Kotlin Development Patterns

Idiomatic Kotlin patterns and best practices for building robust, efficient, and maintainable applications.

When to Use

• Writing new Kotlin code
• Reviewing Kotlin code
• Refactoring existing Kotlin code
• Designing Kotlin modules or libraries
• Configuring Gradle Kotlin DSL builds

How It Works

This skill enforces idiomatic Kotlin conventions across seven key areas: null safety using the type system and safe-call operators, immutability via val and copy() on data classes, sealed classes and interfaces for exhaustive type hierarchies, structured concurrency with coroutines and Flow, extension functions for adding behaviour without inheritance, type-safe DSL builders using @DslMarker and lambda receivers, and Gradle Kotlin DSL for build configuration.

Examples

Null safety with Elvis operator:

fun getUserEmail(userId: String): String {
    val user = userRepository.findById(userId)
    return user?.email ?: "unknown@example.com"
}

Sealed class for exhaustive results:

sealed class Result<out T> {
    data class Success<T>(val data: T) : Result<T>()
    data class Failure(val error: AppError) : Result<Nothing>()
    data object Loading : Result<Nothing>()
}

Structured concurrency with async/await:

suspend fun fetchUserWithPosts(userId: String): UserProfile =
    coroutineScope {
        val user = async { userService.getUser(userId) }
        val posts = async { postService.getUserPosts(userId) }
        UserProfile(user = user.await(), posts = posts.await())
    }

Core Principles

1. Null Safety

Kotlin's type system distinguishes nullable and non-nullable types. Leverage it fully.

// Good: Use non-nullable types by default
fun getUser(id: String): User {
    return userRepository.findById(id)
        ?: throw UserNotFoundException("User $id not found")
}

// Good: Safe calls and Elvis operator
fun getUserEmail(userId: String): String {
    val user = userRepository.findById(userId)
    return user?.email ?: "unknown@example.com"
}

// Bad: Force-unwrapping nullable types
fun getUserEmail(userId: String): String {
    val user = userRepository.findById(userId)
    return user!!.email // Throws NPE if null
}

2. Immutability by Default

Prefer val over var, immutable collections over mutable ones.

// Good: Immutable data
data class User(
    val id: String,
    val name: String,
    val email: String,
)

// Good: Transform with copy()
fun updateEmail(user: User, newEmail: String): User =
    user.copy(email = newEmail)

// Good: Immutable collections
val users: List<User> = listOf(user1, user2)
val filtered = users.filter { it.email.isNotBlank() }

// Bad: Mutable state
var currentUser: User? = null // Avoid mutable global state
val mutableUsers = mutableListOf<User>() // Avoid unless truly needed

3. Expression Bodies and Single-Expression Functions

Use expression bodies for concise, readable functions.

// Good: Expression body
fun isAdult(age: Int): Boolean = age >= 18

fun formatFullName(first: String, last: String): String =
    "$first $last".trim()

fun User.displayName(): String =
    name.ifBlank { email.substringBefore('@') }

// Good: When as expression
fun statusMessage(code: Int): String = when (code) {
    200 -> "OK"
    404 -> "Not Found"
    500 -> "Internal Server Error"
    else -> "Unknown status: $code"
}

// Bad: Unnecessary block body
fun isAdult(age: Int): Boolean {
    return age >= 18
}

4. Data Classes for Value Objects

Use data classes for types that primarily hold data.

// Good: Data class with copy, equals, hashCode, toString
data class CreateUserRequest(
    val name: String,
    val email: String,
    val role: Role = Role.USER,
)

// Good: Value class for type safety (zero overhead at runtime)
@JvmInline
value class UserId(val value: String) {
    init {
        require(value.isNotBlank()) { "UserId cannot be blank" }
    }
}

@JvmInline
value class Email(val value: String) {
    init {
        require('@' in value) { "Invalid email: $value" }
    }
}

fun getUser(id: UserId): User = userRepository.findById(id)

Sealed Classes and Interfaces

Modeling Restricted Hierarchies

// Good: Sealed class for exhaustive when
sealed class Result<out T> {
    data class Success<T>(val data: T) : Result<T>()
    data class Failure(val error: AppError) : Result<Nothing>()
    data object Loading : Result<Nothing>()
}

fun <T> Result<T>.getOrNull(): T? = when (this) {
    is Result.Success -> data
    is Result.Failure -> null
    is Result.Loading -> null
}

fun <T> Result<T>.getOrThrow(): T = when (this) {
    is Result.Success -> data
    is Result.Failure -> throw error.toException()
    is Result.Loading -> throw IllegalStateException("Still loading")
}

