What do you think?
Rate this book
Street Coder
Computer science theory quickly collides with the harsh reality of professional software development. This wickedly smart and devilishly funny beginner's guide shows you how to get the job done by prioritizing tasks, making quick decisions, and knowing which rules to break.
In Street Coder you will learn:
Data types, algorithms, and data structures for speedy software development
Putting "bad" practices to good use
Learn to love testing
Embrace code breaks and become friends with failure
Beginner-friendly insight on code optimization, asynchronous programming, parallelization, and refactoring
Street Coder: Rules to break and how to break them is a programmer's survival guide, full of tips, tricks, and hacks that will make you a more efficient programmer. It takes the best practices you learn in a computer science class and deconstructs them to show when they’re beneficial—and when they aren't!
This book's rebel mindset challenges status quo thinking and exposes the important skills you need on the job. You'll learn the crucial importance of algorithms and data structures, turn programming chores into programming pleasures, and shatter dogmatic principles keeping you from your full potential. Welcome to the streets!
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
About the technology
Fresh-faced CS grads, bootcampers, and other junior developers lack a vital quality: the “street smarts” of experience. To succeed in software, you need the skills and discipline to put theory into action. You also need to know when to go rogue and break the unbreakable rules. Th is book is your survival guide.
About the book
Street Coder teaches you how to handle the realities of day-to-day coding as a software developer. Self-taught guru Sedat Kapanoglu shares down-and-dirty advice that’s rooted in his personal hands-on experience, not abstract theory or ivory-tower ideology. You’ll learn how to adapt what you’ve learned from books and classes to the challenges you’ll face on the job. As you go, you’ll get tips on everything from technical implementations to handling a paranoid manager.
What's inside
Beginner-friendly insights on code optimization, parallelization, and refactoring
Put “bad” practices to good use
Learn to love testing
Embrace code breaks and become friends with failure
About the reader
For new programmers. Examples in C#.
About the author
Sedat Kapanoglu is a self-taught programmer with more than 25 years of experience, including a stint at Microsoft.
Table of Contents
1 To the streets
2 Practical theory
3 Useful anti-patterns
4 Tasty testing
5 Rewarding refactoring
6 Security by scrutiny
7 Opinionated optimization
8 Palatable scalability
9 Living with bugs
In Street Coder you will learn:
Data types, algorithms, and data structures for speedy software development
Putting "bad" practices to good use
Learn to love testing
Embrace code breaks and become friends with failure
Beginner-friendly insight on code optimization, asynchronous programming, parallelization, and refactoring
Street Coder: Rules to break and how to break them is a programmer's survival guide, full of tips, tricks, and hacks that will make you a more efficient programmer. It takes the best practices you learn in a computer science class and deconstructs them to show when they’re beneficial—and when they aren't!
This book's rebel mindset challenges status quo thinking and exposes the important skills you need on the job. You'll learn the crucial importance of algorithms and data structures, turn programming chores into programming pleasures, and shatter dogmatic principles keeping you from your full potential. Welcome to the streets!
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
About the technology
Fresh-faced CS grads, bootcampers, and other junior developers lack a vital quality: the “street smarts” of experience. To succeed in software, you need the skills and discipline to put theory into action. You also need to know when to go rogue and break the unbreakable rules. Th is book is your survival guide.
About the book
Street Coder teaches you how to handle the realities of day-to-day coding as a software developer. Self-taught guru Sedat Kapanoglu shares down-and-dirty advice that’s rooted in his personal hands-on experience, not abstract theory or ivory-tower ideology. You’ll learn how to adapt what you’ve learned from books and classes to the challenges you’ll face on the job. As you go, you’ll get tips on everything from technical implementations to handling a paranoid manager.
What's inside
Beginner-friendly insights on code optimization, parallelization, and refactoring
Put “bad” practices to good use
Learn to love testing
Embrace code breaks and become friends with failure
About the reader
For new programmers. Examples in C#.
About the author
Sedat Kapanoglu is a self-taught programmer with more than 25 years of experience, including a stint at Microsoft.
