A Programmer's Guide to Computer Science: A virtual degree for the self-taught developer

by William M. Springer II, Nicholas Allgood (Editor), Brit Springer (Illustrator)

You know how to code…
…but is it enough?

Do you feel left out when other programmers talk about asymptotic bounds?

Have you failed a job interview because you don’t know computer science?

The author, a senior developer at a major software company with a PhD in computer science, takes you through what you would have learned while earning a four-year computer science degree.

Volume one covers the most frequently referenced topics, including:

• Algorithms and data structures
• Graphs
• Problem-solving techniques
• Complexity theory

When you finish this book, you’ll have the tools you need to hold your own with people who have – or expect you to have – a computer science degree.

Don’t let the lack of a degree hold back your career. Dive into this book now.

Genres: Programming, Computer Science, Technical, Science, Technology, Algorithms

188 pages, Paperback

Published July 28, 2019

Reviews

[William Yip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book could have used a proofreader; from time to time there were wrong words, missing words and numbers, references to wrong chapter and section numbers, and links that went to the wrong section. There were also references to chapters and sections that turned out to be in the next volume which I found annoying. Some concepts could have been explained better. Overall though, the book does offer a relatively good introduction to computer science topics.

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book needs a good proofreader.

[Vadim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks like there is an error in the binary search algorithm:

binarySearch (numarray, left, right, x) {
    if (left > right) { return -1; }

    int mid = 1 + (right - 1)/2;

    if (numarray[mid] == x) { return mid; }

    if (numarray[mid] > x)

        { return binarySearch (numarray, left,

          mid -1, x); }

    return binarySearch (numarray, mid + 1, right, x);
}

Calculation of int mid = 1 + (right - 1)/2; should include left also.

[Lucille Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin: covers a wide range of computer science topics relevant to a self-taught programmer. Fairly readable, has the odd typo, probably would have benefited from a copywriter and editor to correct some of the errors. Nonetheless a good read.

[Ivan Koma · Rating 2 out of 5]

(FR) краткость здесь смешалась с непонятным объяснением (возможно перевод, читал на русском)

[Bogdan Kulbida · Rating 5 out of 5]

In general good content. As stated in the book, it gives you an entry point and a good direction. For me it was a good refresher. Thank you!