r/compsci · 2025
Most-mentioned books in r/compsci during 2025
This page ranks books by exact tracked mentions in r/compsci within the published source unit for 2025. Counts come from the reconciled subreddit-by-month matrix; a source unit may be a bounded sample.
#1 Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
Charles Petzold
A retired software engineer builds a computer from telegraph relays and flashlights, one chapter at a time, until you understand what a CPU actually does.
#2 Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Martin Kleppmann
A backend engineer's field guide to the tradeoffs behind every database, queue, and distributed system you will ever touch.
#3 Introduction to Algorithms
Thomas H. Cormen
The textbook four MIT professors wrote to settle every algorithms argument, cited by 254 Reddit commenters across 12 subreddits and still going.
#4 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Harold Abelson
MIT's 1985 Scheme textbook that 319 Reddit commenters have recommended and a noticeably smaller number have finished.
#5 The C Programming Language
Brian W. Kernighan
The 1978 book that defined C's syntax, co-written by its creator, still cited by name 281 times across Reddit in 7 years.
#6 The Soul of a New Machine
Tracy Kidder
A journalist watches a team of engineers at Data General burn themselves out building a minicomputer nobody remembers, and writes the definitive account of what that costs.