# Table of Contents - [Professional Programming](#professional-programming) - [Contributing to this list](#contributing-to-this-list) - [Must-read books](#must-read-books) - [Must-read articles](#must-read-articles) - [Other general material and list of resources](#other-general-material-and-list-of-resources) - [Courses](#courses) - [Topics](#topics) - [Algorithm and data structures](#algorithm-and-data-structures) - [API design](#api-design) - [Attitude, habits, mindset](#attitude-habits-mindset) - [Automation](#automation) - [Biases](#biases) - [Career growth](#career-growth) - [Characters sets](#characters-sets) - [Coding & code quality](#coding--code-quality) - [Computer science](#computer-science) - [Configuration](#configuration) - [Databases](#databases) - [Data formats](#data-formats) - [Data science](#data-science) - [Debugging](#debugging) - [Design (visual, UX, UI)](#design-visual-ux-ui) - [Design (OO modeling, architecture, patterns, anti-patterns, etc.)](#design-oo-modeling-architecture-patterns-anti-patterns-etc) - [Design: simplicity](#design-simplicity) - [Dev environment & tools](#dev-environment--tools) - [Diversity & inclusion](#diversity--inclusion) - [Documentation](#documentation) - [Dotfiles](#dotfiles) - [Editors & IDE](#editors--ide) - [Engineering management](#engineering-management) - [Exercises](#exercises) - [Incident response (alerting, outages, firefighting)](#incident-response-alerting-outages-firefighting) - [Internet](#internet) - [Interviewing](#interviewing) - [Learning](#learning) - [Problem solving](#problem-solving) - [Project management](#project-management) - [Programming languages](#programming-languages) - [Python](#python) - [JavaScript](#javascript) - [FP vs. OOP](#fp-vs-oop) - [Over-engineering](#over-engineering) - [Reading](#reading) - [Releasing & deploying](#releasing--deploying) - [Security](#security) - [Shell](#shell) - [System architecture](#system-architecture) - [Scalability](#scalability) - [Stability](#stability) - [Resiliency](#resiliency) - [Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)](#site-reliability-engineering-sre) - [Technical debt](#technical-debt) - [Testing](#testing) - [Tools](#tools) - [Version control (Git)](#version-control-git) - [Work ethics & work/life balance](#work-ethics--worklife-balance) - [Web development](#web-development) - [Writing for performance](#writing-for-performance) - [Concepts](#concepts) # Professional Programming > Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. (Abraham Lincoln) A collection of full-stack resources for programmers. The goal of this page is to make you a more proficient developer. You'll find only resources that I've found truly inspiring, or that have become timeless classics. This page is not meant to be comprehensive. I am trying to keep it light and not too overwhelming. The selection of articles is opinionated. ## Contributing to this list Feel free to open a PR to contribute! I will not be adding everything: as stated above, I am trying to keep the list concise. ## Must-read books I've found these books incredibly inspiring: * [The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master](http://www.amazon.com/The-Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X) 📖: hands-on the most inspiring and useful book I've read about programming. * [Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction](http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670) 📖: a nice addition to The Pragmatic Programmer, gives you the necessary framework to talk about code. * [Release It!](https://smile.amazon.com/Release-Design-Deploy-Production-Ready-Software/dp/1680502395) 📖: this books goes beyond code and gives you best practices for building production-ready software. It will give you about 3 years worth of real-world experience. * [Scalability Rules: 50 Principles for Scaling Web Sites](https://smile.amazon.com/Scalability-Rules-Principles-Scaling-Sites/dp/013443160X) 📖 * [The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook](http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Programming-Interface-Handbook/dp/1593272200) 📖: outside of teaching you almost everything you need to know about Linux, this book will give you insights into how software evolves, and the value of having simple & elegant interfaces. There are some free books available, including: * [Professional software development](http://mixmastamyk.bitbucket.io/pro_soft_dev/) 📖: pretty complete and a good companion to this page. The free chapters are mostly focused on software development processes: design, testing, code writing, etc. - and not so much about tech itself. * [List of free programming books](https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books) ## Must-read articles * [Practical Advice for New Software Engineers](http://product.hubspot.com/blog/practical-advice-for-new-software-engineers) * [On Being A Senior Engineer](http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a-senior-engineer/) * [Lessons Learned in Software