Software Engineering Products
Curated software engineering products we use and recommend. Each item tested in real-world scenarios. Find 30 products with detailed reviews, pros, and cons.
Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview: Pass Tough Coding Interviews, Get Noticed, and Negotiate Successfully
The essential companion to Cracking the Coding Interview. This sequel introduces 13 new technical topics including sliding windows, prefix arrays, and topological sort, plus over 150 new problems with step-by-step walkthroughs. Beyond interview prep, it shows you how to land referrals, get offers to come in at the same time, negotiate the best possible offer, and master behavioral interviews.
Amazing companion to Cracking the Coding Interview. A must have for learning how to interview in the coding world with 150+ new problems and comprehensive job search guidance. Read full review.
Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
The definitive guide to software construction. Steve McConnell's comprehensive handbook covers every aspect of writing high-quality code, from design and architecture to debugging and testing. This book distills decades of software engineering wisdom into practical, actionable advice.
The definitive guide to software construction. Distills decades of software engineering wisdom into practical, actionable advice for writing high-quality code. Read full review.
Code Health Guardian: The Old-New Role of a Human Programmer in the AI Era
Essential guide for programmers navigating the AI era. This book explores the evolving role of human programmers as code health guardians, focusing on quality, maintainability, and the critical human judgment needed in an age of AI-assisted development. Learn how to leverage AI tools while maintaining code quality and technical excellence.
Essential guide for programmers navigating the AI era. Explores the evolving role of human programmers as code health guardians, focusing on quality and maintainability in AI-assisted development. Read full review.
Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
The definitive guide to technical interview preparation. This book has helped countless developers land jobs at top tech companies with its comprehensive collection of programming questions, detailed solutions, and insider tips from a former Google interviewer.
The definitive guide to technical interview preparation. This book has helped me land my last three jobs and remains essential learning for any developer. Read full review.
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
The classic Gang of Four book that introduced design patterns to software engineering. This foundational text catalogs 23 essential design patterns that have become the standard vocabulary for object-oriented design. Essential reading for any serious software engineer.
The classic Gang of Four book that introduced design patterns to software engineering. Essential reading for understanding object-oriented design and reusable software architecture. Read full review.
Machine Learning System Design: With end-to-end examples
Comprehensive guide to designing and building production-ready machine learning systems. This book provides end-to-end examples covering data pipelines, model training, deployment, monitoring, and scaling ML systems. Essential for ML engineers, data scientists, and software engineers building ML-powered applications.
Comprehensive guide to designing and building production-ready machine learning systems with end-to-end examples covering data pipelines, model training, deployment, and scaling. Read full review.
Modern C, Third Edition: Covers the C23 standard
Comprehensive guide to modern C programming covering the latest C23 standard. This book teaches C programming from a modern perspective, focusing on best practices, safety, and the latest language features. Essential reading for developers working with systems programming, embedded systems, or low-level code.
Comprehensive guide to modern C programming covering the latest C23 standard. Essential for systems programming, embedded systems, and low-level code with focus on best practices and safety. Read full review.
Python Programming for Beginners: The Complete Python Coding Crash Course - Boost Your Growth with an Innovative Ultra-Fast Learning Framework and Exclusive Hands-On Interactive Exercises & Projects
Complete Python programming crash course designed for beginners. This book provides an innovative ultra-fast learning framework with hands-on interactive exercises and projects to help you master Python programming quickly. Perfect for absolute beginners who want to learn Python from scratch with practical, project-based learning.
Complete Python programming crash course for beginners with innovative ultra-fast learning framework, hands-on interactive exercises, and project-based learning. Read full review.
System Design Interview – An insider's guide
Comprehensive guide to system design interviews at top tech companies. Learn how to approach large-scale system design problems, design scalable architectures, and communicate your design decisions effectively to interviewers.
Comprehensive guide to system design interviews with structured approaches, real-world examples, and step-by-step guidance for designing scalable systems. Read full review.
System Design Interview – An Insider's Guide: Volume 2
The second volume in the System Design Interview series, diving deeper into advanced topics and more complex system design scenarios. Perfect companion to Volume 1 for comprehensive interview preparation.
Advanced second volume with deeper system design topics, complex scenarios, and additional case studies perfect for senior engineer interviews. Read full review.
Test-Driven Development: By Example
Kent Beck's foundational work on TDD that introduced the methodology of writing tests before code. This seminal book demonstrates TDD through practical examples including a multi-currency system and building a testing framework from scratch.
The foundational work on TDD that introduced the methodology of writing tests before code. Essential reading for understanding how tests drive design and reduce fear in programming. Read full review.
97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts
Edited by Kevlin Henney, a curated set of timeless, page-length lessons from industry legends. Each item is a standalone insight you can read in five minutes.
Timeless, page-length lessons from industry legends. Perfect for busy developers—read one item in five minutes, learn something useful, put it down. Read full review.
Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design
Robert C. Martin's practical framework for building systems that stay flexible as they grow. Learn dependency rules, boundary design, and architectural patterns that keep codebases maintainable at scale.
