The missing guide to computer science topics every programmer should know Do you know basic coding, but hesitate to tackle big problems? You're not alone. Many programmers don't know how to push computers to their full potential. Computer Science Distilled will teach you the principles of computational problem solving. If you're not sure how your code works, this book will open you the door to programming mastery. It's also a simple reference to be consulted in times of doubt. It will not waste your time with boring academic formalities! The fundamentals of computer science are fun and easy. Let's keep them that way.

As computers changed the world with their unprecedented power, a new science flourished: computer science. It showed how computers could be used to solve problems. It allowed us to push machines to their full potential. And we achieved crazy, amazing things.

Computer science is everywhere, but it’s still taught as boring theory. Many coders never even study it! However, computer science is crucial to effective programming. Some friends of mine simply can’t find a good coder to hire. Computing power is abundant, but people who can use it are scarce.

This is my humble attempt to help the world, by pushing you to use computers efficiently. This book presents computer science concepts in their plain distilled forms. I will keep academic formalities to a minimum. Hopefully, computer science will stick to your mind and improve your code.

Is this book for me?

If you want to smash problems with efficient solutions, this book is for you. Little programming experience is required. If you already wrote a few lines of code and recognize basic programming statements like for and while, you’ll be OK. If not, online programming courses1 cover more than what’s required. You can do one in a week, for free. For those who studied computer science, this book is an excellent recap for consolidating your knowledge.

But isn't computer science just for academics?

This book is for everyone. It’s about computational thinking. You’ll learn to change problems into computable systems. You’ll use computational thinking on everyday problems. Prefetching and caching will streamline your packing. Parallelism will speed up your cooking. Plus, your code will be awesome.

Table of Contents

1. Basics
2. Complexity
3. Strategy
4. Data
5. Algorithms
6. Databases
7. Computers
8. Programming