Development](http://henrikwarne.com/2015/04/16/lessons-learned-in-software-development/): one of those articles that give you years of hard-earned lessons, all in one short article. Must read. * [Things I Learnt The Hard Way](https://blog.juliobiason.net/thoughts/things-i-learnt-the-hard-way/) * [Signs that you're a good programmer](http://www.yacoset.com/Home/signs-that-you-re-a-good-programmer) * [Signs that you're a bad programmer](http://www.yacoset.com/Home/signs-that-you-re-a-bad-programmer) ## Other general material and list of resources * [The Imposter's Handbook](https://bigmachine.io/products/the-imposters-handbook) - $30. From the author: "Don't have a CS Degree? Neither do I - That's why I wrote this book." * [mr-mig/every-programmer-should-know: a collection of (mostly) technical things every software developer should know](https://github.com/mr-mig/every-programmer-should-know) * [Famous Laws Of Software Development](https://www.timsommer.be/famous-laws-of-software-development/) ### Courses * [Google Tech Dev Guide](https://techdevguide.withgoogle.com/) ## Topics ### Algorithm and data structures * Read the [CLRS](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/introduction-algorithms). You can watch and download the course on [OCW](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-046j-introduction-to-algorithms-sma-5503-fall-2005/) - there are newer courses as well. * Or [The Algorithm Design Manual](https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena/dp/1849967202?ie=UTF8&qid=1297127794&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1) * Try out some algorithms on [Project Euler](https://projecteuler.net/) Let's be honest: algorithms can be a pretty dry topic. [This quora question](https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-book-that-teaches-algorithms-data-structures-and-other-computer-science-basics-in-a-fun-way) lists some funnier learning alternative, including: * [Grokking Algorithms](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1617292230/ref=cm_sw_su_dp) * [Essential Algorithms](https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Algorithms-Practical-Approach-Computer/dp/1118612108?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0) ### API design * [Why you should use links, not keys, to represent relationships in APIs](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/application-development/api-design-why-you-should-use-links-not-keys-to-represent-relationships-in-apis), Martin Nally, Google * "Using links instead of foreign keys to express relationships in APIs reduces the amount of information a client needs to know to use an API, and reduces the ways in which clients and servers are coupled to each other." ### Attitude, habits, mindset * [Mastering Programming](https://www.prod.facebook.com/notes/kent-beck/mastering-programming/1184427814923414#), Kent Beck. * [The traits of a proficient programmer](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/the-traits-of-a-proficient-programmer) * [The tao of programming](http://www.mit.edu/~xela/tao.html): a set of parables about programming. * [Taking Ownership Is The Most Effective Way to Get What You Want](http://www.theeffectiveengineer.com/blog/take-ownership-of-your-goals) * [Finding Time to Become a Better Developer](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/finding-time-to-become-a-better-developer-eebc154881b2) * [Ten minutes a day](https://blog.usejournal.com/ten-minutes-a-day-e2fa1084f924): how Alex Allain wrote a book in less than 200 hours, by writing 10 minutes *every* day. ### Automation * [Automation Should Be Like Iron Man, Not Ultron](http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2841313) ### Biases Biases don't only apply to hiring. For instance, the fundamental attribution bias also applies when criticizing somebody's code written a long time ago, in a totally different context. * [Cognitive bias cheat sheet](https://betterhumans.coach.me/cognitive-bias-cheat-sheet-55a472476b18#.6temb6hyg). #hiring ### Career growth * [The Conjoined Triangles of Senior-Level Development](http://frontside.io/blog/2016/07/07/the-conjoined-triangles-of-senior-level-development.html) looks into how to define a senior engineer. * [Ten Principles for Growth as an Engineer](https://medium.com/@daniel.heller/ten-principles-for-growth-69015e08c35b), Dan Heller. * [Don't Call Yourself a Programmer](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/), Patrick McKenzie. * [On being an Engineering Manager](https://nickmchardy.com/2019/02/on-being-an-engineering-manager.html) * [The career advice I wish I had at 25](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/career-advice-i-wish-had-25-shane-rodgers/?