🤖 The Unofficial Android Developer Curriculum

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# 🤖 The Unofficial Android Developer Curriculum
### Android → Jetpack → Compose → Coroutines → Architecture

A curated roadmap for **modern Android development**, focused on concepts that
*still matter in production*.

This is the Android equivalent of a WWDC-based curriculum:
no hype, no demos that don’t scale — only fundamentals that age well.

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## 🎯 Goal

Build a deep, long-lasting understanding of Android development:

**Kotlin → Compose → State → Concurrency → Data → Testing → Performance → Multiplatform**

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## 📜 Rules

- Only concepts that still matter today
- Prefer fundamentals over frameworks
- Production-first mindset
- Opinionated and battle-tested

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## 🟩 Phase 1 — Kotlin First (Non-Negotiable)

Before Android, **Kotlin**.

### Core Concepts
- Immutability
- Null safety
- Data & sealed classes
- Extension functions
- Coroutines basics

### Must-watch
- Kotlin Language Overview  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9UC9DY-vIU

- Kotlin Coroutines Deep Dive — Roman Elizarov (KotlinConf)  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrrUCSi72E8

- Structured Concurrency  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj5P47F6nJg

**Outcome**  
> You think in Kotlin, not Java-with-better-syntax.

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## 🟩 Phase 2 — Android Fundamentals (Still Matter)

Compose does not remove the need to understand Android internals.

### Core Concepts
- Activity vs Fragment
- Lifecycle (real lifecycle, not diagrams)
- Context
- Configuration changes
- Process death

### Must-watch
- Understanding Android App Lifecycle  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn7w3U6kD6E

- Android Memory Management  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E3h1Y6h1Ww

**Outcome**  
> You understand *why* Android apps break.

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## 🟩 Phase 3 — Architecture (The Spine)

### Core Concepts
- MVVM (proper MVVM)
- Unidirectional Data Flow
- State hoisting
- Repository pattern
- Dependency Injection (Hilt)

### Must-watch
- Guide to App Architecture (Google I/O)  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9XKfZ7yP9Q

- Android App Architecture — From MVC to UDF  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ACbP6F4W8Q

**Outcome**  
> Your app survives feature growth.

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## 🟩 Phase 4 — Jetpack Compose (The SwiftUI Moment)

Compose is Android’s SwiftUI — with the same traps.

### Core Concepts
- Composables
- Recomposition
- State hoisting
- `remember` vs `rememberSaveable`
- Side effects (`LaunchedEffect`, `DisposableEffect`)

### Must-watch
- Thinking in Jetpack Compose  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOhl9RK0BA

- State in Jetpack Compose  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJY3v5dF7FQ

- Jetpack Compose Performance  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOw1V8hQz1E

**Outcome**  
> You stop fighting recomposition.

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## 🟩 Phase 5 — Concurrency & Async

### Core Concepts
- Coroutines
- Structured concurrency
- Dispatchers
- Flow
- Cold vs hot streams

### Must-watch
- Kotlin Coroutines on Android  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOHK_w09pVA

- Flow vs LiveData  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX8VsqNO_Ss

**Outcome**  
> No more callback spaghetti.

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## 🟩 Phase 6 — Data & Persistence

### Stack
- Room
- DataStore
- Retrofit + OkHttp
- Offline-first architecture

### Must-watch
- Modern Android Data Layer  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X6L8yGk4Ks

- Building Offline-First Apps  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQx0nJwE9E

**Outcome**  
> Your data layer is boring — and that’s good.

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## 🟩 Phase 7 — Testing (Where Android Devs Fail)

### Core Concepts
- Unit testing ViewModels
- Coroutine testing
- Compose UI testing
- Fakes > mocks

### Must-watch
- Testing on Android — Google I/O  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQw9uVbE9p8

- Testing Jetpack Compose  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq8L3HkF9WQ

**Outcome**  
> Refactors stop being scary.

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## 🟩 Phase 8 — Performance & Debugging

### Core Concepts
- Recomposition tracking
- Startup performance
- Memory leaks
- Layout inspection

### Tools
- Android Studio Profiler
- Layout Inspector
- LeakCanary

### Must-watch
- Android App Performance  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m7F3JzP6G4

**Outcome**  
> You know *why* it’s slow.

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## 🟩 Phase 9 — Multiplatform (Optional, Advanced)

### Kotlin Multiplatform
- Shared domain & data
- Android + iOS
- Compose Multiplatform

### Must-watch
- Kotlin Multiplatform in Production  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj7wB0K0h2A

**Reality check**  
> Powerful, but only after mastering everything above.

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## 🧭 Recommended Learning Paths

### 🧠 Kotlin & Concurrency
Kotlin → Coroutines → Flow → Structured concurrency

### 🎨 UI Mastery
Compose basics → State → Performance → Testing

### 🏗️ Architecture
MVVM → UDF → DI → Modularization

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## 🎓 Final Note

If you complete this curriculum:

You won’t just *build Android apps*.  
You’ll understand **why modern Android looks the way it does** —  
and you’ll stop rewriting your architecture every year.

Signal > noise.