Best Software Development Books: 20 Most-Recommended Books for Software Developers DEV Community

Software development books are not known for being fun reads, but this one about basic design patterns is an exception. The authors’ love for design extends beyond the subject matter to the layout of the book, and they take great care to avoid pages that look like walls of text. Instead, reading this book feels like going through a well-designed PowerPoint presentation.

If you are not familiar with them, I suggest you go through the SOLID Principles of Object-Oriented Design and Architecture course on Udemy to learn them. Since 2009, Simple Programmer has helped millions of readers become better problem-solvers, be more charismatic, and make more money as a developer. It was quite difficult to narrow all my favorites down to make this list. This book is the first book that really introduced me to the stoic philosophy I hold so central to my life today. That was enough to get me to buy and read this book, and I was not disappointed. Some of the information might be a bit dated, but if you are really interested in how compilers work and perhaps want to write your own, take a crack at this book.

Cracking the Coding Interview

You might think that going deep into algorithms or compilers is both fun and entertaining, and while I agree, in part, I have to admit that not every software developer thinks so. This book covers a wide range of personal development topics, and gives you a huge “bang for your buck” in terms of what can be offered in a single book. It’s packed with many concepts, which are sourced from classical books on the subject and they are explained in a way that is concise and clear. It has plenty of exercises for you to actually do to make real, positive changes in your life. One of the best ways to clean up legacy code through refactoring is to simplify it, especially if it is a mess.

Well, these days, it’s an obsolete method and every programmer knows the perks and benefits of Github. An experienced software developer, Sonmez argues that technical knowledge isn’t enough for career advancement. The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide builds soft skills, including communication, negotiation, and managing a team. Developers learn to handle any challenge, from choosing a programming language to acing an interview and moving up the ladder. While you won’t become a great software developer just by reading these books, they surely can guide you on how to become one.

Read On, My Friend…

A huge amount of the success I’ve been able to achieve in life is directly attributable to the books I’ve read. It’s interesting to see, and unfortunately not surprising, that most of these books are writing by old white men. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great books in this list, books I own myself and that I enjoy. This is the industry we have, dominated by white dudes, who had the most exposure and opportunities over the years. I’m always suspicious of lists like this that end up mostly Uncle Bob and Martin Fowler .

• Project managers specialize in scoping out projects and keeping projects running on track, but developers should also be well versed in project management best practices.
• Let us take a look at the list of books every software engineer should read.
• It’s simply not possible to create quality, feature-rich, do-everything software at a low cost and quick time.
• By the end of this Kubernetes book, you will graduate from an intermediate to advanced Kubernetes professional.
• A must read for anyone who wants to read all about programming constructs and best practices.

It’s cool to read their words and make your own observations, but that should be the goal of any reading rather than putting power in the hands of influencers. And you will be challenged to think about what’s right about that code, and what’s wrong with it. More importantly, you will be challenged to reassess your professional values and your commitment to your craft. Like the original, this edition explains what refactoring is; why you should refactor; how to recognize code that needs refactoring; and how to actually do it successfully, no matter what language you use.

Also you’ll find patterns for messaging, flow control, resource management, and concurrency, along with practical issues like test-friendly designs. The author of Zero Bugs spent two years researching every bug avoidance technique she could find. It includes useful tips and techniques, and presents information in an easy-to-digest way and brought to life with stories. Also, she explains why the world’s top developers are making over $500,000 a year while the average is around $100,000 a year.

Having spent more than 100 hours on volume one without finishing it, I can say that Knuth’s own estimation that fewer than 100 people have read it end-to-end is probably true. And in my opinion this SHOULD be the first book for a developer to read. In fact this book should be read by anyone working in a company that produces software, this is not a book just for the DevOps guy.

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This book primarily concentrates on diving deeply into complex concepts and Kubernetes best practices to help you master the skills of designing and deploying large clusters on various cloud platforms. The book trains you to run complex stateful microservices on Kubernetes including advanced features such as horizontal pod autoscaling, rolling updates, resource quotas, and persistent storage backend. With the two new chapters, you will gain expertise in serverless computing and utilizing service meshes.

• This is — as far as I can tell — the most complete meta-list of software development book recommendations anywhere on the Internet.
• Study books are fun especially the ones with the long list of “dos” and “don’ts” and the “whys” and processes.
• The writer and his guiding attitude are proven to help readers understand the basic principles of intuition and how it affects navigation.

It will help you create functional, elegant, reusable, and flexible software. But unfortunately, there are very few people reading books today, especially programmers. Once you have read the book, you must be able to comprehensively comprehend the methods.

Books on Software Engineering

But if https://trading-market.org/ isn’t clean, it can bring a development organization to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. “Soft” skills are crucial to success, but are haphazardly picked up on the job or, worse, never learned. Understanding these competencies and how to improve them will make you a more effective team member and a more attractive hire.

It’s very good for anyone who cares about agile software development and code quality. Author Cory Althoff taught himself programming in a single year and landed a job at eBay as a software engineer. Here, he shares what he learned, emphasizing technical skills but also covering the interview process and professional skills. Good problem-solving skills are developed by enhancing your comprehension skills.

This four-volume set was on my software developer books of “someday to read” books, but I never got around to it. If you want to go deep with learning how to solve algorithm-type coding problems, this is your book. It covers the fundamental types of algorithms and data structures, gives you practice problems, and sets you up for success. This book pretty much covers everything you need to know about solving the difficult, computer science, algorithm-type programs that are often asked during coding interviews. If you want to be able to pass a whiteboard interview where you have to code up a solution to some algorithm problem, this is required reading. But I think you’ll find the experience rewarding and it’s likely to change the way you think about and approach programming, especially if you’ve never been introduced to functional programming concepts.

It talks about how to debug code, create quality software, and many other topics every software developer should understand. As a software developer, you should be especially interested in writing good code, since that is one of the most foundational things software developers do. The book also suggests best practices for effective project management, like standardizing documentation and tooling across teams and fostering constant team communication. In his audiobook, he explains why some programmers suck and how you can, well, suck less as a programmer. Complex programming is difficult to use and breaks down far too easily.

This book helps readers get there by teaching them to use extensive testing to examine and stabilize confusing legacy code. Maybe it still won’t be your favorite aspect of software development, but this book will make the process of taming legacy code a whole lot smoother. But If you’re a software developer, you need to read more books, because software development is not only about coding, it is about thinking, it is about best practices. And books give you a good explanation and base, that you won’t always find in short articles or Google search results. In Apiumhub we are big fans of reading good literature, we even have a small library in the office with our favorite software development books.