Learning resources for Kotlin for Android

Submitted Sep 9, 2021

Developers use various means and channels to learn about Kotlin. These learning resources are fairly distributed. The key findings in this regard are:

YouTube channels and Kotlin language learning groups were among the primary go-to resources for learning Kotlin with 29.2 percent and 24.6 percent of respondents using these channels respectively.
Developers depend least on training sessions to learn Kotlin to upskill themselves. Only 7.7 percent of respondents indicated training sessions as the means to learn Kotlin. This finding is surprising given that a large percentage of the population is using Kotlin for development and yet depends on YouTube tutorials for learning Kotlin (versus deep dive training).

Visualization

{
"title": {
 "text": "What are your primary learning resources for Kotlin?",
 "orient": "bottom",
 "dy": 20,
 "fontSize": 16
},
"$schema": "https://vega.github.io/schema/vega-lite/v5.json",
"width": "container",
"data": {
"values": [
{"category": "Youtube channels", "value": 29.2, "label": "29.2 %"},
{"category": "Kotlin learning groups", "value": 24.6, "label": "24.6 %"},
{"category": "Books, websites and blogs", "value": 12.3, "label": "12.3 %"},
{"category": "Training sessions", "value": 7.7, "label": "7.7 %"},
{"category": "Forums like Reddit", "value": 10.8, "label": "10.8 %"},
{"category": "Weekly newsletters", "value": 12.3, "label": "12.3 %"}
]
},
"encoding": {
"theta": {"field": "value", "type": "quantitative", "stack": true},
"color": {"field": "category", "type": "nominal", "legend": null}
},
"layer": [
{"mark": {"type": "arc", "outerRadius": 160}},
{
"mark": {"type": "text", "radius": 190},
"encoding": {
  "text": {"field": "label", "type": "nominal"},
  "size": {"value": 18}
  }
},
{
"mark": {"type": "text", "radius": 225},
"encoding": {
  "text": {"field": "category", "type": "nominal"},
  "fill": {"value": "#000"},
  "size": {"value": 14}
  }
}
]
}

Future research also needs to look at questions such as:

What do developers do when they get stuck working with Kotlin? Do they refer to blogs, ask questions on Stackoverflow or in community forums?
Which Kotlin communities are developers in India are part of? How are these communities geographically distributed? What gaps and issues do these communities address?
What are the parts of the Kotlin language that developers find hard to grok?

Kotlin will displace Java in the Android ecosystem.

Learning resources for Kotlin for Android

Comments