Sealed Interfaces for API Responses

sealed interface ApiError {
    val message: String

    data class NotFound(override val message: String) : ApiError
    data class Unauthorized(override val message: String) : ApiError
    data class Validation(
        override val message: String,
        val field: String,
    ) : ApiError
    data class Internal(
        override val message: String,
        val cause: Throwable? = null,
    ) : ApiError
}

fun ApiError.toStatusCode(): Int = when (this) {
    is ApiError.NotFound -> 404
    is ApiError.Unauthorized -> 401
    is ApiError.Validation -> 422
    is ApiError.Internal -> 500
}

Scope Functions

When to Use Each

// let: Transform nullable or scoped result
val length: Int? = name?.let { it.trim().length }

// apply: Configure an object (returns the object)
val user = User().apply {
    name = "Alice"
    email = "alice@example.com"
}

// also: Side effects (returns the object)
val user = createUser(request).also { logger.info("Created user: ${it.id}") }

// run: Execute a block with receiver (returns result)
val result = connection.run {
    prepareStatement(sql)
    executeQuery()
}

// with: Non-extension form of run
val csv = with(StringBuilder()) {
    appendLine("name,email")
    users.forEach { appendLine("${it.name},${it.email}") }
    toString()
}

Anti-Patterns

// Bad: Nesting scope functions
user?.let { u ->
    u.address?.let { addr ->
        addr.city?.let { city ->
            println(city) // Hard to read
        }
    }
}

// Good: Chain safe calls instead
val city = user?.address?.city
city?.let { println(it) }

Extension Functions

Adding Functionality Without Inheritance

// Good: Domain-specific extensions
fun String.toSlug(): String =
    lowercase()
        .replace(Regex("[^a-z0-9\\s-]"), "")
        .replace(Regex("\\s+"), "-")
        .trim('-')

fun Instant.toLocalDate(zone: ZoneId = ZoneId.systemDefault()): LocalDate =
    atZone(zone).toLocalDate()

// Good: Collection extensions
fun <T> List<T>.second(): T = this[1]

fun <T> List<T>.secondOrNull(): T? = getOrNull(1)

// Good: Scoped extensions (not polluting global namespace)
class UserService {
    private fun User.isActive(): Boolean =
        status == Status.ACTIVE && lastLogin.isAfter(Instant.now().minus(30, ChronoUnit.DAYS))

    fun getActiveUsers(): List<User> = userRepository.findAll().filter { it.isActive() }
}

Coroutines

Structured Concurrency

// Good: Structured concurrency with coroutineScope
suspend fun fetchUserWithPosts(userId: String): UserProfile =
    coroutineScope {
        val userDeferred = async { userService.getUser(userId) }
        val postsDeferred = async { postService.getUserPosts(userId) }

        UserProfile(
            user = userDeferred.await(),
            posts = postsDeferred.await(),
        )
    }

// Good: supervisorScope when children can fail independently
suspend fun fetchDashboard(userId: String): Dashboard =
    supervisorScope {
        val user = async { userService.getUser(userId) }
        val notifications = async { notificationService.getRecent(userId) }
        val recommendations = async { recommendationService.getFor(userId) }

        Dashboard(
            user = user.await(),
            notifications = try {
                notifications.await()
            } catch (e: CancellationException) {
                throw e
            } catch (e: Exception) {
                emptyList()
            },
            recommendations = try {
                recommendations.await()
            } catch (e: CancellationException) {
                throw e
            } catch (e: Exception) {
                emptyList()
            },
        )
    }

Flow for Reactive Streams

// Good: Cold flow with proper error handling
fun observeUsers(): Flow<List<User>> = flow {
    while (currentCoroutineContext().isActive) {
        val users = userRepository.findAll()
        emit(users)
        delay(5.seconds)
    }
}.catch { e ->
    logger.error("Error observing users", e)
    emit(emptyList())
}

// Good: Flow operators
fun searchUsers(query: Flow<String>): Flow<List<User>> =
    query
        .debounce(300.milliseconds)
        .distinctUntilChanged()
        .filter { it.length >= 2 }
        .mapLatest { q -> userRepository.search(q) }
        .catch { emit(emptyList()) }

Cancellation and Cleanup

// Good: Respect cancellation
suspend fun processItems(items: List<Item>) {
    items.forEach { item ->
        ensureActive() // Check cancellation before expensive work
        processItem(item)
    }
}

