interview in android , Android InterView Question And Answer

  An interview in android ,   best Answered .

 Raj  is having , 0 - 2  years , experience as a programmer , in  android

He is having a technical round , lets see how clearly he replies to questions.

 Interviewer Started by  asking : "   Explain the Aplatform  architecture of android. "

 
 

   Raj replied "
   

 Android is an open source, Linux-based  ,software stack   .
 Android is an  open  source, Linux-based software stack. It comprises of Linux Kernal ,  Hardware Abstraction Layer. Native Libraries, Android RunTime, Java APIs , System Apps.
Below Of Stack  is : The Linux Kernel : , Linux kernel  provides drivers for connecting to hardware.
  The hardware  abstraction layer (HAL) ,  provides a standard interfaces , that interact  with Kernal drivers , to access hardware  features.
 Android Run Time , is written , to  run multiple virtual  machines  , on  low-memory devices  , by executing DEX files .     
For devices running Android version  5.0 (API level 21) or higher, each app runs in its own process and with its own instance of the Android Runtime (ART).
Prior to Android version 5.0 (API level 21),  Dalvik was the Android runtime

 Native C/C++  Libraries 
Android components  such as ART and HAL, are built from native code that  require native libraries written in C and C++.  Android provides Java APIs  to use functionality of native  libraries to apps ..  Java API Framework  Java APIs form the building blocks you need to create Android apps by providing components and  services. System Apps
Android comes with , a set of core apps , for  email , SMS messaging ,  calendars,  internet browsing , contacts , and more. "

InterViewer : "good! very well explained. Can u explain activity  lifecycle ? "

Raj Replied "

 Yes Sure..
An activity has essentially four states:
 If an activity is in the foreground of the screen  , it is active or running.
 If an activity , has lost focus  , but is still visible , (like in case of dialog comes top), then it is paused.
 If an activity is completely  obscured by another activity, it is stopped. It still retains all state and member information.
 If an activity is paused or stopped, the system  can drop the activity  from memory by either asking it to finish, or simply killing its process.


So , when the activity  is first created its onCreate()  method   gets called .

   onStart()  get called after onCreate() when the activity is becoming visible  to the user.


After it onResume() is being called when the activity will start interacting with the user.

 onPause() is called when the system is about to start resuming another activity  or when its looses  focus like when some dialog comes top of it.


 onStop()  called when  the activity is no longer visible to the user,  because another  activity  has been resumed and is covering this one.

 onRestart() is called  if this activity is coming  back to interact .


 If the activity is  finished , the final  call activity will  recieve  is onDestroy().
That  completes whole activity cycle."

Interview : "Thats excellent !"

Interview : "

Lets say ,there are three  activities A , B , C each having button to  start activity  without finishing  in order
A start’s B,
B start’s C,
C start’s A.
Can  you show me what all  set of lyfecycle method gets  called  while navigation  from
 A to B,

 B to C,

 C to A
 "

 Raj Replied :

 "
 Ok.
When Activity A  started , its onCreate() , onStart(), onResume() , gets called in order
  When Activity  B  started , A : onPause() gets called , then  B:  onCreate() , onStart(), onResume() gets called in order
  When Activity  C  started , B : onPause() gets called then  C:  onCreate() , onStart(), onResume() gets called in order , then B: onStop()
   When again  Activity A started from C ,   As A was not  destroyed      So  first C: onPause()    gets called then     A:  onRestart() , onStart(), onResume() ,  gets called in order then   C: onStop() . "

   

   InterViewer : "  Thats  excellent ! "

InterViewer : "   What  is Service in android  and what are their types? "

Raj Replied : 

"A Service is an application component that can perform long-running operations   in the background, and it does not provide a user interface.
These are the three different types of services: Scheduled , Started , Bound

 A service is  scheduled when  an API such as the JobScheduler   , launches   the service.

 A service is started  when an application component (such as an activity) calls  startService().  

After service  started, it can  run in the background  indefinitely,  even if the component that started it is destroyed.
It is stopped by stopService() method. The service can stop itself by calling the  stopSelf() method.


  A service is bound when an   application component binds to it by calling bindService().
A bound service offers a  client-server interface that allows  components to interact with  the service, send requests,  receive result.
The client can unbind the service by calling the unbindService()  method.
The service cannot be stopped until all clients unbind the service. "

Inteviewer : " Good  Nicely explained. "

Inteviewer : " Can  you  explain   by any  real time  example   when to use  bindservice  or  start service . "

Raj Replied  :

" Yes Sure ! ,
Suppose, I want to play  music in the background , so call startService() method.
But I want to get information of the current song being played,
I will bind the service that provides information about  the current song.  "

InterViewer : " Ohh! Very ,  Good  Example "

InterViewer : "Ok Tell Me , What is the difference between , Service  and Intent Service. "

Raj Replied  :

" Service  is the base class for all services.
Once the service is started, the onStartCommand  , method in the service is called.
It passes in the Intent object from the  startService(intent) call.
If startService(intent) is called while the service is  running, each time  its  onStartCommand() is also called.
Therefore  it's important to create a new thread each time in onStartCommand  in which the service can complete all of its work for that particular intent recieved.



While   IntentService  is a subclass of Service , Creates a work queue ,  that passes , one intent at a time ,  to your onHandleIntent() implementation, so you never have to worry ,  about  multi-threading. "

InterViewer : "  Very Nice. Now tell me , What is an  Intent  in android ? "

Raj Replied  

:" An Intent is a messaging object  ,used to request an ACTION  to performed by  application component such as Activy , Service , Broadcast Reciever  etc. "

InterViewer : "  Very Nice.  And whats the difference between Implicit Intent and  Explicit Intent  ? "

Raj Replied  :

" Explicit intents specify  the component to start by its name (that is , fully-qualified class  name)
 for example :  you can start a  any new activity   by its name or start a service  by its name  to download a file in  the background.

 Implicit Intents do not directly  specify the  Android components which should be called , it only specifies action to be  performed , which also  allows a component from another app to handle it . "
 

InterViewer : "  Very Nice. what  is   Broadcast Reciever in Android ? "

Raj Replied  :

"    Broadcast receivers  are components in the application that listen  for  broadcasts and take some action.
              for example, building a broadcast receiver to listen  for the battery getting low  broadcast event in order to inform the user  that unsaved data  should be saved quickly
.
"

InterViewer : "  Good! , and how many ways app can send Broadcast ? "

Raj Replied  :

"    Android provides three ways ,      for apps to send broadcast:
    first is  sendOrderedBroadcast ,

  second is thorugh  sendBroadcast   method , 

 third is through  LocalBroadcastManager     method sendBroadcast .
     The sendOrderedBroadcast   method sends  broadcasts to one   receiver at a time.
As each receiver executes  in turn, it can propagate a result to the next receiver, or it  can completely abort the broadcast  so that it won't be passed to other receivers.

 The sendBroadcast method  sends broadcasts to all receivers  in an undefined order.

  The LocalBroadcastManager method sendBroadcast , sends broadcasts to receivers that are in the same app as the sender. If you don't need to send broadcasts  across apps, use local broadcasts.
  "

InterViewer : "   Good!  , You  Have Very Well Answerd to  All Your Question. "