
The Computer Science Book: For self-taught developers
Author(s): Thomas Johnson (Author)
- Publisher: Independently published
- Publication Date: April 13, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 425 pages
- ASIN: B0GX6PTN4V
- ISBN-13: 9798390289273
Book Description
You can code. But do you understand what’s happening underneath?
If you’re self-taught or came through a bootcamp, you’ve felt it: you get the job done, but there are gaps — and the nagging sense that everyone with a CS degree knows far more than you do. Big-O. How memory actually works. What a database actually does. Why distributed systems fail. And now: how machine learning and LLMs actually work.
The Computer Science Book closes those gaps. It’s a complete, degree-broad computer science education in one readable volume. It’s written for working developers.
What’s inside — 13 chapters from fundamentals to frontier:
- Theory of computation, algorithms & data structures
- Computer architecture, operating systems, networking
- Concurrency and distributed systems
- Programming languages, databases, compilers
- Machine learning, deep learning, and AI & large language models— the modern AI foundations most CS books still don’t cover
Why this one: written to be understood, not endured — conversational and example-led, no prerequisites beyond knowing basic coding. The breadth of a degree without a shelf of dense textbooks. Up to date: from logic gates all the way to LLMs.
Who it’s for: self-taught developers, bootcamp graduates, career-changers, and anyone preparing for technical interviews who wants the fundamentals to finally click.
“An essential read… a joy to read.” — Adrian Booth, Software Engineer, Syft
“Covers all the topics I lacked confidence in.” — John Whiles, Software Engineer, Contentful
Stop guessing at the fundamentals. Build the mental model the CS graduates have — and the AI knowledge most of them don’t.