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like) * A career is a marathon, not a sprint * Most success comes from repetition, not new things * If work was really so great all the rich people would have the jobs * Management is about people, not things * Genuinely listen to others * Recognise that staff are people with finite emotional capacity * Don’t just network with people your own age * Never sacrifice personal ethics for a work reason * Recognise that failure is learning * [Career advice I wish I’d been given when I was young](https://80000hours.org/2019/04/career-advice-i-wish-id-been-given-when-i-was-young/) * Don’t focus too much on long-term plans. * Find good thinkers and cold-call the ones you most admire. * Assign a high value to productivity over your whole lifespan. * Don’t over-optimise things that aren’t your top priority. * Read a lot, and read things that people around you aren’t reading. * Reflect seriously on what problem to prioritise solving. * Read more history. * [Why Good Developers are Promoted into Unhappiness](https://robwalling.com/2007/06/27/why-good-developers-are-promoted-into-unhappiness/), Rob Walling. Or why management might not be for you. ### Characters sets * [The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html) ### Coding & code quality * [Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend](http://programmingisterrible.com/post/139222674273/write-code-that-is-easy-to-delete-not-easy-to) * [The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming](http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-ten-commandments-of-egoless-programming/) * [Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3735293-clean-code) 📖, Robert C. Martin. Describes numerous useful best practices. A bit long. There's also a [clean code cheatsheet](cheatsheets/Clean-Code-V2.4.pdf). ### Computer science * [What every computer science major should know](http://matt.might.net/articles/what-cs-majors-should-know/) * [Teach Yourself Computer Science](https://teachyourselfcs.com/): an opinionated set of the best CS resources. ### Configuration * [The downsides of JSON for config files](https://arp242.net/weblog/JSON_as_configuration_files-_please_dont.html), Martin Tournoij. * Can't add comments * Excessive quotation and syntax noise * Using DC (declarative configuration) to control logic is often not a good idea. ### Databases * [A plain english introduction to CAP Theorem](http://ksat.me/a-plain-english-introduction-to-cap-theorem/) * [NOSQL Patterns](http://horicky.blogspot.nl/2009/11/nosql-patterns.html) * [NoSQL Databases: a Survey and Decision Guidance](https://medium.baqend.com/nosql-databases-a-survey-and-decision-guidance-ea7823a822d#.9fe79qr90) * [Safe Operations For High Volume PostgreSQL](https://www.braintreepayments.com/blog/safe-operations-for-high-volume-postgresql/) (this is for PostgreSQL but works great for other DBs as well). * [Zero downtime database migrations](https://blog.rainforestqa.com/2014-06-27-zero-downtime-database-migrations/) (code examples are using Rails but this works great for any programming language) * [SQL styleguide](http://www.sqlstyle.guide/) * [Algorithms Behind Modern Storage Systems](https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3220266), ACM Queue * [Let's Build a Simple Database](https://cstack.github.io/db_tutorial/) ### Data formats * [Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Phone Numbers](https://github.com/googlei18n/libphonenumber/blob/master/FALSEHOODS.md), Google's `libphonenumber`. * [Rules for Autocomplete](http://jeremymikkola.com/posts/2019_03_19_rules_for_autocomplete.html): rough specifications for autocomplete fields ### Data science * [A dirty dozen: twelve common metric interpretation pitfalls in online controlled experiments](https://blog.acolyer.org/2017/09/25/a-dirty-dozen-twelve-common-metric-interpretation-pitfalls-in-online-controlled-experiments/) ### Debugging * [Rubber Duck Problem Solving](http://blog.codinghorror.com/rubber-duck-problem-solving/) * [Rubber Ducking](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking) * [Five Whys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys) * [The Infinite Hows](http://www.kitchensoap.com/2014/11/14/the-infinite-hows-or-the-dangers-of-the-five-whys/): this provides a strong criticism of the five whys method. * [Linux Performance Analysis in 60,000 Milliseconds](http://techblog.netflix.com/2015/11/linux-performance-analysis-in-60s.html) ### Design (visual, UX, UI) I highly recommend reading [The Non-Designer's Design Book](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0133966151/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687602&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0321534042&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1R7MVQP0BCP7GP9VZGYX). This is a pretty short book that will give you some very actionable design advices. * If you're working on data, Edward Tufte's [The Visual Display of Quantitative Information](http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458046603&sr=8-1&keywords=tufte) is considered a classic. * The [Universal Principles of Design](http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-Revised-Updated/dp/1592535879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458046663&sr=8-1&keywords=universal+principles+of+design) will