Pre-Screening Interview Questions to Ask a Senior Android Developer

Why pre-screen senior Android developers before the technical interview

An Android app behaves one way on a developer's device and another way across the range users actually own. Older versions, aggressive battery management, low memory devices and a store review process all produce problems that never appear locally. Developers who have maintained a released app know this and build for it. A short screen surfaces whether someone has shipped and supported an app or has only built one to completion.

What actually matters when screening Senior Android Developer candidates

01
Technical proficiency
Probe Kotlin depth: coroutines and Flow cancellation, Jetpack Compose recomposition, lifecycle-aware components, Hilt or Koin injection, and how they handle background work with WorkManager.
02
Systems and trade-offs
Test architecture reasoning: MVVM versus MVI, single versus multi module Gradle builds, offline sync with Room, and when native beats Compose Multiplatform or React Native.
03
Evidence and rigour
Assess measurement habits: Firebase Crashlytics triage, ANR and startup traces in Play Console vitals, baseline profiles, plus unit, Espresso and Compose UI test coverage.
04
Collaboration and communication
Look for evidence of leading releases with designers, backend and QA: API contract negotiation, Play Store review rejections, code review standards, mentoring junior Android engineers.

Pre-screening questions to ask Senior Android Developer candidates

12 questions grouped by what they test. Ask the same set in every screen and score answers on a consistent scale, or send them as an async video screen and compare answers side by side.

Apps they shipped

4 questions

01Have you worked on applications with a large user base?
Listen for
User numbers with their own scope stated, plus what changed in how they worked once the app had real users.
Scale claimed with no detail, or apps built to completion but never released to users.
02Can you describe a challenging Android project you worked on and how you overcame the challenges?
Listen for
A genuine technical difficulty with the approaches they ruled out, and an honest account of what remained unsolved.
Difficulty that turns out to be a deadline, or every challenge described as overcome completely.
03Do you have experience with the app store submission and review process?
Listen for
Releases they managed including a rejection or policy issue, with staged rollout used rather than shipping to everyone.
Never submitted a release themselves, or updates pushed to the full user base with no staged rollout.
04What is your experience with the Android SDK and modern tooling?
Listen for
Current tooling used daily with a view on which recent platform changes forced work in their own apps.
Tooling knowledge several versions out of date, or no awareness of recent platform requirements.

Devices and versions

2 questions

05Have you worked on a project that required you to deal with Android fragmentation?
Listen for
A specific device or version problem found in the field, with how they reproduced it without owning that hardware.
Fragmentation acknowledged in principle only, or testing that stops at the two newest OS versions.
06Do you have experience developing applications that support different devices and screen sizes?
Listen for
Layouts built to adapt rather than to fixed sizes, with tablets or foldables handled deliberately if relevant.
Layouts tuned to one screen size, or larger screens treated as stretched phone layouts.

Profiling not guessing

3 questions

07Can you describe your experience with offline storage, threading and performance tuning on Android?
Listen for
A performance problem found with a profiler, with the measurement before and after and what the fix cost elsewhere.
Optimisation applied without measurement, or background work run without regard for battery and process limits.
08Do you have experience with Android testing frameworks?
Listen for
Tests they wrote themselves with a view on what is worth testing, plus a regression a test actually caught.
Testing described as the QA team's job, or tests written only to satisfy a coverage requirement.
09Do you have experience with continuous integration?
Listen for
Builds and tests running on every change, with signed release builds produced by the pipeline rather than by hand.
Release builds produced on a personal machine, or a pipeline that is routinely broken.

Release as habit

3 questions

10Have you worked on a project where you had to maintain code quality and automation?
Listen for
Standards they introduced and got a team to keep, with crash rate or similar tracked after each release.
Quality described as personal discipline only, or no monitoring of how a release performed in the field.
11Do you have proficiency in Kotlin or Java?
Listen for
Real depth in one, with an ability to discuss concurrency or null handling from experience rather than syntax.
Language knowledge that stops at framework usage, or discomfort reading older code in the other language.
12Have you worked in an agile or iterative development process before?
Listen for
A working rhythm with product and design, including how they push back on scope when a release is at risk.
Process described by ceremony names, or no involvement in deciding what ships in a release.

How to score responses

Score every candidate on the same four criteria immediately after the screen. At this stage you are shortlisting for panel interviews, not making the final call.

Technical proficiency
35%
5Explains structured concurrency scopes, recomposition triggers and stable keys precisely, citing specific code they wrote rather than generic Android theory.
Systems and trade-offs
25%
5Weighs build times, APK size, crash-free rate and team skill against each choice, and names trade-offs they later regretted.
Evidence and rigour
25%
5Quotes real numbers: crash-free sessions percentage, cold start milliseconds, jank reduction, and how they proved a fix with staged rollouts.
Collaboration and communication
15%
5Describes shipping cadence, review feedback they gave, and a design or API disagreement resolved with data and a documented decision.

An app behaves one way on the developer's device and another across the range users own. A one-way video screen asks about the crash that only appeared in the wild.

Try it on Hirevire

Screening FAQ

Process basics

How long should a pre-screening round for a senior Android developer take?

Fifteen minutes across eight to ten questions, answered async, with store links. Enough to establish what they shipped, hear one production crash they diagnosed, and check their testing and release habits.

Should I ask for published apps?

Yes, and ask which parts they wrote. A store link proves something shipped; it does not say who built which screen. Senior candidates separate their contribution from the team's without being asked.

Evaluating answers

What is the strongest signal when screening a senior Android developer?

A bug that only appeared on real devices. Developers who have shipped describe the device or OS version, how they reproduced it and what the fix was. Anyone whose testing stops at an emulator has not supported an app.

How do I judge performance answers?

Ask what they measured. Real answers name a profiling tool and a number before and after. Anyone describing optimisation without measurement has been guessing, which on Android usually makes things worse.

Go deeper on this role

All rolesBrowse pre-screening questions for every role Screening processHow video pre-screening works on Hirevire

Sanat Hegde

Founder, Hirevire

Sanat has been hiring since 2012 and watching the recruitment industry change up close ever since, and turned that screening process into Hirevire's video screening platform. LinkedIn