutions for common problems.They developed by Group of Pioneers in Software Engineering Field. Design Patterns have three categories: creation ,structural and behavioral Patterns.You should first understand the problem before trying to use the pattern .The following are some resources for learning design patterns:

• Head First Design Patterns Book
• DoFactoryWebsite

Data Structures and algorithms are the corner stones of your life as a software engineer.We develop apps for mobile platform. We have limited resources of memory and processors .So we want efficient ways to store data in small size of memory. We always want our program to run fast with any size of inputs and here data structures and algorithms techniques appear on the scene .

To be an android developer expert , you should be professional in data structures and algorithms techniques.The following are some resources to master data structures and algorithms:

• DataStructures and Algorithms in Java book
• Introduction to Algorithms Book

Android OS(operating system) is a great open source operating system designed on the top of Linux Kernel .It is working on Smart Devices Like smart phones, watches,TVs and many embedded devices.you should install latest version of Android Studio and get started to work with android Software development kit.

You should study the basics very well to be able to build awesome apps .The following are some resources to master android SDK:

• Android Developers WebSite
• The Big Nerd Ranch Book
• Introduction to android development Book

Trending Tools And Libraries: There are some useful libraries that accelerate your development as android developer expert and save a lot of time like:

• Retrofit
• GSON
• RxJava :If you want to learn more I have Master Class on RxJava on Udemy and this is your 90% Discount
• Dagger2
• Glide
• EventBus
• Parceler
• Architecture Components
• Roboelectric
• Espersso

More .

Clean architecture is one of the best architectures for software development in general and for android apps specific also.This architecture divides your app into three separated layers as following:

• Presentation Layer: this layer is responsible for UI and you can use MVP or MVVM with Data binding
• Domain Layer: this layer is responsible for business only
• Data Layer: this layer is responsible for data from different sources like database,network and files

You should be familiar with Version Control Tools like Git to manage your code history and collaborate with your team and Continuous integration tools like Jenkins and Travis to make sure you don’t break the team commit and push formats and do not break the code base of your team.

Problem solving is an essential skill for any programmer because the programming language is a tool of writing the solution of a problem only but the solution lies in logical thinking .The more you train your mind to solve problems ,The more you will be a better software engineer.

For Software Domain I think the websites like the following are a great place to solve great problems and enhance your problem solving skills:

• HackerRank
• CodeWars
• Codility.

Self Learning is a vital Skill for your career as software engineer. There is no end of knowledge and science and every day there is new technology comes to life.So to be able to update your self with the new stuff ,you should learn every day and read more .Do not wait someone to teach you something. Be proactive and learn by your self .

Github and Stackoverflow are famous websites for code repository hosting and for asking and answering questions .As a software engineer, you should have account on GitHub.You can share and contribute in open source projects.This makes you a better developer and also famous in your community.

At the end, I would like to say that all the previous points are of my point of view to be an android developer expert in the market.I hope this article will help you to start your journey of android development.