// Good: Cleanup with try/finally
suspend fun acquireAndProcess() {
    val resource = acquireResource()
    try {
        resource.process()
    } finally {
        withContext(NonCancellable) {
            resource.release() // Always release, even on cancellation
        }
    }
}

Delegation

Property Delegation

// Lazy initialization
val expensiveData: List<User> by lazy {
    userRepository.findAll()
}

// Observable property
var name: String by Delegates.observable("initial") { _, old, new ->
    logger.info("Name changed from '$old' to '$new'")
}

// Map-backed properties
class Config(private val map: Map<String, Any?>) {
    val host: String by map
    val port: Int by map
    val debug: Boolean by map
}

val config = Config(mapOf("host" to "localhost", "port" to 8080, "debug" to true))

Interface Delegation

// Good: Delegate interface implementation
class LoggingUserRepository(
    private val delegate: UserRepository,
    private val logger: Logger,
) : UserRepository by delegate {
    // Only override what you need to add logging to
    override suspend fun findById(id: String): User? {
        logger.info("Finding user by id: $id")
        return delegate.findById(id).also {
            logger.info("Found user: ${it?.name ?: "null"}")
        }
    }
}

DSL Builders

Type-Safe Builders

// Good: DSL with @DslMarker
@DslMarker
annotation class HtmlDsl

@HtmlDsl
class HTML {
    private val children = mutableListOf<Element>()

    fun head(init: Head.() -> Unit) {
        children += Head().apply(init)
    }

    fun body(init: Body.() -> Unit) {
        children += Body().apply(init)
    }

    override fun toString(): String = children.joinToString("\n")
}

fun html(init: HTML.() -> Unit): HTML = HTML().apply(init)

// Usage
val page = html {
    head { title("My Page") }
    body {
        h1("Welcome")
        p("Hello, World!")
    }
}

Configuration DSL

data class ServerConfig(
    val host: String = "0.0.0.0",
    val port: Int = 8080,
    val ssl: SslConfig? = null,
    val database: DatabaseConfig? = null,
)

data class SslConfig(val certPath: String, val keyPath: String)
data class DatabaseConfig(val url: String, val maxPoolSize: Int = 10)

class ServerConfigBuilder {
    var host: String = "0.0.0.0"
    var port: Int = 8080
    private var ssl: SslConfig? = null
    private var database: DatabaseConfig? = null

    fun ssl(certPath: String, keyPath: String) {
        ssl = SslConfig(certPath, keyPath)
    }

    fun database(url: String, maxPoolSize: Int = 10) {
        database = DatabaseConfig(url, maxPoolSize)
    }

    fun build(): ServerConfig = ServerConfig(host, port, ssl, database)
}

fun serverConfig(init: ServerConfigBuilder.() -> Unit): ServerConfig =
    ServerConfigBuilder().apply(init).build()

// Usage
val config = serverConfig {
    host = "0.0.0.0"
    port = 443
    ssl("/certs/cert.pem", "/certs/key.pem")
    database("jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/mydb", maxPoolSize = 20)
}

Sequences for Lazy Evaluation

// Good: Use sequences for large collections with multiple operations
val result = users.asSequence()
    .filter { it.isActive }
    .map { it.email }
    .filter { it.endsWith("@company.com") }
    .take(10)
    .toList()

// Good: Generate infinite sequences
val fibonacci: Sequence<Long> = sequence {
    var a = 0L
    var b = 1L
    while (true) {
        yield(a)
        val next = a + b
        a = b
        b = next
    }
}

val first20 = fibonacci.take(20).toList()

Gradle Kotlin DSL

build.gradle.kts Configuration

// Check for latest versions: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/releases.html
plugins {
    kotlin("jvm") version "2.3.10"
    kotlin("plugin.serialization") version "2.3.10"
    id("io.ktor.plugin") version "3.4.0"
    id("org.jetbrains.kotlinx.kover") version "0.9.7"
    id("io.gitlab.arturbosch.detekt") version "1.23.8"
}

group = "com.example"
version = "1.0.0"

kotlin {
    jvmToolchain(21)
}

dependencies {
    // Ktor
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-server-core:3.4.0")
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-server-netty:3.4.0")
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-server-content-negotiation:3.4.0")
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-serialization-kotlinx-json:3.4.0")