give you enough vocabulary and concepts to describe design challenges into words. * [Microsoft's Rest API guidelines](https://github.com/Microsoft/api-guidelines/blob/master/Guidelines.md) * [Book recommendations from HackerNews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12711060) ### Design (OO modeling, architecture, patterns, anti-patterns, etc.) Here's a list of good books: * [Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201633612/): dubbed "the gang of four", this is almost a required reading for any developer. A lot of those are a bit overkill for Python (because everything is an object, and dynamic typing), but the main idea (composition is better than inheritance) definitely is a good philosophy. * [Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321127420/?tag=stackoverfl08-20): learn about how database are used in real world applications. Mike Bayer's SQLAlchemy has been heavily influenced by this book. * [Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software](https://www.amazon.com/Domain-Driven-Design-Tackling-Complexity-Software/dp/0321125215) 📖, Eric Evans * [Clean Architecture](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18043011-clean-architecture) 📖, Robert C. Martin. Uncle Bob proposes an architecture that leverages the Single Responsibility Principle to its fullest. A great way to start a new codebase. Also checkout the [clean architecture cheatsheet](cheatsheets/Clean-Architecture-V1.0.pdf). Articles: * [101 Design Patterns & Tips for Developers](https://sourcemaking.com/design-patterns-and-tips) * [Python Design Patterns: For Sleek And Fashionable Code](https://www.toptal.com/python/python-design-patterns): a pretty simple introduction to common design patterns (Facade, Adapter, Decorator). A more complete list of design patterns implementation in Python on [Github](https://github.com/faif/python-patterns). [Also a book here](http://python-3-patterns-idioms-test.readthedocs.io/en/latest/PatternConcept.html). * SourceMaking's [Design Patterns](https://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns) seems to be a good web resource too. * O'Reilly's [How to make mistakes in Python](http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/files/how-to-make-mistakes-in-python.pdf) * [Education of a Programmer](https://hackernoon.com/education-of-a-programmer-aaecf2d35312): a developer's thoughts after 35 years in the industry. There's a particularly good section about design & complexity (see "the end to end argument", "layering and componentization"). * Google's [API Design Guide](https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/): a general guide to design networked API. * [Domain-driven design](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-driven_design), Wikipedia. * [On the Spectrum of Abstraction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVVNJKv9esE) 🎞, Cheng Lou * [The “Bug-O” Notation](https://overreacted.io/the-bug-o-notation/), Dan Abramov I maintain a [list of antipatterns](https://github.com/charlax/antipatterns) on another repo. This is a highly recommended read. * [Inheritance vs. composition](http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ex44.html): a concrete example in Python. [Another slightly longer one here](http://python-textbok.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Object_Oriented_Programming.html). [One last one, in Python 3](http://blog.thedigitalcatonline.com/blog/2014/08/20/python-3-oop-part-3-delegation-composition-and-inheritance/#.V7SZ4tB96Rs). * [Composition Instead Of Inheritance](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CompositionInsteadOfInheritance) * [Complexity and Strategy](https://hackernoon.com/complexity-and-strategy-325cd7f59a92): interesting perspective on complexity and flexibility with really good examples (e.g. Google Apps Suite vs. Microsoft Office). > You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site. (Frank Lloyd Wright) #### Design: simplicity * [Simple Made Easy](https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy) 🎞, Rich Hickey. This is an incredibly inspiring talk redefining simplicity, ease and complexity, and showing that solutions that look easy may actually harm your design. ### Dev environment & tools * [Awesome Dev Env](https://github.com/jondot/awesome-devenv) Tools * [Glances: An eye on your system](https://github.com/nicolargo/glances) * [HTTPie: a CLI, cURL-like tool for humans](https://github.com/jkbrzt/httpie) * [jq: command-line JSON processor](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/) * [tmux: terminal multiplexer](http://tmux.github.io/) * [htop: an interactive process viewer for Linux](http://hisham.hm/htop/) ### Diversity & inclusion Check out my [list of management resources](https://github.com/charlax/engineering-management). ### Documentation * [Documentation-Driven Development](https://gist.github.com/zsup/9434452) * [Writing automated tests for your