Kotlin Coroutines & Flows Patterns for structured concurrency, Flow-based reactive streams, and coroutine testing in Android and Kotlin Multiplatform projects. When to Activate Writing async code with Kotlin coroutines Using Flow, StateFlow, or SharedFlow for reactive data Handling concurrent operations (parallel loading, debounce, retry) Testing coroutines and Flows Managing coroutine scopes and cancellation Structured Concurrency Scope Hierarchy Application └── viewModelScope (ViewModel) └── coroutineScope { } (structured child) ├── async { } (concurrent task) └── async { } (concurrent task) Always use structured concurrency — never GlobalScope : // BAD GlobalScope . launch { fetchData ( ) } // GOOD — scoped to ViewModel lifecycle viewModelScope . launch { fetchData ( ) } // GOOD — scoped to composable lifecycle LaunchedEffect ( key ) { fetchData ( ) } Parallel Decomposition Use coroutineScope + async for parallel work: suspend fun loadDashboard ( ) : Dashboard = coroutineScope { val items = async { itemRepository . getRecent ( ) } val stats = async { statsRepository . getToday ( ) } val profile = async { userRepository . getCurrent ( ) } Dashboard ( items = items . await ( ) , stats = stats . await ( ) , profile = profile . await ( ) ) } SupervisorScope Use supervisorScope when child failures should not cancel siblings: suspend fun syncAll ( ) = supervisorScope { launch { syncItems ( ) } // failure here won't cancel syncStats launch { syncStats ( ) } launch { syncSettings ( ) } } Flow Patterns Cold Flow — One-Shot to Stream Conversion fun observeItems ( ) : Flow < List < Item

= flow { // Re-emits whenever the database changes itemDao . observeAll ( ) . map { entities -> entities . map { it . toDomain ( ) } } . collect { emit ( it ) } } StateFlow for UI State class DashboardViewModel ( observeProgress : ObserveUserProgressUseCase ) : ViewModel ( ) { val progress : StateFlow < UserProgress

= observeProgress ( ) . stateIn ( scope = viewModelScope , started = SharingStarted . WhileSubscribed ( 5_000 ) , initialValue = UserProgress . EMPTY ) } WhileSubscribed(5_000) keeps the upstream active for 5 seconds after the last subscriber leaves — survives configuration changes without restarting. Combining Multiple Flows val uiState : StateFlow < HomeState

= combine ( itemRepository . observeItems ( ) , settingsRepository . observeTheme ( ) , userRepository . observeProfile ( ) ) { items , theme , profile -> HomeState ( items = items , theme = theme , profile = profile ) } . stateIn ( viewModelScope , SharingStarted . WhileSubscribed ( 5_000 ) , HomeState ( ) ) Flow Operators // Debounce search input searchQuery . debounce ( 300 ) . distinctUntilChanged ( ) . flatMapLatest { query -> repository . search ( query ) } . catch { emit ( emptyList ( ) ) } . collect { results -> _state . update { it . copy ( results = results ) } } // Retry with exponential backoff fun fetchWithRetry ( ) : Flow < Data

= flow { emit ( api . fetch ( ) ) } . retryWhen { cause , attempt -> if ( cause is IOException && attempt < 3 ) { delay ( 1000L * ( 1 shl attempt . toInt ( ) ) ) true } else { false } } SharedFlow for One-Time Events class ItemListViewModel : ViewModel ( ) { private val _effects = MutableSharedFlow < Effect

( ) val effects : SharedFlow < Effect

= _effects . asSharedFlow ( ) sealed interface Effect { data class ShowSnackbar ( val message : String ) : Effect data class NavigateTo ( val route : String ) : Effect } private fun deleteItem ( id : String ) { viewModelScope . launch { repository . delete ( id ) _effects . emit ( Effect . ShowSnackbar ( "Item deleted" ) ) } } } // Collect in Composable LaunchedEffect ( Unit ) { viewModel . effects . collect { effect -> when ( effect ) { is Effect . ShowSnackbar -> snackbarHostState . showSnackbar ( effect . message ) is Effect . NavigateTo -> navController . navigate ( effect . route ) } } } Dispatchers // CPU-intensive work withContext ( Dispatchers . Default ) { parseJson ( largePayload ) } // IO-bound work withContext ( Dispatchers . IO ) { database . query ( ) } // Main thread (UI) — default in viewModelScope withContext ( Dispatchers . Main ) { updateUi ( ) } In KMP, use Dispatchers.Default and Dispatchers.Main (available on all platforms). Dispatchers.IO is JVM/Android only — use Dispatchers.Default on other platforms or provide via DI. Cancellation Cooperative Cancellation Long-running loops must check for cancellation: suspend fun processItems ( items : List < Item

)

coroutineScope { for ( item in items ) { ensureActive ( ) // throws CancellationException if cancelled process ( item ) } } Cleanup with try/finally viewModelScope . launch { try { _state . update { it . copy ( isLoading = true ) } val data = repository . fetch ( ) _state . update { it . copy ( data = data ) } } finally { _state . update { it . copy ( isLoading = false ) } // always runs, even on cancellation } } Testing Testing StateFlow with Turbine @Test fun search updates item list ( ) = runTest { val fakeRepository = FakeItemRepository ( ) . apply { emit ( testItems ) } val viewModel = ItemListViewModel ( GetItemsUseCase ( fakeRepository ) ) viewModel . state . test { assertEquals ( ItemListState ( ) , awaitItem ( ) ) // initial viewModel . onSearch ( "query" ) val loading = awaitItem ( ) assertTrue ( loading . isLoading ) val loaded = awaitItem ( ) assertFalse ( loaded . isLoading ) assertEquals ( 1 , loaded . items . size ) } } Testing with TestDispatcher @Test fun parallel load completes correctly ( ) = runTest { val viewModel = DashboardViewModel ( itemRepo = FakeItemRepo ( ) , statsRepo = FakeStatsRepo ( ) ) viewModel . load ( ) advanceUntilIdle ( ) val state = viewModel . state . value assertNotNull ( state . items ) assertNotNull ( state . stats ) } Faking Flows class FakeItemRepository : ItemRepository { private val _items = MutableStateFlow < List < Item

( emptyList ( ) ) override fun observeItems ( ) : Flow < List < Item

= _items fun emit ( items : List < Item

) { _items . value = items } override suspend fun getItemsByCategory ( category : String ) : Result < List < Item

{ return Result . success ( _items . value . filter { it . category == category } ) } } Anti-Patterns to Avoid Using GlobalScope — leaks coroutines, no structured cancellation Collecting Flows in init {} without a scope — use viewModelScope.launch Using MutableStateFlow with mutable collections — always use immutable copies: _state.update { it.copy(list = it.list + newItem) } Catching CancellationException — let it propagate for proper cancellation Using flowOn(Dispatchers.Main) to collect — collection dispatcher is the caller's dispatcher Creating Flow in @Composable without remember — recreates the flow every recomposition References See skill: compose-multiplatform-patterns for UI consumption of Flows. See skill: android-clean-architecture for where coroutines fit in layers.