This is my review of effective Android testing for mobile developers by Chiu-Ki Chan.
TLDR; crystal clear style, incremental refactoring laying out the concepts and best practices as they arise.
Course review
I really enjoyed the flow of the course by which as higher test constructions are added, the code for the example application evolves, making it more maintainable and clear.
Furthermore I could see how the testing concepts I apply in Python on a daily basis working in the backend of Skyscanner Hotels have an equivalent in Android.
I particularly enjoyed the refactor of the activity using the MVP pattern to isolate the interaction with the Android libraries and the robot pattern for implementing the separation of concerns.
Recently, I contributed with a feature to the Skyscanner Android app which is as well using the MVP pattern.
After going through the course, it is much clearer for me the reasoning for keeping all the logic in the Presenter.
I had briefly worked with Mockito previously so the concepts were familiar to me and thanks to the MVP pattern I could see that it is straight forward to apply it for the testing of the Presenter in the app.
Minor points to improve:
There were some castings that were not so clear but nothing that affects the super comprehensive flow of the course, I would say it is rather a reflection of my lack of knowledge.
Although at the end of each chapter, a summary is shown, I would have preferred to have diagrams showing the interactions between the different components both through and at the end of the videos.
What I would like to see next:
The course is a starting point for introducing the testing concepts behind Android but I would like to see a more complex app with async interactions with web services, maybe for a future course? Where can I sign up for it? :)
Final words:
I would definitely recommend the course as an introduction to Android testing and best practices around it.
Score: 10⁄10
P.S. Am i supposed to pay 30$ indefinitely to get access to courses I took at some point on Linkedin Learn? In that case I would rather go for courses on Udemy and other platforms in which after buying the course, you have lifetime access to the material.