I’m active on the SheCodes Slack channel, where I mentor topics such as Python, Linux and git. The current cohort have just finished their program (congratulations!) and one asked for resources on Python book recommendations. Having secured a graduate program she was looking to prepare and head towards being a “solid engineer”. In this blog post, I’ll outline some of the books I’ve read that I think will help. As this questions comes up somewhat frequently I thought I’d document my answers for reuse later as a blog post.The resources are (in no particular order)
Designing Data-Intensive Applications#
This book highlights the considerations that need to be made when designing software. It is very “high level” but explains how much of the software you already use works. It’s from 2017, don’t worry about that! The concepts in it will last a long time.
Link: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-data-intensive-applications/9781491903063/
Distributed Systems#
Distributed Systems (systems that make many computers acting together look like one system) are everywhere. It’s probably a good idea to learn how they work. This book teaches you that. And the PDF is free!
Link: https://www.distributed-systems.net/index.php/books/ds4/
Fluent Python (only if you’re a Python dev)#
Really learn how Python works. This is not a beginner Python book. Instead it explores how the language does.
Link: https://www.fluentpython.com/
Looks Good to Me#
Code review is an important skill that’s not actually taught well anywhere. But being competent at reviewing and receiving reviews is essential to becoming a great engineer.