Learn Computer Science
June 2, 2026 · View on GitHub
I'm second-career web developer (writing mostly Ruby) since 2022, meaning I didn't get a computer science degree. So this list is me catching up.
My "Learn Ruby" list slightly overlaps with the material in this list, namely the section "Foundations" and some of the section"Beyond Ruby web development", which include resources that are more engineering-related than what's in this list.
Table of contents
- Networking / the Web
- Hardware systems
- Operating systems
- Linux / command line
- Concurrency / distributed systems
- Database internals
- Compilers
- Math / logic
- Data structures and algorithms
- Software architecture
- Low-level programming
Networking / the Web
- HTTP:
- 💲Noah Gibbs - Rebuilding HTTP.
- http2 explained
- HTTP/3 explained
- 💲HTTP/2 in Action
- 💲Build Your Own Web Server From Scratch In Node.JS <!-- Related: Ruby HTTP server from the ground up, Building a simple websockets server from scratch in Ruby, Build Your Own Web Server, How to Build a Web App with and without Rails Libraries, a Reddit discussion with helpful comments
- Networking:
- High Performance Browser Networking
- Computer Networking : Principles,Protocols and Practice
- 💲Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach
- Jesse Storimer - Working with TCP Sockets.
- Beej's Guide to Network Programming
- Experiment with CDNs or reverse proxies (e.g. Nginx, Varnish, HAProxy, Cloudflare) to understand caching, TLS termination, load balancing, and security filtering (rate limiting, WAF, etc.).
- Security:
- 💲Grokking Web Application Security and the free accompanying site Hacksplaining
- PortSwigger - web security exercises
- Browsers:
Hardware systems
- 💲Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
- NandGame and solutions: 1, 2, 3
- From Nand to Tetris: Part 1, Part 2
- Circuit sandboxes:
- Dive into Systems
- What Every Programmer Should Know About Memory
- 💲Digital Design and Computer Architecture
- 💲Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective
Operating systems
Linux / command line
- The Command Line Murders
- Linux Journey
- Sundeep Agarwal - Linux Command Line Computing
- The Linux Command Line
- The Art of Command Line
- Sundeep Agarwal - "Linux CLI and shell scripting" list
- Julia Evans - Your Linux Toolbox
- 💲Efficient Linux at the Command Line
- 💲How Linux Works
- 💲Julia Evans - Bite Size zine pack
- 💲Wicked Cool Shell Scripts
- 💲Systems Performance
Concurrency / distributed systems
- 💲Foundations of Scalable Systems
- 💲Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd ed.
- Is Parallel Programming Hard, And, If So, What Can You Do About It?
- Distributed Systems
- On Transactional Concurrency Control
- Gossip Glomers (distibuted systems challenges)
Database internals
Database readings
- How does a relational database work?
- Architecture of a Database System
- 💲Database Internals
- Transaction Processing
- Introduction to PostgreSQL Indexes
- The Internals of PostgreSQL
- Readings in Database Systems
- PGTune
Database exercises
- 💲Build a Database Server
- 💲Build Your Own Database From Scratch in Go
- Build Your Own Redis with C/C++
- Build Redis from scratch
Compilers
- Destroy All Software - A Compiler from Scratch
- Writing a compiler in Ruby, bottom up and related resources at the bottom of that page
- Let's make a Teeny Tiny compiler
- Stanford: SOE-YCSCS1 Compilers
- 💲Crafting Interpreters
- 💲Build Your Own Compiler from Scratch
Math / logic
- 💲Logic for Programmers
- 💲Math for Programming
- 💲Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science
- 💲Coding The Matrix: Linear Algebra Through Computer Science Applications
Data structures and algorithms
Textbooks / courses
- 💲Data Structures and Algorithms in Java along with VisuAlgo
- Maybe this instead: 💲A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms
- Or: 💲Algorithms Unlocked
- Codeintuition
- 💲Practical Analysis of Algorithms
- 💲The Algorithm Design Manual plus lecture videos
- 💲Algorithm Design
- Maybe this instead: 💲Algorithms
- Or: 💲Introduction to Algorithms
Interview guides
- Tech Interview Handbook
- 💲Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview (preview csolutions for free at interviewing.io)
- 💲Elements of Programming Interviews
LeetCode
- Ruby solutions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Algorithms Ruby gem that is included in the LeetCode environment.
- NeetCode 250
- Grind75
- 14 Patterns to Ace Any Coding Interview Question
- 20 Essential Coding Patterns to Ace Your Next Coding Interview
- Coding Interview Patterns
- AlgoMonster - Patterns
- LeetCode Patterns
- 💲Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions
- An interview algorithms tier list
- Another algorithms tier list
- Other resource lists: 1, 2, 3
Software architecture
Low-level programming
Zig
- Ziglings
- Zen of Zig
- Learning Zig
- Introduction to Zig: a project-based book
- Zig Cookbook
- 💲Systems Programming with Zig
- Working with Strings in Zig
- Karl Seguin's blog
Implement a Forth
- Starting FORTH or Easy Forth
- Thinking Forth
- Implementing a Forth
- Minimal FORTH interpreters: 1, 2
- Fitting a Forth in 512 bytes
- Design Decisions in the Forth Kernel
- Threaded Interpretive Languages: Their Design and Implementation
- Factor if I want to explore a "high-level FORTH"
C
- 💲C Programming: A Modern Approach
- CS50 problem sets (1-5) and solutions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
- Tutorial on pointers and arrays in C
- Exercism - C
- Advent of Code: CLI/runner written in C; I can't find any repos with solutions for all years, but probably there are repos with solutions for a specific year.
- Look into other "better C" languages besides Zig: Odin, Beef, V, Jai, C3, MiniLang, and others (minus the C++ replacements like Rust, which are too complex for my purposes)
C game programming
- Handmade Hero videos plus Handmade Penguin to follow along in Linux
- Handmade Quake videos and source code
- Kohi Game Engine videos
- Make a game, taking inspiration from high_impact, raylib, Box2D 3.x (or see box2d-raylib)
- Or make a text-based game: see How to program a text adventure in C and Knuth's C port of Colossal Cave Adventure (which, incidentally, is an example of literate programming, now reincarnated in Entangled)
- Handmade Network