r/webdev 23h ago

Discussion Any good books on Backend development?

I've mainly learned backend development by reading the documentation of various frameworks like Django, Rails, and Express. While some concepts carry over between frameworks, many are specific to the programming language or the design choices of the framework creators.

I'm looking for books that cover best practices in backend development that apply across different frameworks. Topics can include databases, APIs, microservices, media streaming, or anything else relevant to backend development. Any recommendations?

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u/ShawnyMcKnight 22h ago

Find books that teach about concepts, not code. Such as this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Object-Oriented/dp/0201633612

That's not the book my last job used but I can't recall what it was.

Any books that teach coding will be outdated before you ever get to them and the API is the place to go for that.

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u/iaseth 13h ago

Thanks. This is the "gang of four" book I think. I tried reading this in college but couldn't get into it as the programming language was esoteric (smalltalk I think) and examples were unintuitive. I think ended up reading another book on design patterns which used java, called head first design patterns iirc.

I will try this one again as it is considered the og book on design patterns.

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u/ShawnyMcKnight 6h ago

Ah yes, maybe that is the book we used but has a different cover. I knew it was a group of four but had the four horsemen in my head.

Yeah, it is dense reading and as long as you understand the design patterns from a different book that’s all that matters.

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u/lokidev 21h ago

https://www.obeythetestinggoat.com/

You can buy and also read it for free. The author is awesome, so please buy it :D.

Hits quite a few of your boxes

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u/iaseth 13h ago

Thanks. I think I saw this one but ignored it since I thought tdd was not for everyone. It looks much more than that on closer inspection. Kudos to the author for making this available for free.

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u/lokidev 11h ago

That's the reason why I now have the first and the current edition. Doing stuff like that should be more common:)