Best Android Developer Interview Questions

Android Developer Interview Questions

An Android Developer can help bring your service, product or software to a whole new platform and audience. They’ll use their specialised coding skills to develop applications that run on Android, and maintain these in terms of UX, speed and fixing any bugs that may occur. With such a specialised and critical role, properly vetting the candidate’s skills and experience is essential.

The best skills to look for in an Android Developer are:

Extremely strong knowledge of Android SDK, NDK and Java.
Impeccable attention to detail.
Able to work both independently and collaboratively.
Strong communication skills.
Experience with various testing tools.
Strong ability to work to deadlines.
Motivation to stay up to date in the development industry,

Interviewing an Android Developer

Adding this role to your team can help you shape an application that boosts your business performance and growth, so you must make the right hiring decision. One of the best ways to do this is by preparing the right interview questions for an Android Developer.

To give you an idea of what you should be asking, we’ve put together this guide. These Android Developer questions and answers are best for use early in the interview process and will help you make a swift decision on whether to move forward with the candidate or not.

How to open the job interview

One expert tip that will change the tone of your future interviews is to dedicate the first few minutes to putting the candidate at ease. This can be done by asking one or two lightweight questions.

This section of the interview won’t take long but will mean that once you get to the more technical android interview questions for experienced candidates they feel comfortable and able to fully demonstrate their abilities.

Job Description available

See our Android Developer Job Description

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What Android project that you’ve worked on are you most proud of?

How did you choose a career in Android Development?

Behavioral Questions

When managing several projects with tight deadlines, how do you stay organized and motivated?
Developer roles will often be under a lot of pressure to meet multiple deadlines in short spaces of time, this question will give you the chance to assess a candidate's ability to do this. They should be able to name some time management and organisation techniques, as well as cite previous experience.
In terms of work environments, which do you perform best in and enjoy the most?
This is an excellent opportunity to assess a candidate’s adaptability and compare their answer with your current working environment.
Aside from other developers, which teams within a business do you work well with?
In most companies, the development team will work closely with other areas of the business. This answer will allow you to assess the candidate’s experience in doing this and give you an insight into their people skills.
When working on a task that you aren’t completely confident in, how do you deal with this and make sure you’re doing the best job possible?
Here the candidate should be able to display their problem-solving skills and collaborative ability, which is a reassuring quality in this role.

Soft Skills

If you were collaborating with another developer and received code for the project which had errors, how would you deal with this?
Teamwork is essential in development roles. Here a candidate should be able to demonstrate how they would work with their teammate to correct the code and prevent the same mistakes from happening again.
How do you tune your skills and stay up to date with new trends and changes in development?
An excellent quality in any developer is motivation to stay on top of their industry. If a candidate can name blogs/podcasts or conventions they attend, this is a great sign.
How would you describe a technical term or process to someone from a less technical background?
This is a good chance to gain insight into a candidate’s communication and people skills. It is also a scenario that will often occur in their role.
What steps do you take to prepare for a new feature or update to go live?
Developers must be prepared to test, debug and be prepared when an update is happening. This will give you an insight into their preparation skills.

Hard Skills

Which programming languages have you worked with the most?
This gives you an idea of how well the candidate will fit into your current workflow and if they will need to be trained in any areas.
Do you have experience training entry-level developers?
If you’re looking for Android interview questions for a senior developer, this is the perfect one. This will give you an idea of how much charge your candidate can take on your team as well as an insight into their management and training skills.
What tools do you use to test and debug your code?
Testing code is essential in this role, knowing the candidate has a solid process for doing this is an important thing to consider when hiring an Android Developer.
What skills do you think make you a good fit for this role?
This is one of the best interview questions for an Android Developer as it gives them a chance to show off their skills. It also gives you an idea of what they’re confident in and displays their understanding of the role in general.
How do you consider both UX and design elements when coding?
Here you’ll get an insight into how the developer works with other departments and how well they understand these areas of the business.

Operational / Situational Questions

Walk me through the biggest Android deployment you have done, how did you prepare for it and what did you do to check it had worked successfully?
This will not only give you an insight into the candidate’s experience but will also let you know how they deal with stress and large-scale project planning.
Tell me about a time a project hasn’t lived up to your expectations, how did you rectify this and take learnings for the future?
Not every project will work perfectly, it’s important to know that a candidate can quickly and effectively learn from their mistakes and use them to mould future projects.
Imagine you are working to tight deadlines with other team members and aren’t receiving the information you need fast enough, what would you do in this situation?
Time management is an essential skill for this role, therefore it is important to know that your developer could manage this situation professionally.
Walk me through a time when you have received negative feedback on a piece of work you have done. How did you react to this and what were your next steps?
The ability to handle constructive criticism and learn from this is essential in a development role. The candidate should be able to give a structured answer on how they would take this feedback onboard.