Computer Science Skills: Books To Improve Skills

Now that you know how computer science can prove to be fruitful for you in many ways, let us talk about the books through which you can learn the most-prevalent computer skills. 

1) Steven Skiena’s The Algorithm Design Manual 

Steven Skiena is a respected professor at Stony Brook University with over thirty years of expertise in computer science. When he was writing this book, he had one simple thought in mind. It was that every good programmer should be capable of using and enhancing already-created, sophisticated algorithms in their work.

He considers how most programmers throughout the world neglect algorithm research as they become engrossed in the business world. Due to this, they are unable to use the existing algorithms in their initiatives and must instead resort to crude brute-force methods to solve otherwise simple issues.

The book covers Big-O complexity, tree data structures, graphs, programming, and many other subjects. Moreover, the referenced algorithms and data structures in Part 2 of this book will enable you to find an algorithm to resolve issues while programming swiftly.

2) Martin Kleppmann’s Designing Data-Intensive Applications

Martin has over a decade of experience dealing with software. He has co-founded and auctioned a few firms, and he is currently focused on research into distributed systems.

In his book, he discusses many methods and tools that have emerged in the last 10 years. He further delves deeply into how they are used and directs the reader to the first research publications on the subjects.

The book focuses on distributed applications, as well as the numerous techniques and algorithms created to address issues with these systems. If you deal with a lot of traffic and data, you should surely read this.

If you strive to fully comprehend the subjects discussed, it can potentially take you a long time to finish this book. As a result, we advise you to attempt to go slowly and take some months studying it.

4) Bruce Schneier’s Applied Cryptography

Many of you may already be familiar with Bruce thanks to his well-known blog, Schneier on Security. You need to know that he has authored several books on the subject and has deep expertise in internet security.

If you want to learn several cryptographic algorithms, this book can prove to be useful. The majority of the commonly used algorithms for securing internet transactions made by your computer are covered in this book, along with the mathematics underlying them.

It’s a fact that with more user data flowing from your applications, privacy is becoming a key problem. So, Bruce offers guidance on the algorithm that will best assist you in protecting the privacy of your users.

5) Robert C. Martin A.K.A. Uncle Bob’s Clean Code

Have you ever heard of Robert C. Martin? In addition to writing this book, Robert is also well-known among programmers for his involvement in the Agile Manifesto.

In this book, Robert outlines some crucial techniques that are advantageous to everyone, from managers to programmers. He establishes the SOLID principle for creating flexible, agile programming that needs the fewest adjustments and is greatly extensible.

The book emphasizes how stakeholders’ expectations might evolve with time. He also talks about how a developer must be proactive in providing extendability to the software without altering a single line of it. So, if you want to hone your computer skills, you must consider learning from uncle Bob.

6) William E. Shotts’ The Linux Command Line

You need to know that the majority of development systems use the Linux operating system. So, it wouldn’t be a good idea to exclude a Linux manual from this conversation.

William has worked with Linux systems for more than 15 years. So, in this book, he has made an effort to include all the crucial subjects that should satisfy most of a programmer’s needs.