Table of Contents
1 To the streets
2 Practical theory
3 Useful anti-patterns
4 Tasty testing
5 Rewarding refactoring
6 Security by scrutiny
7 Opinionated optimization
8 Palatable scalability
9 Living with bugs
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
57 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Sedat Kapanoglu
2 books26 followersSedat Kapanoglu was born in Turkey to Bosnian parents from former Yugoslavia. At 12 years old, he taught himself programming in BASIC and Z80 assembly languages by deciphering opcode tables, user manuals, and puberty. He taught himself Pascal and x86 assembly while at high school by secretly using computers at a university lab, and running away from security guards, dogs, and nosy professors, sometimes from all of them at the same time. He failed university exams, so he started working at a software company at 17. He developed GUI frameworks, medical apps, telecommunications protocols, and MRP-based applications professionally in his teenage years, and by using all the money he made from those projects, he bought a digital watch. He received multiple awards for programming from competitions organized by Microsoft, PC/World magazine, and Middle East Technical University. His shareware software were featured in disks included in computing mags. He moved to Istanbul in his early 20's and developed the most popular Turkish social platform to date: Eksi Sozluk, years before Mark Zuckerberg was manufactured in a lab. He later moved to Redmond, Washington accepting a job offer from Microsoft to work in Windows team as a software engineer. Due to fast growth of his platform, he quit his position at Microsoft after five years, and went back to Turkey to build up the business side of Eksi Sozluk. Eksi Sozluk had been a platform of freedom of speech in Turkey, which was quite unusual at the time, and now a lost relic. After spending best years of his life in Turkey, and getting a deferred prison sentence for literally founding Eksi Sozluk, he relinquished his CEO role, and moved back to United States as the head of US branch of Eksi in 2015. Currently, he's still trying to recover from the burnout of writing Street Coder.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 8, 2024
Arkadaşlarımın yazdığı kitaplar artık hayatımda ciddi yer tutar oldu. Bu da çok merak ettiğim bir kitaptı, sağolsun Sedat'ın bana ulaştırmasıyla birlikte, hemen okumaya başladım. Kitabın mesajı şu; "okulda okuduğunuz, evde kitaptan öğrendiğiniz bilgisayar programcılığı, iş hayatına (=sokak) girdiğinizde patlar" diyor Sedat Kapanoğlu ve bunu örneklerle, nedeni nasılıyla açıklıyor.
Bu kitap bir anlatı ya da yaşam öyküsü değil, programcılık öğreten bir kitap da değil. Sokak Kodcusu, bilgisayar programcılığı üzerine, teori değil pratik ön plana alınarak yazılmış bir tavsiyeler dizisi, bir rehber. Konuyla ilgisi olan, programcılığı iş olarak yapan ve daha çok da, yapmaya hazırlanan herkes için çok değerli bir kitap, çünkü benim bildiğim kadarıyla bir benzeri yok. Ben programcı olmadığım için okurken, bir yerden sonra örnekleri takip edemedim, çünkü teknik düzey beni aştı. Ancak konuya aşina arkadaşların keyif alacaklarından eminim.
Kitabın yayın çalışmasının çok titizce yapıldığı belli oluyor. Konusu gereği kitapta bolca diagram, program örneği vs. var. Tüm bunlar sayfalara güzelce, okunaklı ve düzgün şekilde yerleştirilmiş.
Bu tür farklı, özgün işlerin artmasını diliyorum. Kıskandırdı doğrusu, umarım bir gün ben de böyle bir işe imza atabilirim.
Bu kitap bir anlatı ya da yaşam öyküsü değil, programcılık öğreten bir kitap da değil. Sokak Kodcusu, bilgisayar programcılığı üzerine, teori değil pratik ön plana alınarak yazılmış bir tavsiyeler dizisi, bir rehber. Konuyla ilgisi olan, programcılığı iş olarak yapan ve daha çok da, yapmaya hazırlanan herkes için çok değerli bir kitap, çünkü benim bildiğim kadarıyla bir benzeri yok. Ben programcı olmadığım için okurken, bir yerden sonra örnekleri takip edemedim, çünkü teknik düzey beni aştı. Ancak konuya aşina arkadaşların keyif alacaklarından eminim.
