Android Programming for Beginners - Fourth Edition: Learn Android, Kotlin & Jetpack from scratch and Turbocharge progress with AI

Learn Android app development from scratch with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. Build 35+ hands-on apps, games, and database projects while mastering modern Android Studio workflows and Kotlin fundamentals.

Key Features

• Build Android apps with Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Android Studio, and Agentic Programming
• Create hands-on projects including, UI, sound, graphics, databases and game
• Master modern Android development workflows and Kotlin fundamentals

Book Description

Modern Android development has evolved rapidly, with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose becoming the standard tools for building powerful mobile applications. Android Programming for Beginners provides a practical introduction for readers with little or no coding experience. Rather than overwhelming you with theory, the book teaches concepts gradually through hands-on experimentation and small, focused apps that reinforce core programming fundamentals.

You will begin by learning Kotlin essentials including variables, loops, functions, lambdas, collections, and object-oriented programming before moving into Android Studio and Jetpack Compose. As your skills grow, you will create interactive projects ranging from UI layouts and games to multimedia and database-driven applications. Along the way, you will explore Android development techniques such as state management, navigation, Material Design, Room databases, Canvas drawing, and responsive layouts.

To help future-proof your workflow, each chapter also includes optional AI-assisted programming exercises that show how modern coding tools can support experimentation, accelerate development, and deepen understanding. By the end of the book, you will have built a portfolio of Android apps and gained the confidence to continue toward advanced mobile development projects independently.

What you will learn

• Install and configure Android Studio for Android development
• Build Android apps with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose
• Understand variables, loops, functions, and Kotlin syntax
• Create interactive apps with touch, sound, and graphics
• Work with collections, lambdas, and scope functions
• Build multi-screen apps with navigation and Room databases
• Develop a game while mastering Kotlin OOP concepts
• Learn how to (optionally) use AI to speed up learning and development

Who this book is for

This book is for beginners who want to learn Android app development using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. It is ideal for readers with no programming experience, developers moving from Java to Kotlin, and anyone wanting a practical, project-based introduction to modern Android development.

Table of Contents

1. Installing Android Studio & Building an App
2. Building More Apps: Comments, Logging, Lifecycle & Interactivity
3. Variables, Types, & Operators
4. Controlling the Flow of Your Program with if and else
5. Ranges & When
6. Iteration
7. Functions
8. Jetpack, Composable Functions & Revisiting Hello World
9. @Preview and Remember
10. Handling Data with a List & Inputting Data with a TextField
11. Handling Data with Set
12. Handling Data with Map
13. Lambdas
14. Kotlin, Java & Nullable
15. Scope Functions & Advanced Collections
16. Advanced layouts: FAB, Box, Card & Chip
17. Regular Expressions & The Calculator app
18. An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming
19. Class Functions, Constructors & Visibility Modifiers
20. Inheritance, Polymorphism & Abstract Classes
21. App Navigation, Data classes, & Starting the Multi-Screen App

(N.B. Please use the Read Sample option to see further chapters)

John Horton is a writer and programmer from England and you can see more of his work at Game Code School on the Web.