r/androiddev • u/InvestigatorFun5445 • 5d ago

Question How to learn Android development?

Hi everyone!
I don't just mean learning how to write programs and master a modern stack. I want to understand how everything works from the inside. The problem is, I can't find a good course that meets my needs: either the courses are too superficial and just teach me how to build apps in Composite without understanding what's going on, or they delve too deeply into the hardware and design of Android itself. I already know how to use a basic modern stack, but I have no idea how everything works. I could just read the documentation, but it wouldn't provide any structure, and it would be difficult to understand what's important and what can be omitted.

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u/whoTookMyName_syyam 4d ago

the market is already tight, do something else like farming

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u/SpiderHack 4d ago

Practice making lots of apps with small variations. Copying functionality of other big apps.

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u/ryanstackops 4d ago

For what you're describing, courses are the wrong format, that middle layer between "build an app" and "how the OS works" is exactly what nobody structures a course around. Best move is reading source code with a specific question in mind, pick something you use daily but don't understand (how ViewModel survives config changes, how Compose decides what to recompose) and trace it through the actual Jetpack source on GitHub. That naturally pulls you into framework-level stuff like Activity lifecycle and the Handler/Looper queue, but anchored to something concrete instead of wandering AOSP with no direction.

Google's "Now in Android" sample app is a solid real-world case study, and some Android Dev Summit talks dig into architecture component internals specifically, which hits your gap directly. Also try rebuilding a stripped-down version of something you rely on, a tiny DI container, a basic ViewModel clone, from scratch. You won't match the real thing, but you'll understand exactly why it's built the way it is, and that "why" is what courses never teach.

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u/mohit6468 7h ago

I know of some good deep-down at https://github.com/mohitsatr/Android-resources . maybe it helps you