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"Judge a person by their questions rather than by their answers."

StoicallyTyped Newsletter
Hello and happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend as we break past the midpoint of SEPTEMBER! Wow this month is going fastā€¦ There are a lot of really cool things coming soon. Hereā€™s some of them that Iā€™m most excited for:
This week has a special section recapping a Twitter Space that I attended on Friday all about Android Interviews. I hope you enjoy this and the rest of this issue!
Enjoy and have a great week!

šŸ‘¾ Fun Stuff
I think this one speaks for itself šŸ™ˆ
Marcin Moskala
Keyboard after a whole day using Android Studio šŸ˜‚ https://t.co/77admsYXmC
šŸŸ£ Space Recap
Android Dev Hangout: Android Interviews
Android Dev Hangout: Android Interviews
Madona and the Android Dev Hangout hosted another Twitter Space that had over 150 participants! The main talking point was all about Interviewing for an Android position.
We heard from some great people including:
Hereā€™s an outline of the talking points:
Interviewing in Android
Be prepared for Live coding questions
Think out loud
  • Take notes so the interviewer can remember your train of thought.
Bonus: You also get to re-read and remember your train of thought while in a high stress situation
  • If you are an interviewer, offer to take notes for your interviewee.
  • It will help them relax and provide you with a way to help them through their thought process.
Bonus: you have notes to help you remember the interview when you are reviewing it later.
Talk about what you would do in different situations.
These situations could be:
  • Larger Scale.
  • Time available.
  • Current implementation restrictions.
How to prepare for System Design Questions?
  • These should focus on Android design but could be more System level depending on seniority.
  • Use your current experience. Look at your current architecture. What do you like about it? What are some pain points?
  • Make apps! Practice making apps and learn about different decisions and trade offs.
Come with your own questions
  • Spend some time figuring out what you care about and what you want to look for in a team or a project. Ask about these things in your interviews.
How to better handle personal biases as an interviewer
  • Have a strict set of resources that defines what a successful candidate is.
  • Consider your candidates background. A candidate might not be able to dedicate the same amount of time as other candidates because of other responsibilities.
Mentioned Resources
šŸ“š TL;DRs
Support having a "public" and a "private" type for the same property
Backing fields are a great way to keep mutable properties from being exposed in contexts that do not need them. Usually they look like this:
val _list = mutableListOf(1, 2, 3)
val list: List<Int> = _list
But there is potential support for having ā€œpublicā€ and ā€œprivateā€ types for the same property!
It could look something like this:
val list = mutableListOf(1, 2, 3)
get(): List<Int>
There are still some considerations to be had but follow this issue and checkout the KEEP (Kotlin Evolution and Enhancement Process)!
youtrack.jetbrains.com
Hilt extensions - MAD Skills
Hilt extensions - MAD Skills
This is episode 4 of a MAD Skills series on Hilt!
What is a Hilt Extension?
  • A code generation tool that contributes modules or entry points into Hilt
  • @HiltWorker is a good example of an extension from Google that is used with WorkManager
The video also talks a bit about how annotation processors work and shows a small but impactful example to reduce a bit of boilerplate with @Binds.
Be sure to check out the full series!
www.youtube.com
šŸ›  For Your Toolkit
Today For Your Toolkit is a humble annotation that was brought to my attention by Adam Bennett.
Use @SdkSuppress(minSdkVersion = <version>) to skip tests for unsupported API levels!
Adam Bennett
TIL you can use SdkSuppress to skip tests on unsupported API levels https://t.co/0jGNiN9MM5
šŸ§‘ā€šŸ’» Android Practice Question
Todayā€™s question comes from reader Joshua Swigut!
Send a link to a gist with your answer by replying to this email orĀ the Tweet of this issue. Have your answer included in next weeks issue!
ā­ļø Answer to Last Week's Question
How would you refactor this code using apply? Are there other improvements you can make to it?
This code can be cleaned up by using apply with the MessageBody object.
Check out this playground to see it in action!
A diff of the changes using apply to change the MessageBody object
A diff of the changes using apply to change the MessageBody object
šŸ’­ Stoicism x Tech
ā€œJudge a person by their questions rather than by their answers.ā€ ā€“Voltaire
I am loving this quote for this week for so many reasons.
First: During the Twitter Space mentioned above, so many people joined and asked such wonderful questions. The discussion was incredible and I can really tell how much you all care and want to continue learning and doing your best. It was awesome.
Second: I have also been asking a TON of questions. Iā€™m just starting my 4th week at my new job and Iā€™m starting to get into the thick of it. I feel very fortunate that my team is so knowledgeable and someone has an answer for whatever I am trying to learn or find out.
Third: Some other thoughts I have on this quote.
My initial thoughts went to those who ask the hard questions. Questions that donā€™t always have a clear answer. This quote definitely can apply to those people but it doesnā€™t belong to them. Asking seemingly easy questions should be judged positively as well!
Asking easy questions helps build up your team and share knowledge. There are those who could be hesitant to ask what they are thinking is a ā€œdumb questionā€. Lead by example and ask the easy questions! You never know what you will learn or clarify for yourself and others. The biggest benefit from this is you help create an environment of learning within your team.
Do you have any thoughts on this? Iā€™d love to hear them! Please reach out on Twitter or reply to this email!
šŸ‘‹ Want to Contribute!?
Did I miss something great this week? Have a question you want answered by the community? Send them to me onĀ TwitterĀ or reply to this email. Iā€™d love to hear from you and chat!
If you enjoyed this issue consider sending it to someone you think might enjoy it.
Remember to stay hydrated and have a great week!
Thanks for reading!
- Matt āœŒļø
Donā€™t miss out on the other issues by Matt McKenna
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Matt McKenna
Matt McKenna @himattm

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