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.

Good

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

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.

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.