Without root it works the same way as blokada, as a local VPN. I always root my phones, so I don’t have experience with that, I guess it’s similar.

But you can just try it, and if you don’t like it you can get back to blokada. Also as both of them are just VPNs, you can just switch between the two, while both are installed. Also on their website there is a good FAQ: https://adaway.org/