Yes and no.

Android uses a different paradigm for multitasking than traditional desktop operating systems, and does this for the sake of better power usage.

By default applications are stopped when they are switched away, and then they resume when they are in the foreground again. For more info on this, search for the Activity Lifecycle.

If an application wants to run background tasks it needs to implement a Service. These can do anything they want, but again, the OS can stop then for example if the device goes to sleep, and can re-start them if needed.

Services can force to run uninterrupted by using a so-called wakelock, that will prevent the start-stop behavior, but this can also prevent the OS to throttle CPU speeds, thus apps that use wakelocks can run down the battery easily (see Wakelock detector app for Android that helps identify battery issues by finding applications that do this).

Most of this forum hates this method of multitasking and prefer the old desktop style multitasking where you decide what runs and what stops. I think it is far from an ideal way to run things on mobile devices as they will inevitably cause battery issues.
Just see how the Jolla tablet's battery life is compared to even cheap Android tablets, let alone an iPad. The Jolla tablet can't even keep charge for 2-3 days if left untouched, while Android tablets can take a month or more to run down their battery if left turned on but not used.

But of course to each their own.