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Android Developers are professionals who are proficient in developing applications for running on devices powered by the Android Operating system. With Android being widely used as the popular operating system in the world, the demand for Android developers is significantly high.
The best place to find Android developers is Twitter, different Android developers site and technical blogs, and the various job websites. But before you initiate the process to hire android app developers, you must be aware of the questions that you need to ask along with the skills and qualities to be noted specifically in them.
In this article, we will discuss elaborately on the steps involved to hire android developers, the interview questions and even the tools that you must utilize to find android developers.
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Market for Android developers
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), predicts a growth of 24% in the employment of android freelancer jobs. The rate is significantly higher than the average of most of the occupations in the other industrial domains. The key reason behind this growth is the increase in the demand for mobile devices and various mobile applications.
People are more aligned to perform their regular activities like online e-commerce shopping, online banking, online vehicle booking etc through their mobile devices. This necessitates continuous improvements in the operating system and applications development for their convenience of daily operations.
Therefore mobile firms or app development companies are inclined more and more to hire android developer. Glassdoor, a popular staffing and recruiting agency, predicts that the average salary of an android freelance developer is approximately as high as USD 98K per annum.
Companies are willing to pay high wages to recruit best talent and skill for their freelance android projects. To answer the question of what is the best place to find Android developers, you must check out the countries of US, India, Israel and Switzerland.
These countries contribute to the major percentage among the 5.9 million Android developers in the world. In US the cities of Florida, Orlando, Louisiana and New Orleans can be opted to hire freelance android developer at a comparatively lower salary than the other US regions.
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Things to note while hiring Android developers
If you want to hire Android app developer for your company or business specializing in mobile applications, you must verify the past experience and track record. A single mistake in identifying the right talent might lead to wastage of time and effort and even the company’s vision. Let us discuss the things that you must note while interviewing android developers for hire,
- Check the past experience – The number of years of experience involved in activities and tasks to develop superior quality apps in the market, is vital for hiring professionals in freelance android developer jobs
- Understanding of the product – An android app developer must be aware of the product to be developed with a good understanding of the design. He or she must not only be a follower, but must possess sound knowledge of the algorithms or methods utilised in the design
- Knowledge of UI and Graphics – An app with an attractive front end is likely to attract more customers. So if you are hiring an android developer freelancer, you must verify the depth of understanding on UI and graphics design
- Deploying app on Google Play Store – The last step of android app development is to deploy the app in Google Play Store. Obvious reason of checking it out when you decide to hire android programmer or developer.
- An App in Google Play store – If the candidate has an app or multiple apps in Google Play Store, then remember you have played the right card in hiring the person.
- Awareness on database and system administration functions – Any android app development demands creating, maintaining and using a database for storage and even providing the requisite access as per roles. You must check out this aspect while recruiting for android app freelancer projects.
- Ability to work independently – Companies nowadays are preferring to recruit or hire android app developer freelance who can work remotely. Hence it is vital to check out whether the candidate is capable to handle daily activities independently
- Understands the app requirements – While you are thinking of the best place to find Android developers, one of the important things that may occur in your mind is whether the candidate can interpret your requirements into the app? You must stress on this aspect during the recruiting process, else your project or program might fail.
- Report on daily or weekly progress – If you have hired android developers to work remotely or as a freelance professional, it is essential for you to be aware of the daily or weekly progress depending on the complexity of the job. Ensure to verify it at the beginning to prevent any hiccups after the recruitment process is completed.
- Smart in leveraging the remote communication tools – While working in a freelance mode or remote mode, it is important to be aware of the audio and video conferencing tools, collaboration tools, document sharing software etc. Validate these aspects from the beginning during the interview process.
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Qualities of best Android developers
Both soft and technical skills and qualities must be verified and tested during your search for android app developers for hire. Your criteria for recruitment may vary depending on the development stage you are involved in a particular project or a group of projects.
You may require a junior, middle level or a senior android app developer for hire. The qualities will also vary depending on the experience level. Enlisted below are the qualities that you need to check for hiring the best android developers,
- Knowledge on Android software development kit (SDK) – SDK is used to create the apps on Android. It is mandatory for an android app developer to be aware of the kit, the tools used in the kit and the end to end functioning of the kit
- Hands-on knowledge on Java – Java is the widely used programming language in an android app. Hands on experience of coding and programming in Java is crucial while interviewing android developer for hire
- Awareness on the APIs – APIs like REST APIs, JSON, SOAP, XML are vital while integrating an android app with the external applications to enable data exchange and processing. Your questions must be focused on these technical qualities during the recruitment of android programmers for hire
- Proficient in mobile architectural details – Since the development is centered around an app to be used in a mobile device, you must check on the expertise of the candidate on mobile architecture and its details.
