I am a self-taught programmer. After a year of self-study, I learned to program well enough to land a job as a software engineer II at eBay. Once I got there, I realized I was severely under-prepared. I was overwhelmed by the amount of things I needed to know but hadn't learned yet. My journey learning to program, and my experience at my first job as a software engineer were the inspiration for this book. This book is not just about learning to program; although you will learn to code. If you want to program professionally, it is not enough to learn to code; that is why, in addition to helping you learn to program, I also cover the rest of the things you need to know to program professionally that classes and books don't teach you. "The Self-taught Programmer" is a roadmap, a guide to take you from writing your first Python program, to passing your first technical interview. I divided the book into six sections: 1. Learn to program in Python 3 and build your first program. 2. Learn Object-oriented programming and create a powerful Python program to get you hooked. 3. Learn to use tools like Git, Bash, regular expressions and databases. Then use your new coding skills to build a web scraper. 4. Study Computer Science fundamentals including computer architecture, data structures, algorithms and network programming. 5. Learn to program for production: I cover the software development process, testing, and best coding practices. 6. Finish with tips for working with a team and landing a programming job. You CAN learn to program professionally. The path is there. Will you take it?

科里（Cory Althoff）在大学主修政治学毕业后，通过自学编程知识顺利进入eBay，开启了其软件工程师的生涯。随后他在硅谷工作多年，现已利用技术开始了自主创业。本书是作者根据个人成功经验所作，专为所有想要自学编程的初学者准备；即便读者并不想成为一名专业的软件工程师，本书也会帮助每个人在其所属的行业中运用编程技能来提升工作能力，提高工作效率。