The Self-taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

(Paperback)

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Description

'One of the best software design books of all time' - BookAuthority

Cory Althoff is a self-taught programmer. After a year of self-study, he learned to program well enough to land a job as a software engineer II at eBay. But once he got there, he realised he was severely under-prepared. He was overwhelmed by the amount of things he needed to know but hadn't learned. His journey learning to program, and his experience in first software engineering job were the inspiration for this book.

This book is not just about learning to program, although you will learn to code. If you want to program professionally, it is not enough to learn to code; that is why, in addition to helping you learn to program, Althoff also cover the rest of the things you need to know to program professionally that classes and books don't teach you. The Self-taught Programmer is a roadmap, a guide to take you from writing your first Python program to passing your first technical interview. The book is divided into five sections:

1. Learn to program in Python 3 and build your first program.

2. Learn object-oriented programming and create a powerful Python program to get you hooked.

3. Learn to use tools like Git, Bash and regular expressions. Then use your new coding skills to build a web scraper.

4. Study computer science fundamentals like data structures and algorithms.

5. Finish with best coding practices, tips for working with a team and advice on landing a programming job.

You can learn to program professionally. The path is there. Will you take it

From the author

I spent one year writing The Self-Taught Programmer. It was an exciting and rewarding experience. I treated my book like a software project. After I finished writing it, I created a program to pick out all of the code examples from the book and execute them in Python to make sure all 300+ examples worked properly. Then I wrote software to add line numbers and color to every code example. Finally, I had a group of 200 new programmers 'beta read' the book to identify poorly explained concepts and look for any errors my program missed.

I hope you learn as much reading my book as I did writing it. Best of luck with your programming!

Reviews

I always keep a few copies of The Self-taught Programmer around to give to anyone that comes to me for career advice -- Robin Abrams, board member, HCL Technologies, FactSet Research, Lattice Semiconductor and Sierra Wireless
Want to learn to program professionally Follow Cory's advice -- David Phillips, co-founder, Hackbright Academy
I am incredibly impressed with this book -- JoAnn Buchanan, senior research associate, Allen Institute for Brain Science
Learning to program is increasingly important in finance. Althoff's book taught me the skills I need to stay competitive -- Derek Schaefer, senior finance manager, Charles Schwab
The Self-taught Programmer was a pleasure to read - something I never thought I would say about a technical book -- Melinda Sacks, former writer, editor, San Jose Mercury News
One of the best software design books of all time * BookAuthority *

Author Bio

Cory Althoff is a programmer, speaker, and author whose work includes The Self-Taught Programmer and The Self-Taught Computer Scientist. After graduating with a major in political science, Cory taught himself to program, eventually becoming a software engineer at eBay. Cory's books have been translated into eight languages, and he has been featured in publications like Forbes and CNBC. Over 250,000 developers are part of the self-taught programmer community he created through his popular Facebook group, course, and newsletter. Cory is a senior vice president at CompTIA, where he helps people learn the skills they need to have successful careers in tech. Cory lives in California with his wife and daughter.