Kitabın yayın çalışmasının çok titizce yapıldığı belli oluyor. Konusu gereği kitapta bolca diagram, program örneği vs. var. Tüm bunlar sayfalara güzelce, okunaklı ve düzgün şekilde yerleştirilmiş.
Bu tür farklı, özgün işlerin artmasını diliyorum. Kıskandırdı doğrusu, umarım bir gün ben de böyle bir işe imza atabilirim.
December 29, 2021
I reviewed a MEAP version of this from Humble Bundle. This is a good primer on the kinds of things that matter in a real production environment told with humor and approachability. The code examples and a lot of concepts utilize C#, but the broad strokes are applicable to all languages. Sedat Kapanoglu did real good here, and folks should check it out when it's released this spring.
August 21, 2022
I started to read this book not with very high expectations. However it turned out to be, "Street Coder" is a great piece of work on Software Engineering with considerable wisdom; and engaging delivery.
What I liked:
* I really enjoyed the antipatterns part. It really reflects the author's experience and wisdom.
* Short intro on the computer science concepts was great. Maybe it will not make you a CS guru but gives a fine overview on what matters most.
* I liked the low level bits especially on the optimization part
* Side notes
* Engaging delivery and jokes
What could be better?
* I would expect refactoring part a bit more solid(not as in SOLID). I found example case for refactoring was a bit too heavy for the concept. There could be a more basic case that could be easily understood by a broader audience (not only the ones that have familiarity with .NET Core migration)
* I think, the scalability part could have focused on more high level concepts instead of locks in order to be more practical.
Overall, I really enjoyed "Street Coder" and recommend it to anyone from juniors, to seniors.
What I liked:
* I really enjoyed the antipatterns part. It really reflects the author's experience and wisdom.
* Short intro on the computer science concepts was great. Maybe it will not make you a CS guru but gives a fine overview on what matters most.
* I liked the low level bits especially on the optimization part
* Side notes
* Engaging delivery and jokes
What could be better?
* I would expect refactoring part a bit more solid(not as in SOLID). I found example case for refactoring was a bit too heavy for the concept. There could be a more basic case that could be easily understood by a broader audience (not only the ones that have familiarity with .NET Core migration)
* I think, the scalability part could have focused on more high level concepts instead of locks in order to be more practical.
Overall, I really enjoyed "Street Coder" and recommend it to anyone from juniors, to seniors.
September 25, 2021
This is a great introduction to software development. I’d recommend it to new developers alongside the venerable Coder to Developer by Mike Gunderloy.
February 17, 2025
Önceden almıştım ama okumak için ancak fırsat bulabildim. Severek okudum. Kodları çok takip edemedim ama hayattan verilen örnek çok güzeldi. Benim gibi deneyimli bir yazılım geliştirici iseniz bu kitap size pek fazla şey katmayabilir ancak bazen bildiklerimizi okumak da iyi geliyor diyebilirim.
January 1, 2024
The book initiates with a compelling premise: the existence of a theory/practice duality in software engineering, with Kapanoglu asserting his knowledge of the elusive sweet spot. He pledges to guide readers to this point throughout the book. However, the promise falls short in the later chapters.
It appears as though Kapanoglu wrote the book for young Kapanoglu, addressing what he needed at that time. Sadly, the evolving culture in software make the book less effective in addressing contemporary issues. For instance, big-O is now well-known and somewhat overrated. Nevertheless, the book presents big-O as an academic/interesting concept.
Another limitation is the book's heavy reliance on C#. Not due to a lack of understanding of C#, but because of a my disinterest in the specific details related to this programming language.
Additionally, the author's counterexamples appear poorly crafted. The section on code comments, for example, gives the impression that the author intentionally constructed them to be stupid, ultimately diminishing the overall quality of the book.