    // Exposed
    implementation("org.jetbrains.exposed:exposed-core:1.0.0")
    implementation("org.jetbrains.exposed:exposed-dao:1.0.0")
    implementation("org.jetbrains.exposed:exposed-jdbc:1.0.0")
    implementation("org.jetbrains.exposed:exposed-kotlin-datetime:1.0.0")

    // Koin
    implementation("io.insert-koin:koin-ktor:4.2.0")

    // Coroutines
    implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-core:1.10.2")

    // Testing
    testImplementation("io.kotest:kotest-runner-junit5:6.1.4")
    testImplementation("io.kotest:kotest-assertions-core:6.1.4")
    testImplementation("io.kotest:kotest-property:6.1.4")
    testImplementation("io.mockk:mockk:1.14.9")
    testImplementation("io.ktor:ktor-server-test-host:3.4.0")
    testImplementation("org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-test:1.10.2")
}

tasks.withType<Test> {
    useJUnitPlatform()
}

detekt {
    config.setFrom(files("config/detekt/detekt.yml"))
    buildUponDefaultConfig = true
}

Error Handling Patterns

Result Type for Domain Operations

// Good: Use Kotlin's Result or a custom sealed class
suspend fun createUser(request: CreateUserRequest): Result<User> = runCatching {
    require(request.name.isNotBlank()) { "Name cannot be blank" }
    require('@' in request.email) { "Invalid email format" }

    val user = User(
        id = UserId(UUID.randomUUID().toString()),
        name = request.name,
        email = Email(request.email),
    )
    userRepository.save(user)
    user
}

// Good: Chain results
val displayName = createUser(request)
    .map { it.name }
    .getOrElse { "Unknown" }

require, check, error

// Good: Preconditions with clear messages
fun withdraw(account: Account, amount: Money): Account {
    require(amount.value > 0) { "Amount must be positive: $amount" }
    check(account.balance >= amount) { "Insufficient balance: ${account.balance} < $amount" }

    return account.copy(balance = account.balance - amount)
}

Collection Operations

Idiomatic Collection Processing

// Good: Chained operations
val activeAdminEmails: List<String> = users
    .filter { it.role == Role.ADMIN && it.isActive }
    .sortedBy { it.name }
    .map { it.email }

// Good: Grouping and aggregation
val usersByRole: Map<Role, List<User>> = users.groupBy { it.role }

val oldestByRole: Map<Role, User?> = users.groupBy { it.role }
    .mapValues { (_, users) -> users.minByOrNull { it.createdAt } }

// Good: Associate for map creation
val usersById: Map<UserId, User> = users.associateBy { it.id }

// Good: Partition for splitting
val (active, inactive) = users.partition { it.isActive }

Quick Reference: Kotlin Idioms

Idiom	Description
val over var	Prefer immutable variables
data class	For value objects with equals/hashCode/copy
sealed class/interface	For restricted type hierarchies
value class	For type-safe wrappers with zero overhead
Expression when	Exhaustive pattern matching
Safe call ?.	Null-safe member access
Elvis ?:	Default value for nullables
let/apply/also/run/with	Scope functions for clean code
Extension functions	Add behavior without inheritance
copy()	Immutable updates on data classes
require/check	Precondition assertions
Coroutine async/await	Structured concurrent execution
Flow	Cold reactive streams
sequence	Lazy evaluation
Delegation by	Reuse implementation without inheritance

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

// Bad: Force-unwrapping nullable types
val name = user!!.name

// Bad: Platform type leakage from Java
fun getLength(s: String) = s.length // Safe
fun getLength(s: String?) = s?.length ?: 0 // Handle nulls from Java

// Bad: Mutable data classes
data class MutableUser(var name: String, var email: String)

// Bad: Using exceptions for control flow
try {
    val user = findUser(id)
} catch (e: NotFoundException) {
    // Don't use exceptions for expected cases
}

// Good: Use nullable return or Result
val user: User? = findUserOrNull(id)

// Bad: Ignoring coroutine scope
GlobalScope.launch { /* Avoid GlobalScope */ }

// Good: Use structured concurrency
coroutineScope {
    launch { /* Properly scoped */ }
}

// Bad: Deeply nested scope functions
user?.let { u ->
    u.address?.let { a ->
        a.city?.let { c -> process(c) }
    }
}

// Good: Direct null-safe chain
user?.address?.city?.let { process(it) }

Remember: Kotlin code should be concise but readable. Leverage the type system for safety, prefer immutability, and use coroutines for concurrency. When in doubt, let the compiler help you.