APK is an archive format used for distributing Android apps. It is based on the Jar format (for Java), and like that format, is actually a ZIP archive with a different extension, and with specific files and directories within it.
The executable part of the app is usually in either Dalvik Executable (for older Android versions prior to 5.0) or ART format (for newer versions).
Metadata about the app is in a META-INF directory within the archive (similarly to Jar files), compiled code is in a lib directory, and resources in a res directory. There are also a few files at the root level including AndroidManifest.xml (which may be regular XML or, often, binary XML).
File types
.apk
Also appears as
Not known to appear as any other types