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19 Best Software Design Books of All Time


Our goal: Find the best Software Design books according to the internet (not just one random person's opinion).

    Here's what we did:
  1. Type "best software design books" into our search engine and study the top 5+ pages.
  2. Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
  3. Rank the results neatly for you here! 😊
    (It was a lot of work. But hey! That's why we're here, right?)

(Updated 2024)

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Last Updated: Monday 1 Jan, 2024

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  3. Best Software Design Books
  1. 1
    The Pragmatic Programmer

    The Pragmatic Programmer

    From Journeyman to Master

    Andrew Hunt

    Appears in 5 articles
    2recommenders
  2. 2
    Clean Code

    Clean Code

    A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

    Robert C. Martin

    Appears in 5 articles
  3. 3
    Design Patterns

    Design Patterns

    Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

    Erich Gamma

    Appears in 4 articles
  4. 4
    Head First Design Patterns

    Head First Design Patterns

    Building Extensible and Maintainable Object-Oriented Software

    Eric Freeman

    Appears in 4 articles
  5. MOST RECOMMENDED!
    5
    The Mythical Man-Month

    The Mythical Man-Month

    Essays on Software Engineering

    Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

    Appears in 3 articles
    5recommenders
  6. 6
    Code Complete

    Code Complete

    A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

    Steve McConnell

    Appears in 3 articles
    1recommender
  7. 7
    Refactoring

    Refactoring

    Improving the Design of Existing Code

    Martin Fowler

    Appears in 3 articles
  8. 8
    Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

    Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

    Martin Fowler

    Appears in 3 articles
  9. 9
    Working Effectively with Legacy Code

    Working Effectively with Legacy Code

    Michael Feathers

    Appears in 3 articles
  10. 10
    Don't Make Me Think

    Don't Make Me Think

    A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

    Steve Krug

    Appears in 2 articles
    5recommenders
  11. 11
    Peopleware

    Peopleware

    Productive Projects and Teams

    Tom DeMarco

    Appears in 2 articles
    2recommenders
  12. 12
    The DevOps Handbook

    The DevOps Handbook

    How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations

    Gene Kim

    Appears in 2 articles
    1recommender
  13. 13
    Programming Pearls

    Programming Pearls

    Jon Bentley

    Appears in 2 articles
    1recommender
  14. 14
    Cracking the Coding Interview

    Cracking the Coding Interview

    189 Programming Questions and Solutions

    Gayle Laakmann McDowell

    Appears in 2 articles
  15. 15
    Code

    Code

    The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

    Charles Petzold

    Appears in 2 articles
  16. 16
    The Clean Coder

    The Clean Coder

    A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers

    Robert C. Martin

    Appears in 2 articles
  17. 17
    A Philosophy of Software Design

    A Philosophy of Software Design

    John K. Ousterhout

    Appears in 2 articles
  18. 18
    Soft Skills

    Soft Skills

    The Software Developer's Life Manual

    John Sonmez

    Appears in 2 articles
  19. 19
    Introduction to Algorithms

    Introduction to Algorithms

    Thomas H. Cormen

    Appears in 2 articles

Sources

  1. 7 books software engineers need to read right now to get ahead | Hack Reactorwww.hackreactor.com
  2. 17 Must-Read Books for Software Developers | Built Inbuiltin.com
  3. 15 BEST Software Engineering Books (2022 Update)www.guru99.com
  4. The Greatest Software Development Books of All Time - DZonedzone.com
  5. Best Software Development Books: 20 Most-Recommended Books for Software Developers - DEV Community 👩‍💻👨‍💻dev.to

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