Final answer:
An Activity's instance variables should be classified as Activity instance state.
This state includes data such as user input or the state of UI elements, which are saved and restored using specific Android lifecycle methods or the ViewModel class when an Activity is destroyed and recreated by the system.
Step-by-step explanation:
The kind of data that an Activity's instance variables should be classified as, with respect to saving and restoring their values as the Activity lives its life, is a. Activity instance state. This is the data that represents the UI state of an Activity that may be destroyed by the system and later recreated.
For example, when the device orientation changes, Android might destroy and then re-create an Activity to accommodate the new orientation. To handle this, Android provides methods like onSaveInstanceState() and onRestoreInstanceState(), or the ViewModel class, allowing developers to save and restore the Activity's state.
An Activity's instance state typically includes user input or UI elements like text in a TextView. However, it doesn't include persistent data that should reside in a database or shared preferences, which exists beyond the life of the Activity and is not necessarily tied to the current UI state.
The Activity view state, on the other hand, is automatically saved and restored by the system if the UI elements have an ID.