Kotlin Development Company

Why Hire a Kotlin Development Company?

Kotlin is touted as the Java alternative that serves as a general purpose, open-source programming language. It was initially designed for both the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Android mobile platform. A Kotlin developer will combine object-oriented and functional programming to focus on interoperability, safety, clarity, and tooling.

Originally created by Jetbrains back in 2010, Kotlin has steadily grown in popularity, with a support community that’s in constant expansion. More important, however, is the fact that Google has added Kotlin as one of the official languages for the Android platform. Given Android is the most widely-used mobile OS on the planet, that distinction plays an important role in the growing popularity of the language. If you’re a Kotlin company, you’re in good hands with a widespread community.

As to why you should hire a Kotlin development company? It boils down to Android apps. If you want to start offering Android apps to your customers and clients, you’re going to need to add Kotling into the mix.

Should You Use Kotlin or Java For Android Development?

Java can do a great job in Android development and can be a perfect choice, especially in the hands of seasoned developers. When the time comes to make that language switch, Java development companies won’t have that much difficulty, as Kotlin is intertwined with Java in some sense.

Time will tell if Kotlin will become the dominant force it appears to be. In the meantime, it’s already setting new standards and methodologies for Android development, which, for good or better, will require developers to learn to stay current and up-to-date.

Kotlin – The Beautiful New Kid in the Neighborhood

One of the many reasons why Kotlin has quickly risen in popularity is that it is a much more concise language than Java. As a Kotlin app development company, you can do more with less. With Kotlin, things like the constant repetition of substantiating variables is no more. For example, in Java, you might have to write:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

Whereas, with Kotlin, that becomes:

val sb = StringBuilder()

Not only are you doing more with less, but you’re also saving considerable time by not having to create cumbersome, repetitive code. As your projects continue to scale, this will be more and more noticeable.

Another benefit of Kotlin is that it relaxed the requirement that functions be class members. Instead, functions can be declared at the top level in a file, locally inside other functions, as a member function within a class or object, or as an extension function. This new flexibility makes Java look fairly rigid.

The Old Reliable Java

Kotlin was developed by JetBrains as an improvement over Java, so it’s not a completely new language. The purpose of Kotlin was to overcome some of the disadvantages of Java. And since Kotlin is Java-compatible, it can easily exchange and use information from Java without too much work. Even Java libraries and frameworks are compatible with Kotlin, so all of that time your developers have spent getting up to speed with those tools isn’t wasted.

One of the biggest improvements of Kotlin over Java is the elimination of null references, which is a value saved for indicating that a pointer or reference doesn’t refer to a valid object. Java makes use of the NullPointerException (NPE), which Kotlin practically eliminates. There are still cases where an NPE can exist, such as:

An explicit call to an NPE.
Usage of the !! operator.
Data inconsistency during initialization.
A Java interoperation.

Are Kotlin Developers in Demand?

Ever since it was named an official language for Android, Kotlin is everywhere. In fact, Kotlin Android application development companies have sprung up around the world. Although most Android APIs were written in Java, certain APIs (such as Android KTX) were written specifically with Kotlin. All Android APIs, however, can be called from Kotlin.

The interoperability between Java and Kotlin is crucial to the continued growth and popularity of the language. And, as Android continues moving forward, Kotlin will only grow in popularity.

As of 2022, Android’s global market share has enjoyed a higher percentage of the global market share for some time now and that shows no sign of changing in the coming years. Those are staggering numbers and translate to your business needing a push toward Android support. If your company isn’t already developing an Android mobile app, you are already behind the times and BairesDev is here to help design, develop, and deploy either your first Android app or improve and expand your current offerings.

You might be asking yourself, “Why add Android development to our company?” The answer to that question could very well include such items as:

Expanding your company’s reach to a much larger market that has left the traditional desktop/laptop behind in favor of a more mobile platform. Because Android has the largest user base of any operating system on the planet, the expanded audience you can reach will be very much worth the time, effort, and cost.
Your company will become more profitable, as it expands its reach into app stores such as the Google Play Store, Amazon, and various Chinese app stores. More revenue streams mean more profit.
Speaking of the Google Play Store, if you want your mobile app to be global, once you start developing for Android, you’ll have access to hundreds of millions of consumers who can easily install your app from a trusted source.
More than just Android. Because Android apps can now be installed on Chromebooks, your target audience isn’t limited only to Android users, but to Chromebook users as well. And given the cost-effectiveness of Chromebooks, you can expect that market to continue growing over the coming years.

In other words, adding Kotlin into the mix of your current workflow is all about upside and BairesDev is here to help make that a reality. With some of the top Kotlin developers in the world, you can trust the team we put together for you will deliver just the app you need to help expand your business reach and profitability. Your dedicated Kotlin team will have all of the skills necessary to bring to fruition the ideal Android application and make the entire process as simple and efficient as possible.

Kotlin Developers Skills

Your dedicated Kotlin development team will serve as an autonomous group of developers and project managers, assigned exclusively to manage the delivery (and even continued evolution) of your Android app.

But what skills will your Kotlin developers need to have? Here’s a shortlist to get you started:

Expert knowledge in both Kotlin and Java.
Experience with software development and app design.
Expert knowledge of databases and database integration.
Understanding of web frameworks.
Proficiency in object-oriented programming.

By working with BairesDev, you’ll have access to a team that is perfectly geared to overcome the challenges and demands to ensure your project is delivered in a timely and reliable fashion.

