I have been working at integrating software and services into Android devices for a few years; Namely in support of Future Soldier System activities. I haven’t had the requirement for developing code, (as my expertise lays in the system architecture, security and tactical communications systems) however I had a professional development objective of furthering my basic software development skills and considered Android development as being a good target for those aspirations.
I came to this course with some Python and no Java experience, so I pretty much threw myself in the deep end with learning Kotlin. I initially started working with the Google Code Labs (Kotlin Code Labs) but pretty quickly discovered the same material on Udacity, but in a much better format, supported with tutorial videos (Udacity Developing Android Apps with Kotlin).
The course builds iteratively with hands on coding labs that build as the course develops. I found the code easy to understand and it never jumped up in skill too quickly. The use of practical examples as you went made identifying how these techniques can be applied very easy!
Having come into the course with zero Java experience, by the end I was able to take some existing Java code and adapt into native Kotlin. I feel this was the proof in the pudding in terms of going from zero to actually having coding skills of use as a junior developer standard. Following the course I found myself playing with several things in Kotlin and being able to develop some pretty decent proof of concept code for future development. This included playing with the ArcGIS and NASA World Wind SDK’s, Samsung Knox SDK and figuring out the finer points of XML and Curser On Target messaging.
The course states 2 months to complete, but with a few hours a day it can be completed in a shorter time-frame. I guess I should study for and take the Associate Android Developer Certificate, but as my aim was to improve my coding skills not to transition to Android developer full time I may put that firmly on the back burner.
