RxJava delay for each item of list emitted

One way to do it is to use zip to combine your observable with an Interval observable to delay the output.

Observable.zip(Observable.range(1, 5)
        .groupBy(n -> n % 5)
        .flatMap(g -> g.toList()),
    Observable.interval(50, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS),
    (obs, timer) -> obs)
    .doOnNext(item -> {
      System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() - timeNow);
      System.out.println(item);
      System.out.println(" ");
    }).toList().toBlocking().first();

Just sharing a simple approach to emit each item in a collection with an interval:

Observable.just(1,2,3,4,5)
    .zipWith(Observable.interval(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS), (item, interval) -> item)
    .subscribe(System.out::println);

Each item will be emitted every 500 milliseconds

The simplest way to do this seems to be just using concatMap and wrapping each item in a delayed Obserable.

long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
Observable.range(1, 5)
        .concatMap(i-> Observable.just(i).delay(50, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS))
        .doOnNext(i-> System.out.println(
                "Item: " + i + ", Time: " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) +"ms"))
        .toCompletable().await();

Prints:

Item: 1, Time: 51ms
Item: 2, Time: 101ms
Item: 3, Time: 151ms
Item: 4, Time: 202ms
Item: 5, Time: 252ms