At BairesDev, we pride ourselves on working with the Top 1% of Tech Talent, no matter who they are or where they come from. Because we only care about working with the best in the business, our Delivery Teams are made up of tech engineers from all over the Americas. That spirit guides our strict hiring process and allows us to pick from more than 1.2 million applications per year to find the very best tech engineers for your project.

So, if you’re looking to add an Android app into the mix, you’re going to need to hire Kotlin development companies and BairesDev can deliver to you the perfect development team to make that happen.

Hiring Guide
Interview Questions
Job Description

Kotlin is defined as a pragmatic language and is known worldwide as the Java alternative for Android development. It combines both object-oriented and functional programming.

Kotlin is interoperable with Java,i.e., you can migrate your Java projects to Kotlin if required. Developers can easily integrate all major Java libraries and frameworks into Kotlin. Along with that, Kotlin Maven and Kotlin Gradle APIs allow developers to add Build Automation to their projects, just like in Java.

Kotlin allows you to write code cleanly and expressively. In fact, its readability is phenomenal. This helps in reducing the time developers need to create, maintain and deploy code when compared to other similar languages. Apps made through Kotlin are less likely to crash, and scaling is pretty easy.

Relevance of Kotlin today

Kotlin is a very popular language. In a short time frame, it has spread its roots to many businesses. Even Google has announced Kotlin as the preferred language for Android app development since 2017. As a result, many developers are now making the shift from Java to Kotlin.

According to the latest Stack Overflow survey, Kotlin is the fourth most loved programming language among developers. The community is regularly adding advanced features to make it more adaptable and competent.

Along with Android development, many engineers are now using Kotlin native for IoT development, web development, and even game development. Furthermore, it also finds uses in data analytics and in machine learning projects.

Issues companies face while hiring Kotlin developers

A major issue companies face while recruiting engineers is the lack of experienced professionals. Anyone can learn Kotlin and create basic apps but well-trained Kotlin developers are hard to find.

Inexperienced Kotlin developers may not have experience in REST API, edge design, or mobile development life cycle, things that are vital for Android development. They may also not have experience in bug fixing and error handling.

Additionally, Kotlin development has a steep learning curve. A Kotlin developer should always be learning. They should also be on the lookout for new technologies, frameworks, and APIs that they can leverage for improving the company's tech stack.

How to select a perfect Kotlin developer?

A good Kotlin developer should be knowledgeable about Android SDK and Android Studio for app development. In addition, they must possess knowledge of Java and should be able to formulate clear and precise code based on business requirements.

They should know about third-party and REST APIs. They should also be experts in MVC/MVP architecture development. Moreover, they should know about code versioning, as it is necessary for app maintenance.

A Kotlin engineer should also know about SOLID design principles and should be able to fix production issues at any time.

Conclusion

Kotlin is one of the fastest-growing programming languages today. You can use Kotlin for both front-end and back-end development. Its interoperability with Java and highly advanced features such as null pointer safety and extension functions allow it to be used in different projects. In addition, attributes such as smart casting and clean coding greatly increase its credibility for Android development.

What's the use of the extension functions in Kotlin?

Kotlin's extensions allow developers to extend a class without inheriting it. As a result, developers don't need to use a decorator design pattern or inherit a class to gain its attributes.

You can also define new properties for your extended class if required through extension functions. Extension functions are dispatched statically.

What do you understand about Null Safety in Kotlin?

Kotlin’s Null Safety feature helps in reducing null pointer exceptions in production code while it's executing. This is achieved in Kotlin by making nullability part of the system i.e. the engineer while defining a variable, also needs to define if the variable is null or not. This feature helps the compiler to distinguish between nullable and non-nullable references.

What is the difference between Val and Var in Kotlin?

Val is used to define the final variable. It must be initialized beforehand, and its value can’t be changed once it's assigned. It is immutable.

Var is used to define a general variable. It doesn’t need to be initialized beforehand, and its value can also be changed after assigning. It is mutable.

What are some key Kotlin characteristics that aren’t present in Java?

Kotlin's speed of development is very fast when compared to Java. This is because Kotlin inlines the lambda code, which makes compilation faster. The overall compilation time is thus reduced.

Kotlin also has more comprehensive APIs and extension attributes than Java. It offers a cleaner code structure and syntax support for delegation and inline functions. Furthermore, there are no concurrency or synchronization issues in Kotlin. Kotlin's immutability also gives it a superior edge over Java.

Define the use of abstraction in Kotlin

An abstract class can’t be instantiated, and you can’t create objects of an abstract class. However, it can be defined as a superclass. Thus, it contains properties that other subclasses can implement or override based on module requirements.

An abstract class in Kotlin is defined with an abstract keyword. An abstract member function doesn’t have a body and must be implemented in the derived class.

We are looking for a highly qualified Kotlin developer to join our Android development team to design, develop, and maintain different kinds of apps. We are looking for smart individuals who are team players, have good communication skills, and are critical thinkers.

The developer should be good at documentation and should be able to adhere to project deadlines. It's an excellent opportunity for developers who want to work on challenging problems and improve their skills.

Responsibilities

Work on reusable and advanced Android code
Create in-house and client projects. Should also be able to work on scalability, reliability, and bug fixing.
Perform unit and instrumentation testing. Work on edge cases for reliability and usability.
Improve performance and functionality for apps/systems, and decrease latency.
Coordinate with internal and external teams to understand business requirements
Follow best industry practices and standards.
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