How was this Software books list created?

We searched for "best Software books", found the top 5 articles, took every book mentioned in 2+ articles, and averaged their rankings.

How many Software books are in this list?

There are 16 books in this list.

Why did you create this Software books list?

We wanted to gather the most accurate list of Software books on the internet.

16 Best Software Books of All Time

Our goal: Find what the internet ranks as the best Software books (instead of one person's opinion).

Our process:

Search for "best software books" and study the top 5 articles.
Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
Rank the results neatly for you here! 😊
(This took a long time, but we do the research so you don't have to!)

(Updated 2023)

1
i
The Pragmatic Programmer
From Journeyman to Master
Andrew Hunt
Appears in 5 articles
2recommenders
2
i
Clean Code
A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Robert C. Martin
Appears in 5 articles
3
i
Design Patterns
Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
Erich Gamma
Appears in 5 articles
4
i
Code Complete
A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
Steve McConnell
Appears in 4 articles
1recommender
5
i
Refactoring
Improving the Design of Existing Code
Martin Fowler
Appears in 4 articles
6
i
Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Michael Feathers
Appears in 4 articles
MOST RECOMMENDED!
7
i
The Mythical Man-Month
Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Appears in 3 articles
5recommenders
8
i
Peopleware
Productive Projects and Teams
Tom DeMarco
Appears in 3 articles
2recommenders
9
i
Code
The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
Charles Petzold
Appears in 3 articles
10
i
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
Martin Fowler
Appears in 3 articles
11
i
Head First Design Patterns
Building Extensible and Maintainable Object-Oriented Software
Eric Freeman
Appears in 3 articles
12
i
The DevOps Handbook
How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
Gene Kim
Appears in 2 articles
1recommender
13
i
Programming Pearls
Jon Bentley
Appears in 2 articles
1recommender
14
i
The Clean Coder
A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
Robert C. Martin
Appears in 2 articles
15
i
Soft Skills
The Software Developer's Life Manual
John Sonmez
Appears in 2 articles
16
i
Introduction to Algorithms
Thomas H. Cormen
Appears in 2 articles

Sources

FAQ

How was this Software books list created?
We searched for "best Software books", found the top 5 articles, took every book mentioned in 2+ articles, and averaged their rankings.
How many Software books are in this list?
There are 16 books in this list.
Why did you create this Software books list?
We wanted to gather the most accurate list of Software books on the internet.