My Recipe to Depth in Software

09 Apr, 2024

While visiting Helsinki, I created a personal roadmap to anchor my computer science and software engineering fundamentals. Here's the plan I'm following to gain a deep understanding of computers; I'm sharing it here for anyone interested to do the same.

Learning Framework

• You can learn anything. The most complex concepts in the universe are built on top of basic ideas that anyone, anywhere can understand.

• Aim high. Set insane goals. You can achieve things much faster than you think. Shorten your expected timeline by 10-50x.

• Learn backwards. Start with building what you want to build. Try building things, identify knowledge gaps and learn what you need to learn.

Essential Skills

• Search skills. Learn how to properly find answers to the question you are asking. Master how to Google & craft prompts that get you what you want.

• Use Unix. If you're on Windows, set up a dual-boot with Linux. Learn the command line - it's your most powerful tool.

Computer Science Fundamentals

• First Principles. Start from the ground up to truly understand how computers work.

• Digital Logic. Study transistors, logic gates, and how they form the building blocks of computers. Practice with tools like Verilog.

• Computer Architecture. Understand CPU design, memory hierarchy, and how instructions are executed at the hardware level.

• Assembly & Machine Code. Learn how high-level code translates to machine instructions.

• Compilation. Understand how programming languages are compiled and optimized.

Resources:

• From the Transistor to the Web Browser
• Sebastian Lague's Computer Science Series
• Harvard's CS50

Systems Programming (C/C++)

• Core Concepts. Master variables, control flow, and data types.

• Memory Management. Understand pointers, stack vs heap, and manual memory handling.

• Program Structure. Learn about compilation units, linking, and code organization.

• Edge Cases. Handle integer overflow, floating-point precision, and other low-level concerns.

DSA (Data Structures & Algorithms)

• Essential Algorithms. Searching, sorting, and graph traversal.

• Core Data Structures. Implement and understand:

  • Arrays and Linked Lists
  • Stacks and Queues
  • Trees and Graphs
  • Hash Tables
  • Tries

• Analyse. Learn Big O notation and algorithm complexity.

(OOP) Object Oriented Programming

• Classes and Objects
• Inheritance and Polymorphism
• Design Patterns
• SOLID

Python

• Be grateful
• Just hack projects
• NumPy, Pandas
• Plotting / Data visualization
• Machine learning basics, sklearn

Networking

• TCP/IP Protocol Suite
• DNS and HTTP
• REST
• Security Basics

Web Development

• Frontend (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React)
• Backend Frameworks
• Authentication & Authorization
• Database Design
• API Development