Google Certified Android Developer: Your Preparation Guide

Introduction

An android developer is responsible for a wide variety of jobs in an organization. Dealing with the best known and popularly used Android OS by billions of people worldwide, it becomes necessary for an organization to have their print through android applications too.

This is where the role of an android developer comes into play, by designing, developing, testing, and deploying an android application on the business needs of the company. Learning android application development is a great skill to pick up if you have been interested in building applications. These applications are either used by the end-user directly or by the companies for indirect usage.

But there are a huge number of android developers out there, how will you be able to stand out from them and show your skills on the table? This is where you have to be strong with your concepts in android application development and the Google Certified Android Developer badge will showcase your expertise in this field. After all, it is the Google Cerftication – widely recognized and valued.

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Requirements and Eligibility

All you need to apply for the certification process:

• Both the coding project round and interview round will be English based and hence communicable and intermediate knowledge of the English language is necessary.
• The candidate must be over 18 years of age for no age restriction conditions. If you are 13-17 years old then you will be required to provide parental consent and you will receive the certification with parental consent only.
• You must be able to present government-issued photo identification from a non-embargoed country. You will need to scan and upload your photo ID using your webcam during the registration process.

Exam Pattern

The exam will contain a project coding round and an exit interview round. The project coding round will be based on machine coding where you will need to code the requirements in your Android Studio. You can take this exam in Java or Kotlin at your convenience. Although the syllabus will then vary slightly according to the language being used.

The test score is divided into various prospects of development like:

• App functionality: Construct apps that use Android’s messaging, multitasking, connectivity and media services to design full-featured app primarily for mobile devices.
• User Interface: Create apps with clean, effective user interfaces that take advantage of Android’s rich UI frameworks.
• Data Management: Should be able to utilise Android’s effective frameworks and techniques to perform or schedule data retrieval/storage efficiently in a mobile environment. You can use any database management system for your application.
• Debugging: Understand the debugging tools in Android Studio and create more reliable and robust apps.
• Testing: Be able to test the execution of a running program with the intent of finding errors and abnormal or unexpected behaviour.

Exam Cost and Number of attempts

The Google Associate Android Developer certification cost is USD 149 or 6500 INR that includes one exam attempt. You can take the exam only after 14 days if you do not pass on your first attempt. If you could not get the certificate on the 2^nd attempt then you need to wait 2 months while after the 3^rd attempt you will require to wait one year before taking the next attempt.

Validation of the certification

This certificate is valid till 36 months from the date when you receive your digital badge. To renew your certification you have to complete the registration and certification process again.

Syllabus

The whole syllabus is divided into few sections:

Android Core

This section involves the basics of Android system architecture, XML files, virtual machine, Activities, Services, Content Providers, Intents, Broadcast Receiver properties, manifest file significance, creating components, and using the predefined structure for creating a basic android application.

With basic android core knowledge you can use Toast, Snackbar, Notifications, scheduling background tasks using WorkManager, etc for displaying texts in the application. One of the most important topics in this section is knowing the lifecycle of the android application threads.

Mostly this section deals with the usage of UI in applications that Android studio provides a variety of supports to build seamlessly and efficiently.  You can also get some idea about android features as it provides some latest up-gradation and features.

·User Interface

Android framework enables us to develop useful applications efficiently with a smooth User Interface. One needs basic knowledge of views, Layouts and, activity lifecycle to understand how the UI layer works. Some of the most important subcategories that you need to refer to in this section are – Activity, Activity lifecycle, Constraint, and Relative layouts, View class, RecyclerView, paging library to make the scrolling of the recycler view smooth where the data is locally bound with the views.

If paging is not used then, the User Interface will feel stuck/lagged. Implementation for menu-based navigation and drawer navigation is important as the exam is concerned.

• Create custom views
• Build accessible and reusable views
• Using material components
• Activities and intents
• Creating custom Recycler views and adapters

Data Management

Data is an important aspect of any application. Proper data management techniques are required to essentially make the application more reliable and useful. The candidate must have a basic knowledge of the Data Access Object (DAO) layer to be able to use the Room database where the user data can be stored.

Real-time data can be observed and responded to with LiveData. Taking care of the user input and asset files provided by the user is also necessary.

• Room with a view
• Repository for accessing DAO layer
• ViewModelo Drawables, styles, and themes

Debugging

Debugging is one of the most important parts of any development process. While creating applications, it is obvious that there have been some errors, and fixing these issues is known as debugging. A candidate must have the ability to find the error and fix the issues in their android applications.

This will include having knowledge of error statements, System logs, adding breakpoints to test the applications statement by statement.

•  Debug your app
• Write logs with logcato  
• Using android studio debugger to find and fix errors

Testing

Testing is the process of finding the last lines of errors like if a particular function is providing efficiently some unexpected output or not. This is quite similar to debugging, but most of the errors are quite hard to catch as these do not give any error statements.

Testing is done to find errors, abnormal or unexpected behaviour in the android application. Testing and test-driven development (TDD) is a critically important step of software development for every Android Developer. If you are already a developer then you might be knowing about unit testing.

Some of the most important topics to learn for this section:

• Basic knowledge of using Junit tests
• Understanding the Espresso UI test framework  
• Writing automated android tests

Pros of being a Google Certified Android Developer

• The badge of honour for being a Google Certified Android Developer is highly recognisable.
• Increases your chance of being hired by top product based companies
• You can also expect higher salaries and perks.
• Easily stand among your peers for getting hired or being highlighted by top companies
• If you are a freelancer you can get more paid projects as your certification is by Google.
• You also get a chance to participate in the Android Developer summit where all the expenses are paid by Google.

Registration Process

All you need to do is to go to their official site and you will get options of either you can give your certification exam in Java or Kotlin. You can choose any of the languages to give the exam. Although once you have registered you will have eight hours to complete the test otherwise the test will be automatically submitted and you will lose your certification chance for that attempt. Then you have to reapply for the certification after 14 days.

You can explore the site for more detailed information regarding your application status and exam status.

Resources

There are various free resources for learning Android Application Development but the best way to ace an examination is an organized way of preparing. Coding Ninjas has the best Android course for your which is taught by industry experts and that will help you gain the fundamental and advanced skill that you will need for the certification examination. You can check out the course at Coding Ninjas.

If you practice section-wise with a proper strategy using the help of this course, you will feel confident about android application development. Hope this article could help you get a brief idea of the Google certification and how to prepare for it and finally crack it to become a Google Certified Android Developer. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

If you intend to become a Google Certified Android Developer then this follow this preparation guide exclusively brought to you by Coding Ninjas.

By Aniruddha Guin