The dependency rule and boundary design patterns gave me the vocabulary to fix a monolith that had grown into a dependency nightmare. Essential reading for anyone designing systems that need to scale. Read full review.
Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software Bugs
David Agans' short, tactical guide to debugging. One of the best practical engineering books ever written—unforgettable rules for finding bugs that seem impossible to track down.
The shortest book on my shelf and one of the most useful. Agans' nine rules—make it fail, divide and conquer, quit thinking and look—have saved me hours of debugging frustration. Read full review.
Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software (2nd Edition)
Michael Nygard's definitive guide for production hardening, resilience, and real-world failures. Learn how to design systems that survive in production, not just work in development.
The book I read after my first production incident. Nygard's stability patterns and capacity planning framework helped me understand why code that works in dev fails in production. Read full review.
Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, and Hyrum Wright's practical lessons in scale, culture, testing, and long-term maintainability. Learn how Google builds software that lasts decades.
Lessons from maintaining codebases for decades. The chapters on testing, code review culture, and documentation gave me frameworks that work at any scale. Read full review.
Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow
Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais' modern framework for designing software teams and reducing cognitive load. Learn how team structure affects software architecture and delivery speed.
Explained why our microservices weren't working. The framework that team structure and software architecture are inseparable changed how I think about system design. Read full review.
The Art of Unit Testing: with Examples in JavaScript (3rd Edition)
Roy Osherove's concrete patterns and habits for writing useful tests, not just more tests. Learn how to write tests that actually help you, not just satisfy coverage metrics.
Taught me the difference between tests that help and tests that just exist. Osherove's focus on test quality over quantity—and when to use mocks vs. stubs—is essential. Read full review.
The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
Camille Fournier's roadmap for senior ICs, tech leads, and managers. Even individual contributors benefit from understanding team dynamics, career progression, and the transition from coding to leadership.
Essential reading for senior ICs considering tech lead work. Fournier's breakdown of each level from senior IC to VP helped me understand what I was signing up for. Read full review.
The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
Gene Kim, George Spafford, and Kevin Behr's DevOps novel that teaches operations, bottlenecks, and flow. Learn the principles of continuous delivery through a story about saving a failing IT project.
The DevOps novel that teaches operations and flow through story. I hand this to executives who don't understand why deployments break—it makes the concepts stick. Read full review.
The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change
Tanya Reilly's guide to thinking and operating at staff-plus levels. Learn how to have impact without direct reports, influence architecture decisions, and navigate the transition from senior to staff engineer.
The book I wish existed when figuring out what staff engineers do. Reilly's breakdown of scope, technical leadership, and having impact without authority is essential reading. Read full review.
The Unicorn Project: A Novel About Digital Disruption, Redshirts, and Rebelling Against the Ancient Powerful Order
Gene Kim's developer-centered companion story to The Phoenix Project about cognitive load and platform engineering. Learn how developers can fight back against technical debt and bureaucracy.
The developer's perspective on fighting technical debt and bureaucracy. The five ideals gave me a framework for advocating for better tooling and processes. Read full review.
Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Michael Feathers' must-read for anyone inheriting messy systems, refactoring safely, or adding tests. Learn how to work with code you didn't write and make it better without breaking it.
The book I read when inheriting a codebase with no tests. Feathers' techniques for sprouting methods and dependency breaking gave me confidence to make changes safely. Read full review.
Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software
Nadia Eghbal's modern look at open-source ecosystems, developer burnout, and community economics. Understand how open source actually works, who maintains it, and why sustainability matters.
Eghbal's research into who maintains open source projects explains why critical dependencies often have one person keeping them alive. Essential reading for maintainers and heavy users of open source. Read full review.
Grokking Algorithms, Second Edition
Visual, beginner-friendly tour through search, graphs, dynamic programming, and big-O that relies on comics-style illustrations instead of dense proofs.
Illustrated walkthroughs, fresh real-world examples, and quick drills make this second edition the easiest way to get juniors comfortable with big-O and core algorithms. Read full review.
Mythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition
Classic essays on software project management, schedules, and team dynamics that shaped modern engineering practices.
Brooks’ essays still explain why schedules slip and why communication matters—every engineering leader should revisit them. Read full review.
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (2nd Edition)
Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.
Named refactoring moves, modern examples, and clear mechanics make this the go-to handbook whenever we touch legacy code. Read full review.
The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey To Mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)
Practical advice for becoming an effective developer—from tooling and design to habits and career growth—in a modernized 20th anniversary edition.
Pragmatic maxims on communication, automation, and craft that I still quote to new hires years later. Read full review.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Second-edition update of Robert C. Martin’s classic handbook on writing maintainable code, with refreshed case studies, smell catalogs, and refactoring practices for modern teams.
Second edition keeps Clean Code relevant—examples age, but the refreshed refactoring walkthroughs and smell catalog remain the clearest roadmap to maintainable code. Read full review.
Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations
Research-backed field guide that ties lean software delivery habits to measurable business outcomes, unpacking the DORA metrics, cultural foundations, and continuous delivery capabilities that separated top performers in the Accelerate State of DevOps reports.
Still my go-to reference when aligning execs around DORA metrics and the cultural work that makes continuous delivery stick. Read full review.