Head First Kotlin: A Brain-Friendly Guide

by Dawn Griffiths, David Griffiths

What will you learn from this book? Head First Kotlin is a complete introduction to coding in Kotlin. This hands-on book helps you learn the Kotlin language with a unique method that goes beyond syntax and how-to manuals and teaches you how to think like a great Kotlin developer. Youâ??ll learn everything from language fundamentals to collections, generics, lambdas, and higher-order functions. Along the way, youâ??ll get to play with both object-oriented and functional programming. If you want to really understand Kotlin, this is the book for you. Why does this book look so different? Based on the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory, Head First Kotlin uses a visually rich format to engage your mind rather than a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep. Why waste your time struggling with new concepts? This multisensory learning experience is designed for the way your brain really works.

Genres: Programming, Technical, Reference, Computer Science, Computers, Nonfiction, Software

480 pages, Paperback

Published April 2, 2019

Reviews

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have never picked up this book based on the cover, it looks ridiculous, but after only a few pages I was sold. Although the book does swap between the vibes of 90s S Club 7 baggy jeans and the good parts of 1920s domestic America, it sticks to them and the cutesy graphics coupled with concepts repeated with different wordings make topics memorable and the book interesting. I whizzed through this book partly because it was just fun. Great intro to Kotlin.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book on learning Kotlin.

I was particularly interested in this book as I want to be developing more Android apps.

This book was great. It had many examples and I coded many of them myself, and expanded on the book examples for my own uses.

I would recommend this book if you are interested in learning Kotlin.

4.5/5

[Arvind Balasubramaniam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read as it's a decent book to get an overview on kotlin, but a bit superficial and doesn't go in depth for topics like covariance, contravariance - "Kotlin in action" is a lot more thorough about "when" you need to switch from invariancce. Similarly doesn't go in depth for coroutines, doesn't talk about Coroutine builders, schedulers, context etc.. I think the book's style is readable for a quick intro but it needs to be a bit more rigorous otherwise you need another companion book (or two). On the plus side, the readable style makes it possible to read the book in a day (or half)

I think it's an okay book to get a high level overview of how to create objects, declare classes, basic syntax, collections, lambdas and functional programming constructs on sequences like filter, flatMap, map, fold.

[Joseph Werns · Rating 4 out of 5]

With "Head First" books you alway know a lot more about your subject after you finish the book. Their methods for conveying knowledge is very effective.

This book is for people who are newbies to kotlin or want to fill out their knowledge.

I deducted a star as I would have like to have coding problems at the end of each chapter to solidify what I had learned otherwise the book is excellent.

[Dmytro Turskyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Head First "Kotlin" is a really simple guide of the programming language. This book has nothing to do with Android, but it is not needed, it is only about pure Kotlin.
The book includes many useful tricks and makes clear specific particularities without redundant theory, with only that stuff which is needed in practice.

[Thang · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good for the beginner level, covers the basic concept in Kotlin.
It could be better if it includes more advance use-cases, for example using Kotlin to develop web server/micro services or for mobile development.

[Maximilian Pergl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very basic. Not what I was looking for

[Dina Bogdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book for starting in learning Kotlin. It contains practical explanations with images and diagrams and a lot of useful exercises. I recommended it for every beginner in Kotlin.

[Mehri Abdukodirova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for any Android Developer who's just starting their career - simple, easy and fun to learn source for software developers.

[Amir Dora. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Head first series are not dry, they’re fun to read. Covers basics of Kotlin to get you started programming android apps.

[Raymond Tay · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, the authors stayed true to the original mission of the "Head First" series and I'm very pleased to have completed this book in my own personal record time.

[Lam Tuan · Rating 5 out of 5]

the book explains all basic concepts of kotlin very well with lot of illustrations.

[Luichigo15 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book. It has friendly examples to learn kotlin. I just wanted the courutines part to be more extensive but it's okay

[Till Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comments: As the Head First series always does, this is a fantastic book for learning Kotlin. In fact, I finished this book in just two days due to the tremendous similarities that Kotlin and Swift share.
Recommended for:
Android developers!
JVM developers!

[Maurício Junior · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second time I've read a book from the Head First collection.
The first time I was in uni while learning Java, so recently when I started reading Head First Kotlin I was prepared for what to expect and what not to expect.

I did not expect:
- A book for people just beginning to learn about OOP practices and principles.
- A hard and time consuming book to absorb the ideas about Kotlin.

I expected:
- A book that somehow shows a deep understanding of Kotlin / JVM, such as how variables are referenced to objects in various examples such as list, map, set, lambdas, high order functions and so on.
-Exercises in each chapter that helps to fix the knowledge of each subject.
- How to code in a Kotlinsh way.

It's a great first book for anyone who wants to learn Kotlin who already has previous programming experience.
In this book you will find the main topics of Kotlin language and how to work with them through various well designed exercises that will help you fix your knowledge.