Are you getting into Computer Science, or thinking about it? Or maybe you’re in it already. This super-high-level guide is for you!
I’m not going to talk about how to write code (much). I’ll I’m going to talk about in these roughly 40 pages is more about how to learn when you’re a nascent software developer.
Now, as much as I’d like to know exactly the way that everyone learns (and manage to wedge that into 40 pages), I, to be perfectly honest, don’t.
What I do have is 40+ years of programming experience (self-taught before college), 20 years of industry experience, and 8+ years of teaching experience. And a BS and MS in Computer Science.
And I have opinions about how to best way to learn how to program!
Now, let’s get this right out of the way: you might completely disagree with what I have to say here. And I’m okay with that.
But I have had the opportunity to see students make a wide variety of mistakes. And hopefully I can head some of these off at the pass for a number of readers.
Students and teachers, alike: if you find something you disagree with or something vital that is missing, please don’t hesitate to let me know1 so I can improve the guide.
Disclaimer: like with all the guides I write, I’m not the master of the subject. And with a squishy topic like how humans learn, I’m even less so.
But give it a read and take what’s useful and leave the rest for the boids2.
Undergrad students just getting into programming are the people I had in mind while writing this. So give-or-take a bit around that target audience. People in high school or just looking to learn how to program are also probably out there in the audience, as well.
This official location of this document is:
https://beej.us/guide/bglcs/3.
I make these guides available for free in the sincere hope that people will find them maximally useful. If there’s something that’s not maximally useful (or, you know, “wrong”), I’d love to hear about it so I can fix it in furtherance of my mission.
Thank you!
I’m generally available to help out with email questions so feel free to write in, but I can’t guarantee a response. I lead a pretty busy life and there are times when I just can’t answer a question you have. When that’s the case, I usually just delete the message. It’s nothing personal; I just won’t ever have the time to give the detailed answer you require.
As a rule, the more complex the question, the less likely I am to respond. If you can narrow down your question before mailing it and be sure to include any pertinent information (like platform, compiler, error messages you’re getting, and anything else you think might help me troubleshoot), you’re much more likely to get a response.
If you don’t get a response, hack on it some more, try to find the answer, and if it’s still elusive, then write me again with the information you’ve found and hopefully it will be enough for me to help out.
Now that I’ve badgered you about how to write and not write me, I’d just like to let you know that I fully appreciate all the praise the guide has received over the years. It’s a real morale boost, and it gladdens me to hear that it is being used for good! :-) Thank you!
You are more than welcome to mirror this site, whether publicly or privately. If you publicly mirror the site and want me to link to it from the main page, drop me a line at beej@beej.us.
If you want to translate the guide into another language, write me at beej@beej.us and I’ll link to your translation from the main page. Feel free to add your name and contact info to the translation.
Please note the license restrictions in the Copyright and Distribution section, below.
Beej’s Guide to Learning Computer Science is Copyright © 2025 Brian “Beej Jorgensen” Hall.
With specific exceptions for source code and translations, below, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
One specific exception to the “No Derivative Works” portion of the license is as follows: this guide may be freely translated into any language except English, provided the translation is accurate, and the guide is reprinted in its entirety. The same license restrictions apply to the translation as to the original guide. The translation may also include the name and contact information for the translator.
The programming source code presented in this document is hereby granted to the public domain, and is completely free of any license restriction.
Educators are freely encouraged to recommend or supply copies of this guide to their students.
Contact beej@beej.us for more information.
The hardest things about writing these guides are:
A lot of people have helped me through this process, and I want to acknowledge those who have made this book possible.
Thank you! ♥