documentation](https://krausefx.com/blog/writing-automated-tests-for-your-documentation): this should be required, IMO. Testing code samples in your documentation ensures they never get outdated. * [Documentation is king](https://speakerdeck.com/kennethreitz/documentation-is-king), Kenneth Reitz * [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/) ### Dotfiles * [Awesome dotfiles](https://github.com/webpro/awesome-dotfiles) * [My dotfiles](https://github.com/charlax/dotfiles) Articles * [Setting Up a Mac Dev Machine From Zero to Hero With Dotfiles](http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/setting-up-a-mac-dev-machine-from-zero-to-hero-with-dotfiles--net-35449) ### Editors & IDE * [Sublime Text essential plugins and resources](https://github.com/dreikanter/sublime-bookmarks) * [vim-awesome](http://vimawesome.com/) * Bram Moolenaar (Vim author), [Seven habits of effective text editing](http://www.moolenaar.net/habits.html) ([presentation](http://www.moolenaar.net/habits_2007.pdf)). This is about Vim but it contains good lessons about why investing time in learning how to be productive with your text editors pays off. * [VScode](https://code.visualstudio.com/) is one of the most popular text editors as of writing. [Visual Studio Code Can Do That?](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/01/visual-studio-code/), Smashing Magazine. ### Engineering management Checkout my [list of management resources](https://github.com/charlax/engineering-management). ### Exercises The best way to learn is to learn by doing. * [danistefanovic/build-your-own-x: build your own (insert technology here)](https://github.com/danistefanovic/build-your-own-x) ### Incident response (alerting, outages, firefighting) * [Incident Response at Heroku](https://blog.heroku.com/archives/2014/5/9/incident-response-at-heroku) * [Blameless PostMortems and a Just Culture](https://codeascraft.com/2012/05/22/blameless-postmortems/) * [My Philosophy on Alerting](https://docs.google.com/document/d/199PqyG3UsyXlwieHaqbGiWVa8eMWi8zzAn0YfcApr8Q/preview#heading=h.fs3knmjt7fjy) * A great example of a [postmortem from Gitlab (01/31/2017)](https://about.gitlab.com/2017/02/01/gitlab-dot-com-database-incident/) for an outage during which an engineer's action caused the irremediable loss of 6 hours of data. ### Internet * [How Does the Internet Work?](https://web.stanford.edu/class/msande91si/www-spr04/readings/week1/InternetWhitepaper.htm) * [How the web works](https://github.com/vasanthk/how-web-works) ### Interviewing Note: this is about you as an interviewee, **not** as an interviewer. To check out my list of resources for interviewers, go to my [engineering-management repository](https://github.com/charlax/engineering-management#hiring-interviews). * [All the best advice we could find on how to get a job](https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-get-a-job/) * [System design interview for IT company](https://github.com/checkcheckzz/system-design-interview) * [Technical Interview Megarepo](https://github.com/jdsutton/Technical-Interview-Megarepo): study materials for SE/CS technical interviews * [How to Win the Coding Interview](https://blog.devmastery.com/how-to-win-the-coding-interview-71ae7102d685#.16ph6bp5y) * [The elevator programming game](http://play.elevatorsaga.com/) * [I spent 3 months applying to jobs after a coding bootcamp. Here’s what I learned.](https://medium.freecodecamp.com/5-key-learnings-from-the-post-bootcamp-job-search-9a07468d2331#.uq7vbbjfx) * [Top 10 algorithms in Interview Questions](http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/top-10-algorithms-in-interview-questions/) * [Questions to ask your interviewer](https://rkoutnik.com/articles/Questions-to-ask-your-interviewer.html) * [Interactive Python coding interview challenges](https://github.com/donnemartin/interactive-coding-challenges) * [tech-interview-handbook/cheatsheet.md](https://github.com/yangshun/tech-interview-handbook/blob/master/preparing/cheatsheet.md)[](https://github.com/mbeaudru/modern-js-cheatsheet):) ### Learning Learn how to learn! * [How I Rewired My Brain to Become Fluent in Math](http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in-math-rp): subtitled *the building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition*. * [One Sure-Fire Way to Improve Your Coding](https://changelog.com/posts/one-sure-fire-way-to-improve-your-coding): reading code! * [Tips for learning programming](http://blog.hiphipjorge.com/tips-for-learning-programming/) * [You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/you-can-increase-your-intelligence-5-ways-to-maximize-your-cognitive-potential/): forgive the clickbait title, it’s actually a good article. * [How to ask good questions](https://jvns.ca/blog/good-questions/), Julia Evans. * [Stop Learning Frameworks](https://sizovs.net/2018/12/17/stop-learning-frameworks/) * [Learning How to Learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn): powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects * [Why books don’t work](https://andymatuschak.org/books/), Andy Matuschak. * "As a medium, books are surprisingly bad at conveying knowledge, and readers mostly don’t realize it." * "In learning sciences, we call this model “transmissionism.” It’s the notion that knowledge can be directly transmitted from teacher to student, like transcribing text from one page onto another. If only!" * "By re-testing yourself on material you’ve learned over expanding intervals, you can cheaply and reliably commit huge volumes of information to long-term memory." Richard Feynman's Learning Strategy: 1. Step 1: Continually ask "Why?” 2. Step 2: When you learn something, learn it to where you can explain it to a child. 