It appears as though Kapanoglu wrote the book for young Kapanoglu, addressing what he needed at that time. Sadly, the evolving culture in software make the book less effective in addressing contemporary issues. For instance, big-O is now well-known and somewhat overrated. Nevertheless, the book presents big-O as an academic/interesting concept.
Another limitation is the book's heavy reliance on C#. Not due to a lack of understanding of C#, but because of a my disinterest in the specific details related to this programming language.
Additionally, the author's counterexamples appear poorly crafted. The section on code comments, for example, gives the impression that the author intentionally constructed them to be stupid, ultimately diminishing the overall quality of the book.
June 28, 2022
There’s a lot of really good practical wisdom in here and reinforces development best practices generally. It helps if you can read multiple languages (the book is in C#) but not mandatory.
June 19, 2024
Türkiye'nin en popüler kodcusunun kitabı. SOLID prensiplerine karşı çıktığı bölümü ayrıca beğendim. Sonuçta her yiğidin farklı bir yoğurt yiyişi var. Keşke bunu da kitapta sık sık yaptığı gibi bire bir ingilizceye çevirip kitaba ekleseymiş. Kod yazan kişilerin şöyle bir okuyup incelemesinde fayda var. Ne kadar tecrübeli olsa da muhakkak bir şeyler kazanır.
July 15, 2022
It reminds you some basics every other day you need and I like it's language.
January 17, 2022
Full of humor and common sense (which is not so common), this book will make you smile and leave you wiser regardless of programming language you use or level of experience.
While it gives advice, it also tells you when not to use certain techniques, which is something incredibly rare. It requires reader to think why you are doing things the way you are doing them.
Highly recommended.
While it gives advice, it also tells you when not to use certain techniques, which is something incredibly rare. It requires reader to think why you are doing things the way you are doing them.
Highly recommended.
May 20, 2022
Really enjoyed this book. The examples and most of the content is catered to C# .NET, but the concepts can still be applied for general software development. I particularly found the ideas around validation using type classes compelling since I work mostly within loosely typed languages.
It's not a long book, it's easy to read, and there is some good humor.
It's not a long book, it's easy to read, and there is some good humor.
August 24, 2022
I found the book useful in general. The deep level examples were heartwarming. His 360-degree view of problems was eye-opening. The true stories he narrated on Eksisozluk.com were terrific. Thank you
March 5, 2025
Kitap cok akici keyifli bir dille yazilmis. Ne teknik bit kitap, ne de bir soylesi yazisi okur gibi hissediyorsunuz, tam kivaminda olmus.
Computer Science/Engineering egitimi alanlar icin, pratige odaklanmis, guzel bir recap. Bu egitimi almayan alayli, veya farkli ilgili alanlardan gelen yazilimcilar icin de hap niteliginde, gunluk kodlama pratiginde kullanilabilecek pratik bilgiler.
SOLID gibi kisaltmalarin, veya havali gozukmesi icin uydurulmus bazi kavramlarin tekrar aciklanmasi en begendigim kisim oldu. Liskov substition, abc segregation falan gercekten ne kadar gereksiz kavramlar..
Negatif olarak, bazi kisimlarda C# ve .NET'e cok fazla dalindigini hissettim, ne kadar cogunlukla anlasilabilir olsa da, kodlarin biraz daha pseudo-kod seklinde yazilmasini tercih ederdim, en azindan cok C#/.NET spesifik duran kisimlarin.
Bir de kivamin tutmadigi bir kisim var, Turkce ceviri icin ozel: bazi kavramlarin Turkce kullanilmasi. Egitimi Ingilizce alip, uluslararasi sirketlerde calistigim icin belki kacirmis olabilirim ama Turkiye'de de sektorde kimsenin "yazmac" vs. kavramlari kullandigini dusunmuyorum. Hadi bellek, islemci vs. herkesin asina oldugu kelimelerin kullanimi tabiki de guzel ama bazi kisimlarda abartilmis ve ne anlatildigini anlamak biraz vakit aliyor.