- Expert in the mobile apps development full-cycle – You must mandatorily check the knowledge of the candidate on the end to end mobile development cycle else the person may stumble at each stage of progress
- Good Team Player – Any android apps development project demands working in a team with seamless coordination and support for each other. Check on the candidate’s past experience to verify the quality while recruiting an android programmer for hire.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills – Understanding the requirements, documenting the design and executing the development comprise the duties and responsibilities of an android app developer. Without efficient verbal and written communication skills, the activities will not be fulfilled as per expectations. Therefore checking this particular soft skill is crucial.
- Past duties and responsibilities – Focus on the past experience of the candidate, the duties and roles performed by them especially the apps developed and deployed on the Google app store.
- Learning Courses and Certifications – Checking the learning courses attended and certifications obtained by the candidate is vital while recruiting android developers. This will highlight the continual learning spree of the person
- Social Media Impact – You can check the social media accounts of the candidate and check their contributions in various forums. This assists in understanding the wide capabilities of the candidate on the trends, best practices, and standards to be adopted in android app development.
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Android developer rate per hour
Before finalizing on the Android developer rate per hour, you need to evaluate and calculate the cost of developing an app. The cost must be segregated into the various sub-features of the app like access, navigation, notifications, messaging, streaming, in-app purchases etc.
The hourly hiring rates of Android app programmers vary between USD 50 and USD 150 for North America-based developers. In South America or the LATAM countries, the hourly rate for Android developer hire is about USD 50, lesser compared to the countries of North America.
The rate of Australia-based Android app programmers is also quite high about USD 110 per hour. United Kingdom comes next in the rank of hourly rates for Android developers approximately offering USD 70.
Eastern Europe and India are the major contributors of outsourcing when it comes to the best place to hire Android developers. You can recruit at a much lesser cost but with the much talent and skill of mobile apps development.
The hourly rate of Android app developers with 1 to 2 years of experience in Eastern Europe is USD 35 and rises up to USD 100 for professionals with 5 to 10 years of experience. In India, the hourly rate varies between USD 25 and USD 50, far lower than the other countries.
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Places to find best Android developers
Before searching for an Android developer website for hire, you must sort out the mode of employment – full time, part time, contract-based or freelance. The next step is to decide on the best place to find Android developers. Some of the prominent job websites to hire the best android developers are,
- Upwork – One of the largest job boards to find an android developer for hire. Millions of freelancers and professionals register their profile on this website to find out the best job opportunities.
- unremot.com – Enables you to gain access into a global workforce of Android app developers within minutes of search, collaborating through video calls, messaging and chats
- Hired – The unique aspect of Hired website are its search ability to locate “Android app developer near me” with the requisite experience and talent.
- GitHub Jobs – You have to pay a small fee to list the Android app developer job opportunities. It will help you to gain access to the site’s developer community. It is a unique android developer site where coders with a great deal of programming experience form a huge community.
- Dice – If you are focusing on hiring android app developers in US, Dice is the ideal place for you to search and hire.
- Android Jobs – It is one of the largest job boards for Android app developers and programmers. You can easily search for developers with specific skill or domain, mode of employment and location.
- Toptal – Toptal helps in creating a team comprising of Android developers for your project. Besides you can individually hire either part time or full time developers too.
- Authentic Jobs – A prominent job board where you can post your job opportunities, specify the roles required, salary range and the location for hiring android developers
- Stack Overflow – The job board assist you to gain access to Android developers worldwide, with a great deal of experience and expertise in mobile app development
- People per hour – Essentially focuses on freelance Android app developers and programmers, listing of job opportunities, and access to millions of registered profiles.
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Steps involved in hiring best Android developers
As recruiters for Android app developers, you may often be surrounded with questions like “How to find out the right Android app developer for my projects?”; “How to judge the skill and expertise of the developers?”; and more importantly “Which is the best place to find Android Developers?”
We suggest you follow the step by step approach to hire android app developer,
- Write out the Job description with clear duties and responsibilities and expectations. There must never be ambiguity in the tasks mentioned to avoid confusion and misunderstanding among candidates.
- Prepare the interview questions to be asked to the candidates. The questions must be segregated based on the skillset and experience level of the Android developers being hired. You must focus on both technical and soft skills to assess the suitability of the candidate for your job roles.
- Fix the pay structure of the Android app developers depending on the roles, mode of employment, location, and years of experience. Ensure the hourly salaries are in alignment with the average pay scale in the country of operation.