3. Step 3: Instead of arbitrarily memorizing things, look for the explanation that makes it obvious. ### Problem solving * [Dealing with Hard Problems](https://artofproblemsolving.com/articles/hard-problems) ### Project management See [Project management section on my engineering-management list of resources](https://github.com/charlax/engineering-management#project-management). ### Programming languages I would recommend learning: * JavaScript and maybe another interpreted language (Python, Ruby, etc.). Interpreted languages are useful for quick one-off automation scripts, and fastest to write for interviews. JavaScript is ubiquitous. * A compiled language (Java, C, C++...). * A more recent language to see where the industry is going (as of writing, Go, Swift, Rust, Elixir...). * A language that has first-class support for functional programming (Haskell, Scala, Clojure...). A bit more reading: * [A brief, incomplete, mostly wrong history of programming languages](http://james-iry.blogspot.fr/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html) * [Types](https://gist.github.com/garybernhardt/122909856b570c5c457a6cd674795a9c) * [Resources To Help You To Create Programming Languages](https://tomassetti.me/resources-create-programming-languages/) * [Effective Programs - 10 Years of Clojure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V1FtfBDsLU) 🎞, Rich Hickey. The author of Clojure reflects on his programming experience and explains the rationale behind some of Clojure's key design decisions. * [Learn more programming languages, even if you won't use them](https://thorstenball.com/blog/2019/04/09/learn-more-programming-languages/), Thorsten Ball * These new perspectives, these ideas and patterns — they linger, they stay with you, even if you end up in another language. And that is powerful enough to keep on learning new languages, because one of the best things that can happen to you when you’re trying to solve a problem is a change of perspective. #### Python For Python feel free to checkout my [professional Python education repository](https://github.com/charlax/python-education). #### JavaScript JavaScript is such a pervasive language that it's almost required learning. * [mbeaudru/modern-js-cheatsheet](https://github.com/mbeaudru/modern-js-cheatsheet): cheatsheet for the JavaScript knowledge you will frequently encounter in modern projects. #### FP vs. OOP * [Jargon from the functional programming world](https://github.com/hemanth/functional-programming-jargon) * [Goodbye, Object Oriented Programming](https://medium.com/@cscalfani/goodbye-object-oriented-programming-a59cda4c0e53#.39ax09e4k) * [Functional Programming & Haskell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnX3B9oaKzw): some good reasons to learn FP! * [Functional Programming Fundamentals](https://www.matthewgerstman.com/functional-programming-fundamentals/): short introduction to FP and its advantages. ### Over-engineering * [10 modern software over-engineering mistakes](https://medium.com/@rdsubhas/10-modern-software-engineering-mistakes-bc67fbef4fc8#.da6dvzyne) * [A good example of over-engineering: the Juicero press](https://blog.bolt.io/heres-why-juicero-s-press-is-so-expensive-6add74594e50) (April 2017) > “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.” John Gall, General systemantics, an essay on how systems work, and especially how they fail..., 1975 (this quote is sometime referred as "Galls' law") > "Software engineering is what happens to programming > when you add time and other programmers." Rob Pike, [Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software Engineering](https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article) ### Reading * [Papers we love](https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we-love): papers from the computer science community to read and discuss. Can be a good source of inspiration of solving your design problems. * [The morning paper](https://blog.acolyer.org/): one CS research paper explained every morning. ### Releasing & deploying * [How We Release So Frequently](http://engineering.skybettingandgaming.com/2016/02/02/how-we-release-so-frequently/) * [How to deploy software](https://zachholman.com/posts/deploying-software), Zach Holman * [BlueGreenDeployment](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/BlueGreenDeployment.html), Martin