Computer Science Distilled: Learn the Art of Solving Computational Problems (Code is Awesome) Kindle Edition

I really enjoyed this book, and found the author's writing lucid, engaging, concise, yet technical and informative. While it doesn't provide every last detail about every topic introduced (important to note that it does not claim to be a comprehensive and exhaustive resource), it provides more than enough information to get a solid grasp on the concept and provides a jumping-off point for further research on whichever topic you'd like to learn more about.I personally found the chapter on computers (RAM, CPU, hardware, memory, OS, etc.) very valuable and engaging. One word of caution is that if you're looking to purchase this book as a means to achieve that "AHA!" moment with Big O notation, time and space complexity, things of that nature, this probably won't be it. Like I said before, the author provides an excellent starting point to introduce the contained topics, but these in particular will require quite a bit of additional footwork and practice to absorb.You'd be hard-pressed to find a better resource, whether you're an absolute beginner or a professional already in the field looking to brush up for an interview or deepen your understanding of foundational knowledge. As a point of reference, I'm a self-taught computer engineer who has been employed in the field for 4 years without a formal computer science degree. I picked up this book hoping to identify areas where my knowledge was lacking, and Computer Science Distilled served that purpose beautifully.

It's no small feat to take a huge number of complex subjects and explain them this clearly. I had a professor at college with this knack of taking abstract and potentially dull ideas and bringing them to life - you have to combine genuine enthusiasm and deep knowledge to pull this off, and Wladston's writing reminds me of those lectures. The book treads a difficult line perfectly - it's both a useful refresher to CompSci graduates and a solid introduction for those new and interested in the subjects.The breadth of topics is ambitious, the writing style is clear and detailed, while the presentation makes the concepts flow. There is talk in the appendix of a second book in the series and I really hope the author continues since CompSci is a growing collection is ideas, theories and patterns that even seasoned practitioners don't understand fully. I rarely recommend tech books to everyone but this is a must-read for anyone wanting to deepen their knowledge of many of the core subjects.

This is a pretty good intro to CS in my opinion. It discusses the rudimentary aspects of subjects like discrete maths, runtime complexity theory, programming strategies, data structures and algorithms, databases, computer architecture and programming languages.One of my favourite themes in the book is the authors use of colourful images and cartoons to illustrate his point. In my opinion (and the opinion of some of my colleagues in the field), computer science textbooks can be a bit dull and boring. The author tries to liven things up with pleasant visuals and ICT humour that both techies and the general audience can love. Another thing that I like about the book is that the author covers many important notions in CS, like greedy algorithms, backtracking, sorting and searching, HashMaps, relational and non-relational databases, and different programming paradigms.My major criticism of this book is that it can oversimplify things at times. For example, in discussing searching algorithms (5.2), the author briefly touches on linear search and gives a rough sketch of binary search without getting too deep into how their runtime complexity is derived or discussing any implementations in specific languages (though the pseudocode that the author uses is similar to the Python language and this could be to make the book more "timeless"). Nonetheless, I understand that this is an introduction for beginners and the author probably doesn't want to turn them off by going too deep.I'd give it 4.4/5 stars, great stuff! Can't wait to read the sequel :D

This book is really a pleasure to read, as other reviewers have mentioned it is a great book for beginners or others coming from other fields, and perhaps also a light refresher, to learn and be introduced to fundamental topics of Computer Science and computational thinking. The author presents topics incrementally that build up on top of each other. This book will not teach you the in-depth knowledge you may be seeking but instead presents topics in an easy to understand and fun way where you can dive in and learn more about on your own

I truly wish this book had existed when I was in school. If you want a painless introduction to the very core of computer science, This is it!The concepts that are explained in the book are useful for any level, from beginner to advanced in my opinion. It has helped me tremendously to strengthen concepts I had trouble with in the past, and the author manages to explain it in a way that's light and entertaining at the same time.I'm particularly glad that the author starts from the ground up, with a gentle introduction to the Maths you will need. Very few books (If any) take the trouble of dedicating a couple of chapters to Math alone before diving into how it's used in Computer Science.The title of the book perfectly summarizes what the author managed to successfully do, which is to 'Distill' every CS concept and present it in a way that's brain-friendly. In Summary, the best introduction to CS you will ever find.

Es un buen libro para adentrarse al mundo de la ciencia de la computación

Books goes over all the basic topics, with informal approach unlike of traditional algorithms books. but not someone preparing for a exam. Beginner level, a very good place to start.

Livre très accessible, avec tout juste assez de détails pour comprendre les bases et plus encore sans trop se perdre. Très bon rappel pour ceux qui ont déjà les bases !

What I can say, it's good! If you're reading this, it's likely you'll want more information, ok, so here goes.The books key strength is introducing complex concepts in computer science in short form. It'll first, mention the topic, explain the logic or math or thought process behind it and then provide a handful of example. It's not a text book, but a primer. For the self taught programmer, or programmer that's received technical training but no advanced University ot conceptual training in software development, this book is a godsend. It introduces you to idea like Permutations and the different kinds of sorting and all kind of different topic. The sort of stuff that you might stumble across while coding something but not really know what to call it in the language of your industry.A good example for myself, was I was doing challenges over on DailyProgrammer on reddit. I came across a simple challenge. Take the word 'dog' and create an output of every single possible combination of the word. Being a programmer from a technical school, I know how to code but we never really delved deep into the conceptual side of Computer Science. So, I start google "all possible combinations of a string" and low and behold I find some solution. However, after reading this book... I realize that what I was looking for was.. Permutations! Something I was never exposed to at the level I learned Computer Science. Which then opened the door and path to learning a whole lot more. The book is a great place to start if you're a self taught coder, so you know the language and concepts many of your colleagues and computer science professionals use. It also gives you a brief run down of fundamentals for you to know where to start looking when / if you choose to delve deeper into a topic.In the end, coding is about using math to solve problems and this book is the primer to all those complex topics and it's absolutely definitely worth a read. This book sits next to my copy of Clean Code, another must buy book. Clean Code teaches how to write your code, Computer Science Distilled teaches you how to use code to solve problems.A little background. I'm a recently graduated computer science student now working in the industry. I've only been working for 4 months, but this book has made a huge difference in my understanding of computer science's more complex topics. When my lead developers talk, I have less difficulty following them because of this book. That alone is worth the price.

Quando fiz minha faculdade, Sistemas de Informação, eu não tive contato com diversos conceitos que poderiam ter me ajudado a compreender melhor o que eu estava fazendo quando programava. Este livro é isto, estes conceitos, que por mais simples que sejam, não estão nem perto de ser lembrados pela maioria dos programadores de nosso mercado. Medir complexidade, entender probabilidade, estrutura de dados e alguns outros conceitos chaves separam os programadores que entregam algo que funciona dos que entregam algo excelente.Sempre houve essa carência, uma lacuna entre os livros que te ensinam uma linguagem de programação e os difíceis livros de ciência da computação (que tem conceitos essenciais porém trazidos de maneira pouco interessante), fico feliz por ter encontrado este livro no meio desses dois mundos em nosso mercado editorial, fazendo o papel de ponte entre eles.Apenas para ajudar o mercado brasileiro (por mais necessário que seja saber inglês). espero que esteja na intenção do autor e da editora produzir uma versão em português, para ajudar a reduzir mais ainda essa barreira em bater a cabeça no teclado até sair bom código e realmente ter noção do se está digitando e mandando o computador fazer.