- Post your job listings in the websites specifically focusing on registering Android app coders and programmers. The listings must include the roles, the job description, the expected salary, location, and mode of employment.
- Search for developers in the job boards and scan through the registered profiles as well as the profiles applying for the jobs. You must answer to all the queries of the candidates posted in reply to your job listings
- Shortlist the candidates after viewing their resume, analyzing their experience and expertise and appropriateness for the roles
- Schedule an interview with the shortlisted candidates, comprising of both technical and managerial or HR evaluation
- Finalize the candidates to be recruited and circulate the offer letter
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Top 10 interview questions to ask while hiring Android developers
As recruiters, you must be aware of the questions, to ask the candidates during an interview who apply for Android app developer jobs. Here are the top 10 interview questions for your easy reference,
1. How are the lifecycle of an Activity and that of an AsyncTask related to each other?
Rationale: The intent of asking the question during an interview is to understand whether the Android developer is aware of the pros and cons of using AsyncTask. AsyncTask is not linked to the lifecycle of an activity. Hence if an activity is removed to create a new activity, the AsyncTask stays.
Expected Answer: If the candidate states clearly the problems of using an AsyncTask and the resolution, then you can be assured that the person is aware of the concepts. You must check that the Android developer states that AsyncTask must be avoided for long-running jobs.
2. State the difference between implicit and explicit intent
Rationale: It is one of the key interview questions companies must ask to judge the candidate’s credibility in understanding when to use which intent in the typical lifecycle of mobile app development.
Expected Answer: An experienced Android app developer must be able to point out that explicit intent are used to initiate the components in an application. Whereas implicit intent is utilized mainly to maintain the communication of components with the peripheral applications. If you receive the answer from the candidate, then you can grant a positive point in your evaluation.
3. Discuss when can you use a Fragment and when can you use an Activity.
Rationale: The topic is much discussed among Android app developers and quite a common discussion in various forums. You can ask this question to understand the candidate’s awareness on the most debated topic and the experience of using both in prior engagements.
Expected Answer: If the Android developer mentions that usage of Activities must be majorly during entire screen swap whereas fragments for other use cases, you can rest assured of the person’s knowledge on the subject. Furthermore, if he or she describes the use cases like swipe views, usage of UI across multiple activities etc. for fragments, then you can grant kudos.
4. Do you know how to create a multi-threaded Android App without leveraging thread class?
Rationale: The rationale behind asking the question is to judge whether the candidate has an understanding of how to extend a class when a particular functionality needs modification.
Expected Answer: Implementing Runnable is the answer you must expect from the candidate to override the run method and no other thread methods.
5. Mention the difference between Parcelable and Serializable?
Rationale: The recruiting managers must ask this question to evaluate whether the Android app developer is aware of the performance-friendly techniques that need to be adopted during the development process.
Expected Answer: If the candidate states clearly the benefits of using Parcelable since it is optimized to be used in Android and is completely customizable, then you can provide a plus point to the answer. Serializable uses a slow process via Java Reflection API.
6. What is the definition of an Adapter?
Rationale: The objective of asking this question is to check whether the candidate is aware of the necessity of an additional component for connection between AdapterView and external data source.
Expected Answer: You must expect the Android app developer to state the adapter as a bridge that converts data entry into a view which is finally added to the AdapterView.
7. Briefly mention the process of creating custom views
Rationale: Creating custom views is one of basic and necessary steps in a mobile app development cycle. You must mandatorily ask the question to check the knowledge level and experience of the candidate.
Expected Answer: The Android app developer state about creation of xml file, the attributes used in custom view and the addition of a constructor method in the view class. This will substantiate your answer and you can be sure of the knowledge level.
8. What is the key difference between RecyclerView and ListView?
Rationale: Both of the views are widely used in Android app development and hence must be verified in the interview to judge the knowledge level of the candidates.
Expected Answer: If the candidate mentions that only vertical scroll is supported by ListView and the ViewHolder pattern is optional in ListView, then you can term the answer as positive.
9. When do we need to use Handler?
Rationale: This question should be asked to judge the candidate’s understanding on the basic and key concept of multi-threading.
Expected Answer: If the candidate states about the usage of Handler for communication between threads, you have received the correct answer. You must grant further bonus points if the Android app developer mentions an example of passing action from the background thread to the main thread.
10. When should you use FrameLayout?
Rationale: Using a simple layout in Android app development is one of the key success criteria. Hence you must include this question in the interview to understand the awareness of the candidate in leveraging FrameLayout as the most user-friendly, simple, and efficient layout.
Expected Answer: Usage of FrameLayout for displaying a single view or overlapping views must be your expected answer from the candidate.
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Top 10 tools to use while hiring Android developers
Hiring the best Android developers for your company or firm requires a good amount of research to select the right candidate. Several recruitment tools have evolved substantially to aid the entire hiring process, applicable for recruiting Android developers as well. Enlisted are the top 10 tools to use while hiring Android developers, for your reference and usage:
- Job Boards – Numerous websites are available listing job opportunities for Android app developers as posted by different mobile app development companies. For example Indeed.com, unremot.com, Upwork etc.
- Assessment tools – Conducting Aptitude tests in written or online mode to judge the candidate’s basic IQ level, personality and behavioural characteristics, is the vital part of the hiring process. Tools used are mainly Pymetrics, HackerRank etc.
- Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots – Trending digital tools to shortlist candidates, analyze the information submitted by them and also enable virtual chat or messaging for collaboration. Typical tools used are Zoom, Textio, Ideal etc.
- Social Media Platforms – Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc are powerful social media platforms for hunting the right talent for Android app development. You can post your requirements as well as search for potential profiles.
- Tracking system for applications – A portal is essential to track the applications received from candidates, along with basic data collection. You can use the tracking system for the end to end hire process and can even screen out candidates not adhering to the mandatory requirements for the role.
- Recruitment Portal or Tools – Constant communication and collaboration between the candidate and the HR department is essential with regards to exchange of required documents or salary negotiations. Recruitment tools or a portal is useful for example Yello, SmashFly, Avature etc.
- Audio and Video Conferencing Tools – In the world of remote and freelance working, possessing audio and video conferencing tools and software is mandatory to conduct interviews with the candidates. Examples can be Zoom, GoogleMeet, Microsoft Teams etc.
- Tools to aid advertisements – Mentioning the right content and phrases for advertising your company’s job roles in different job boards and social media platforms is vital. Else candidates may not apply for the roles. Tools like Textio assist in creating the right content for job advertisements.
- Onboarding tools – Once a person is recruited, onboarding process is initiated for induction into the company’s payroll and culture. Initial training, employee id generation, payroll initiation, triggering of employee benefits, finalization of the projects and supervisor need to be tracked to closure. Usage of tools like Click Boarding, Applicantstack, BambooHr etc. are effective in smooth execution of the activities.
- Background Check Tools – The tools are super-efficient in verifying the profile by checking criminal records, past experience, educational qualifications etc. For example GoodHire, Intelifi, Sterling etc.
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Dos and donts while hiring Android developers
It is advisable to be aware of the Dos and Donts while hiring Android developers. Else you may land up in recruiting candidates who are inefficient or harmful to the company’s progress and future growth. The Dos are listed below,
- Seek the right technical and soft skill without compromising on price
- State properly the expectations from the job roles without any ambiguity
- Recruit a person with excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Hire candidates who are backed by good references and strong credibility
- Finalize the candidates with good knowledge and experience in Android app development by asking the relevant questions
- State the vision and objective of your company to the candidate, especially focusing on the expectations from the candidate
- Verify the domain understanding of the developer based on prior experience
- Conduct a thorough background check for security verification
- Video or in person interview must be the norm for selecting candidates
- The resume details must be validated by asking the appropriate questions related to experience and skill set
The Donts are listed below,
- The price must not be the only determining factor for recruiting Android app developers. Do not compromise on quality to gain the price advantage
- If a candidate refuses to sign an NDA for non-disclosure of sensitive data, then never finalize the recruitment
- Do not recruit a candidate who fails to provide the supporting documents related to educational qualifications or prior experience
- It is advisable not to hire experienced developers who have not worked in similar industrial domain as yours
- Never recruit a person without a work experience for a crucial program or project.
- You must avoid hiring a person with limited knowledge of the Android basic technical concepts
- You must not wrongly state the job role and description as it may lead to dissatisfaction in future
- Health and insurance benefits must never be stated incorrectly
- Salary negotiation must not be avoided as you may lose out on talents
- Never be rude or unprofessional while interviewing candidates.
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Are Android developers in demand?
With a significant rise in the revenue of the mobile app, the demand for Android developers is constantly rising. Besides the advent of AI and machine learning, mobile app development has earned a new identity.
More and more companies are embracing the latest technologies for efficiency, market identity and customer satisfaction. Therefore the job of Android developers is experiencing a steep increase in the demand curve.
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Why is app development so expensive?
App development involves several pillars, each carrying an individual cost to it. The key ones being the development cost, UI or UX design cost, quality assurance cost, project management cost, maintenance cost, promotion cost, upgradation cost. All these jointly contribute to the cost of the mobile app. On average, the cost for a basic app with core features is generally USD 60K and that of complex apps is USD 230K.
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