Fowler * [Move fast and break nothing](https://zachholman.com/talk/move-fast-break-nothing/), Zach Holman * [Flipping out](http://code.flickr.net/2009/12/02/flipping-out/), flickr. One of the first articles about feature flags. ### Security * [Penetration Testing Tools Cheat Sheet](https://highon.coffee/blog/penetration-testing-tools-cheat-sheet/#http--https-webserver-enumeration) * [My First 10 Minutes On a Server - Primer for Securing Ubuntu](http://www.codelitt.com/blog/my-first-10-minutes-on-a-server-primer-for-securing-ubuntu/) * [A practical guide to securing macOS](https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide) * [Web Developer Security Checklist](https://www.powerdown.io/blog/posts/stories/web-developer-security-checklist.html) * [Reckon you've seen some stupid security things?](https://www.troyhunt.com/reckon-youve-seen-some-stupid-security-things-here-hold-my-beer/): everything *not* to do. ### Shell * [Awesome Shell](https://github.com/alebcay/awesome-shell) * [Bash Hackers Wiki](http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/) * [dylanaraps/pure-bash-bible: a collection of pure bash alternatives to external processes.](https://github.com/dylanaraps/pure-bash-bible) * [Master the command line, in one page](https://github.com/jlevy/the-art-of-command-line) **must read** ### System architecture * [High Scalability](http://highscalability.com/): great blog about system architecture, its weekly review article are packed with numerous insights and interesting technology reviews. Checkout the [all-times favorites](http://highscalability.com/all-time-favorites/). * [6 Rules of thumb to build blazing fast web server applications](http://loige.co/6-rules-of-thumb-to-build-blazing-fast-web-applications/) * [Deep Lessons From Google And EBay On Building Ecosystems Of Microservices](http://highscalability.com/blog/2015/12/1/deep-lessons-from-google-and-ebay-on-building-ecosystems-of.html) * [Service oriented architecture: scaling the Uber engineering codebase as we grow](https://eng.uber.com/soa/) * [The twelve-factor app](http://12factor.net/) * [Scalable Web Architecture and Distributed Systems](http://www.aosabook.org/en/distsys.html) * [Introduction to Architecting Systems for Scale](http://lethain.com/introduction-to-architecting-systems-for-scale/) * [A Distributed Systems Reading List](http://dancres.github.io/Pages/) * [Services Engineering Reading List](https://github.com/mmcgrana/services-engineering) * [System Design Cheatsheet](https://gist.github.com/vasanthk/485d1c25737e8e72759f) * [The Log: What every software engineer should know about real-time data's unifying abstraction](https://engineering.linkedin.com/distributed-systems/log-what-every-software-engineer-should-know-about-real-time-datas-unifying): one of those classical articles that everyone should read. * [Learn how to design large scale systems. Prep for the system design interview](https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer) (Github repo) * [Turning the database outside-out with Apache Samza](https://www.confluent.io/blog/turning-the-database-inside-out-with-apache-samza/) * [Building Microservices](https://www.amazon.com/Building-Microservices-Designing-Fine-Grained-Systems/dp/1491950358) 📖, Sam Newman (quite complete discussion of microservices) * [Designing Data-Intensive Applications](https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Data-Intensive-Applications-Reliable-Maintainable/dp/1449373321) #### Scalability * I already mentioned the book Scalability rules above, but there's also a [presentation](http://www.slideshare.net/cyrilwang/scalability-rules) about it. #### Stability * I already mentioned the book Release it! above. There's also a [presentation](http://www.slideshare.net/justindorfman/stability-patterns-presentation) from the author. #### Resiliency * [The Walking Dead - A Survival Guide to Resilient Applications](https://speakerdeck.com/daschl/the-walking-dead-a-survival-guide-to-resilient-applications) * [Defensive Programming & Resilient systems in Real World (TM)](https://speakerdeck.com/tuenti/defensive-programming-and-resilient-systems-in-real-world-tm) * [Full Stack Fest: Architectural Patterns of Resilient Distributed Systems](https://speakerdeck.com/randommood/full-stack-fest-architectural-patterns-of-resilient-distributed-systems) * [Resilience Engineering Notes](http://resiliencepapers.club/): comprehensive list of resources on resilience engineering ### Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) * [Graduating from Bootcamp and interested in becoming a Site Reliability Engineer?](https://medium.com/@tammybutow/graduating-from-bootcamp-and-interested-in-becoming-a-site-reliability-engineer-b69a38ce858b): a great collection of resources to learn about SRE. * [Site Reliability Engineering](https://landing.google.com/sre/books/): written by members of Google's SRE team, with a comprehensive analysis of the entire software lifecycle - how to build, deploy, monitor, and maintain large scale