Yine de, yazim dili Ingilizce de olsa, bizden boyle bir kitap cikmasi sevindirici, ve her Turk yazilimcinin merak edip okumasi gereken keyifli bir kitap.
Computer Science/Engineering egitimi alanlar icin, pratige odaklanmis, guzel bir recap. Bu egitimi almayan alayli, veya farkli ilgili alanlardan gelen yazilimcilar icin de hap niteliginde, gunluk kodlama pratiginde kullanilabilecek pratik bilgiler.
SOLID gibi kisaltmalarin, veya havali gozukmesi icin uydurulmus bazi kavramlarin tekrar aciklanmasi en begendigim kisim oldu. Liskov substition, abc segregation falan gercekten ne kadar gereksiz kavramlar..
Negatif olarak, bazi kisimlarda C# ve .NET'e cok fazla dalindigini hissettim, ne kadar cogunlukla anlasilabilir olsa da, kodlarin biraz daha pseudo-kod seklinde yazilmasini tercih ederdim, en azindan cok C#/.NET spesifik duran kisimlarin.
Bir de kivamin tutmadigi bir kisim var, Turkce ceviri icin ozel: bazi kavramlarin Turkce kullanilmasi. Egitimi Ingilizce alip, uluslararasi sirketlerde calistigim icin belki kacirmis olabilirim ama Turkiye'de de sektorde kimsenin "yazmac" vs. kavramlari kullandigini dusunmuyorum. Hadi bellek, islemci vs. herkesin asina oldugu kelimelerin kullanimi tabiki de guzel ama bazi kisimlarda abartilmis ve ne anlatildigini anlamak biraz vakit aliyor.
Yine de, yazim dili Ingilizce de olsa, bizden boyle bir kitap cikmasi sevindirici, ve her Turk yazilimcinin merak edip okumasi gereken keyifli bir kitap.
June 9, 2024
I like SSG, but I had high expectations for this book, and unfortunately, it didn't meet them. First, most of the concepts covered are quite basic. Much of the content addresses topics that should already be common knowledge. Additionally, many examples are heavily focused on C# and .NET. I was hoping for discussions on more general concepts. For someone who writes in Go, knowing why one would use one class over another in C# isn't particularly relevant.
Moreover, I found some of the ideas in the book to be excessively radical and unconventional. For instance, there's a chapter titled "Don't Use TDD or Any Other Acronyms," which I found to be quite an extreme stance. The book is filled with such controversial opinions. While I appreciate unconventional ideas and agree that we shouldn't blindly support every new paradigm or concept, some of these arguments seem contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. For example, the reasoning against using TDD includes statements like "I don't like seeing errors in my IDE," which seems insufficient as a critique.
I admire authors' accomplishments. My critique of this book is entirely independent of authors' achievements.
Moreover, I found some of the ideas in the book to be excessively radical and unconventional. For instance, there's a chapter titled "Don't Use TDD or Any Other Acronyms," which I found to be quite an extreme stance. The book is filled with such controversial opinions. While I appreciate unconventional ideas and agree that we shouldn't blindly support every new paradigm or concept, some of these arguments seem contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. For example, the reasoning against using TDD includes statements like "I don't like seeing errors in my IDE," which seems insufficient as a critique.
I admire authors' accomplishments. My critique of this book is entirely independent of authors' achievements.
June 21, 2025
The book's greatest strength is that it is based on the realities of professional software development. It encourages developers to think for themselves, question authority, and make context-sensitive decisions. It also provides a practical framework for increasing developer effectiveness and delivering value faster. The advice to “break the rules” can be misinterpreted by inexperienced developers as a license to write sloppy, unsustainable code. The subtlety of the book requires a certain level of experience to be fully appreciated. But a team of “Street Coders” who are all “breaking things” and lack a shared understanding of principles through strong communication can lead to chaos. Philosophy works best when balanced with team discipline.
