In this article, I share a list of recommended resources that have helped me learn Android development.
Android Development for Beginners (Udacity, 2015)
Online Course
This is a very fun course with great resources to get you started in Android app development. No programming experience is required so the class truly is for beginners. Since I completed the course Udacity has added many courses that follow on from this one.
Before starting with the following resources you should have knowledge of computer science fundamentals and Java. My recommendations can be found in Learn how to code with these resources and Learn Java with these resources.
Developing Android Apps (Udacity, 2016)
Online Course
I recommend this course to anyone looking to deepen his or her knowledge in Android app development. It is fun and highly relevant. Prior experience with Java and SQL is required to get the most out of this course. Students are shown how to develop various smaller apps and one large weather app (all on GitHub), which is used entirely throughout the course. The apps, combined with regular quizzes, consolidate the video content really well. The final project was also really rewarding for me as I needed to revisit the course content regularly, which greatly improved my understanding.
Gradle for Android And Java (Udacity, 2016)
Online Course
This is another great course from Udacity. You start off learning the Groovy language and then move on to learning how to use Gradle for Java and Android. Prior knowledge of the command line is required. The content has been kept up to date with newer Gradle versions and the exercises are highly relevant. I especially enjoyed learning about creating projects with multiple modules and implementing the backend using Google’s Cloud Platform in the final project.
Fragmented
Podcast
This is a fantastic podcast that I highly recommend. As they say on their website they are helping developers to “go from good to amazing” and I would agree with that quote. Approximately one podcast is released per week and they go for about an hour. Included are interviews with world-renowned Android developers, best practices in Java, tips and tricks to work more efficiently and so on. Some experience is required to get the most out of the podcast, although they sometimes cover topics that require less prior knowledge than others.
Other links:
- MVC vs. MVP vs. MVVM on Android demonstrates a really simple example of MVC and MVP
- Get Started With Retrofit 2 HTTP Client is an awesome tutorial with Retrofit and GSON
- No More findViewById is a really good introduction to data binding
- Self-Guided Android Learning Plan is definitely worth checking out!
- Android Weekly a newsletter for Android developers
- caster.io free and paid videos to improve your Android skills