systems. ### Technical debt * [TechnicalDebt](https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebt.html), Martin Fowler. ### Testing * [Why bother writing tests at all?](https://dave.cheney.net/2019/05/14/why-bother-writing-tests-at-all), Dave Cheney. A good intro to the topic. * Even if you don’t, someone will test your software * The majority of testing should be performed by development teams * Manual testing should not be the majority of your testing because manual testing is O(n) * Tests are the critical component that ensure you can always ship your master branch * Tests lock in behaviour * Tests give you confidence to change someone else’s code * [Testing Strategies in a Microservices Architecture](http://martinfowler.com/articles/microservice-testing/) (Martin Fowler) is an awesome resources explaining how to test a service properly. * [A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/03/upshot/a-quick-puzzle-to-test-your-problem-solving.html?_r=0)... and a great way to learn about confirmation bias and why you're mostly writing positive test cases. * [The test pyramid](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TestPyramid.html) * [Just Say No to More End-to-End Tests](https://testing.googleblog.com/2015/04/just-say-no-to-more-end-to-end-tests.html) * [End-To-End Testing Considered Harmful](http://www.alwaysagileconsulting.com/articles/end-to-end-testing-considered-harmful/) * [Move fast and don't break things](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15gNk21rjer3xo-b1ZqyQVGebOp_aPvHU3YH7YnOMxtE/edit#slide=id.g437663ce1_53_591) (presentation) * [Eradicating Non-Determinism in Tests](http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/nonDeterminism.html), Martin Fowler * ["I get paid for code that works, not for tests"](https://istacee.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/kent-beck-i-get-paid-for-code-that-works-not-for-tests/) * [Software Testing Anti-patterns](http://blog.codepipes.com/testing/software-testing-antipatterns.html), Kostis Kapelonis. * [Write tests. Not too many. Mostly integration.](https://blog.kentcdodds.com/write-tests-not-too-many-mostly-integration-5e8c7fff591c) for a contrarian take about unit testing... * [Testing is Not for Beginners](https://www.calhoun.io/testing-is-not-for-beginners/): why learning to test is hard. This shouldn't demotivate you though! ### Tools * [DevDocs API Documentation](https://devdocs.io/): a repository for multiple API docs (see also [Dash for macOS](https://kapeli.com/dash)). * [DevChecklist](https://devchecklists.com/): a collaborative space for sharing checklists that help ensure software quality ### Version control (Git) * [Git Cheat Sheet](https://github.com/arslanbilal/git-cheat-sheet) * [git-tips](https://github.com/git-tips/tips) * [Git from the inside out](https://codewords.recurse.com/issues/two/git-from-the-inside-out) ### Work ethics & work/life balance * [Your non-linear problem of 90% utilization](https://blog.asmartbear.com/utilization.html), Jason Cohen: why constantly running at 90% utilization is actually counter-productive. * [Evidence-based advice on how to be successful in any jobs](https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-be-successful/): most self-help advices are not research-based. The ones listed in this article are. ### Web development * [grab/front-end-guide](https://github.com/grab/front-end-guide): a study guide and introduction to the modern front end stack. * [Maintainable CSS](http://maintainablecss.com/) * [Front-End Developer Handbook 2019](https://frontendmasters.com/books/front-end-handbook/2019/), Cody Lindley * [A Directory of design and front-end resources](http://uigoodies.com/index.html) ### Writing for performance * [Numbers Everyone Should Know](https://everythingisdata.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/numbers-everyone-should-know/) * [Latency numbers every programmer should know](https://gist.github.com/hellerbarde/2843375) * [Rob Pike's 5 Rules of Programming](http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~adnan/pike.html) ## Concepts [Glossary](glossary.md) * [DDD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-driven_design) * [TDD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development) * [BDD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior-driven_development) * [CAP theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_theorem) * [OOP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming) * [YAGNI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aren%27t_gonna_need_it) * [DRY](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_repeat_yourself) * [KISS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle) * [SOLID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_(object-oriented_design)) * [GRASP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRASP_(object-oriented_design)) * [Make it run, make it right, make it fast](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?MakeItWorkMakeItRightMakeItFast)