与使用方面的主要区别是数组有固定的大小，而(Mutable)List可以动态调整它们的大小。此外，Array是可变的，而List不是。

此外，kotlin.collections.List是由java.util.ArrayList实现的接口。它还被kotlin.collections.MutableList扩展，以便在需要允许修改项的集合时使用。

在jvm级别上，Array由数组表示。另一方面，List由Java. util.List表示，因为在Java中没有可用的不可变集合等价物。

数组和列表(由List<T>及其子类型MutableList<T>表示)有许多不同之处，以下是最重要的:

Array<T> is a class with known implementation: it's a sequential fixed-size memory region storing the items (and on JVM it is represented by Java array). List<T> and MutableList<T> are interfaces which have different implementations: ArrayList<T>, LinkedList<T> etc. Memory representation and operations logic of lists are defined in concrete implementation, e.g. indexing in a LinkedList<T> goes through the links and takes O(n) time whereas ArrayList<T> stores its items in a dynamically allocated array. val list1: List<Int> = LinkedList<Int>() val list2: List<Int> = ArrayList<Int>() Array<T> is mutable (it can be changed through any reference to it), but List<T> doesn't have modifying methods (it is either read-only view of MutableList<T> or an immutable list implementation). val a = arrayOf(1, 2, 3) a[0] = a[1] // OK val l = listOf(1, 2, 3) l[0] = l[1] // doesn't compile val m = mutableListOf(1, 2, 3) m[0] = m[1] // OK Arrays have fixed size and cannot expand or shrink retaining identity (you need to copy an array to resize it). As to the lists, MutableList<T> has add and remove functions, so that it can increase and reduce its size. val a = arrayOf(1, 2, 3) println(a.size) // will always be 3 for this array val l = mutableListOf(1, 2, 3) l.add(4) println(l.size) // 4 Array<T> is invariant on T (Array<Int> is not Array<Number>), the same for MutableList<T>, but List<T> is covariant (List<Int> is List<Number>). val a: Array<Number> = Array<Int>(0) { 0 } // won't compile val l: List<Number> = listOf(1, 2, 3) // OK Arrays are optimized for primitives: there are separate IntArray, DoubleArray, CharArray etc. which are mapped to Java primitive arrays (int[], double[], char[]), not boxed ones (Array<Int> is mapped to Java's Integer[]). Lists in general do not have implementations optimized for primitives, though some libraries (outside JDK) provide primitive-optimized lists. List<T> and MutableList<T> are mapped types and have special behaviour in Java interoperability (Java's List<T> is seen from Kotlin as either List<T> or MutableList<T>). Arrays are also mapped, but they have other rules of Java interoperability. Certain array types are used in annotations (primitive arrays, Array<String>, and arrays with enum class entries), and there's a special array literal syntax for annotations. Lists and other collections cannot be used in annotations. As to the usage, good practice is to prefer using lists over arrays everywhere except for performance critical parts of your code, the reasoning is the same to that for Java.

除了以上，身份比较也有所不同:

val l1 = listOf("a")
val l2 = listOf("a")
var x = (l1 == l2) // => true

val a1 = arrayOf("a")
val a2 = arrayOf("a")
var y = (a1 == a2) // => false