July 5, 2024
Bir junior .Net developer olarak ufkumu genişleten çok fazla kısmı oldu. Kitabın C# .Net üzerinden ilerlemesi de benim yararıma oldu. Başka alandan ilerleyenler için kod örneklerinin çok karışık geleceğini düşünmüyorum yazarın tecrübeleri ve düşünceleri bile kod örneklerine bakmadan işinize yarar. İleri seviye yazılımcılar için gereksiz veya çerezlik olabilir ssg zaten kendisi de demiş. Bence her jr dev okumalı. Çeviri olarak anahtar kelimeleri orijinaliyle kullanılması iyi ama bence bazı kısımların revize edilmesi gerekiyor.
May 20, 2025
You don't get a book like that often. Sedat delivers brutal truth about computer science and programming with a dash of humor and not your typical advice.
I had a blast reading it and it open up my eyes about a lot of things like how we think we are programmer we don't need to know about the low level things like how memory is process, how data structures are stored in the computer memory. But knowing all this , can actually makes us a better programmer . The only thing that suck in this book is the example code are in .NET which is not my domain at all
I had a blast reading it and it open up my eyes about a lot of things like how we think we are programmer we don't need to know about the low level things like how memory is process, how data structures are stored in the computer memory. But knowing all this , can actually makes us a better programmer . The only thing that suck in this book is the example code are in .NET which is not my domain at all
July 13, 2024
Bir çok çevrimiçi kaynakta bulunan iyi yazılım geliştirme pratiklerini bir araya getirerek aktaran güzel bir kitap. Kitabın dilini ve örneklerini beğendim. Deneyimli yazılımcılar, bu kitapta aktarılan konulara vakıf olabilirler. Her ne kadar Uncle Bob dahil birçok ingilizce kaynak olsa da, Türkçe bir benzerine açıkçası rastlamadım, bu anlamda da sektöre yeni adım atan yazılımcılar için güzel bir kitap.
October 20, 2024
Ekşi Sözlük'ün kurucusu Sedat Kapanoğlu'nun yıllar boyunca yazılım dünyasında edindiği deneyimleri paylaştığı bir kitap. Sektör dışından biri olarak bazı teknik detayları anlamakta zorlandım; ancak Kapanoğlu'nun sade ve samimi anlatımı kitabı ilgi çekici kıldı. Özellikle yazılım dünyasına ilgi duyanların daha fazla keyif alacağını düşündüğüm bir eser.
"İş kaç kadına atanırsa atansın, bir çocuğun doğurulması dokuz ay sürer."
"İş kaç kadına atanırsa atansın, bir çocuğun doğurulması dokuz ay sürer."
August 27, 2024
yaptigin seyi bilmenin, ezbere dogru oldugu soylenileni yapmaktan cok daha onemli oldugunu iyice pekistiriyor. sektordeki "en iyi pratik"lere fazla odaklandigim icin benim ufkumu acti.
ne yaptigini bilmeyen bir insanin mediocrity'yi asmasi cok zor
ne yaptigini bilmeyen bir insanin mediocrity'yi asmasi cok zor
April 28, 2025
It's funny and informative book. I liked it. But as LLM's are improving so fast, we're not gonna even read this type of books in the near future. AI can code what we need in a couple of seconds.
September 9, 2024
Bu kitabın hakkını yemişler. Değerli bilgiler, deneyimler var. Güzel kitap. Bazı öneriler alışılagelmişin dışında ve işe yarar.
November 6, 2024
Sokak Kodcusu, genel olarak beğendiğim, okunması kolay ve sürükleyici bir kitap. Sedat Kapanoğlu’nun deneyimlerini samimi bir dille aktarması, programlama ve yazılım dünyasına dair genel tavsiyeleriyle birleşince ortaya gerçekten akıcı bir eser çıkmış. İçerdiği tavsiyeler, özellikle yeni başlayanlar için oldukça yol gösterici. Kitap, teknik konuları fazla detaya inmeden ele alırken, aynı zamanda yazılım dünyasında karşılaşabileceğiniz zorluklar ve bunlara yönelik önerilerle dolu. Sedat Kapanoğlu’na bu güzel eser için teşekkür ederim.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews