Kickstart Modern Android Development
Book Review

2022-06-01

TL;DR;

• Brilliant for junior to intermediate developers
• Fills the gap between new to Android and advanced
• Quite useful as a reference for more advanced developers
• Concise yet packed with knowledge
• Up to date with modern techniques and practices
• Plenty of example code and explanations
• Well-structured, flow is logical
• Just get it already: Kickstart Modern Android Development with Jetpack and Kotlin

Kicks things off from the start

If you've done the Android tutorials and workshops and are ready to dive into writing and publishing your first polished application, this is the book you have been looking for. Catalin brings years of experience as a tutor into play and shows you modern techniques and patterns that will take your Android game to the next level.

You'll quickly come to grips with things like Jetpack Compose and ViewModel, learn to interact with API's via RetroFit, master coroutines and make the most of Jetpack Navigation. Of course, it doesn't stop there, Catalin also goes into detail as to how to architect your application to make the best use of things like Jetpack Room, Hilt, Paging and more.

Interestingly, even though the book claims to be aimed at junior and intermediate developers, I, as a reasonably experienced developer, found quite a few handy nuggets of information. What I especially enjoyed is the handy breakdown into sensible chapters, so I was able to into Jetpack Paging, which I've only lightly touched on before, and learn how to use it properly very quickly.

You can find Catalin Ghita's book here: Kickstart Modern Android Development with Jetpack and Kotlin, published by Packt Publishing.

Guidance for junior and intermediate developers

As mentioned, this book is ideal for anyone who's in the early stages of their Android journey. Following the guidance contained within, you'll quickly come to use modern, battle-tested techniques and patterns that will help you deliver quality applications.

Packed with lots of screenshots and code samples, you get sufficient opportunity to implement your knowledge and see the libraries and techniques in action. Nothing makes learning better than being able to implement something and see your progress!

Even though Catalin introduces some more advanced concepts, he does it with the experience of a great tutorial writer, so you are not left hanging in the wind.

But there is enough for more experienced developers too

Given the logical breakdown of information in the book, I find it to be a useful refresher reference for topics like Room, Paging or RetroFit. It's pretty handy to not have to dig for the information, but have it right there in one place.

To the Hilt

Something that I often find challenging to introduce to junior developers, is the topic of dependency injection. This, in particular, stood out for me in the book. With the entire Chapter 9 dedicated to introducing DI, in the form of Hilt, I feel anyone will be able to understand when and how to use it.

Not only is there the expected code samples, but there's also some pretty handy images that help to clarify what is happening behind the scenes.

It is the attention to detail like this, that makes this book stand out as a reference for anyone doing modern Android development.

Ends on a bang

By the time you reach the end of the book, you will be a far more capable Android developer, able to use modern techniques and libraries to deliver polished and robust applications. The final chapter in the book is, fittingly, dedicated to Jetpack Lifecycle Components. This hairy topic often stands between alright and great user experiences, so I'm thrilled to see it included here!

Grab it now

Thank you for reading my review. Grab your copy of Kickstart Modern Android Development with Jetpack and Kotlin now!