The Journey to Faster Android Builds: How Slice Slashed Build Times
Article Summary
Ankit Sharma from slice reveals how his team reclaimed 167 hours of developer time annually by tackling Android build performance head-on. Their systematic approach turned a productivity blocker into a competitive advantage.
The slice engineering team launched Project Flash to combat escalating build times as their Android app evolved from a simple financial product into a full-fledged bank. Through five targeted optimizations, they transformed their development workflow with measurable improvements in both local builds and CI efficiency.
Key Takeaways
- Affected module testing cut test execution time by 36% for most PRs
- Configuration cache enabled 43% faster incremental builds locally
- Migrating from KAPT to KSP reduced memory overhead and compilation times
- CI optimization saved 39,128 minutes annually (14% reduction in compute time)
- Dependency cleanup revealed hidden cross-module dependencies needing architectural fixes
Critical Insight
Five strategic optimizations delivered 167 hours of annual developer time savings, 43% faster local builds, and 14% reduction in CI compute costs.
