# Competitive Programmer's Handbook by Antti Laaksonen

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Competitive Programmer's Handbook by Antti Laaksonen and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Praised as a practical, hands-on intro to algorithms and a handy reference for interview prep. Caveat: some readers found its extra material unused and not helpful for interviews.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful algorithms reference and intro (2 comments): "this book seems to be a very practical, hands-on intro into many useful algorithms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49975752)) "It’s an equally great algorithms reference and way to prep for coding interviews." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49970169))
- Helps with interview prep (2 comments): "It’s an equally great algorithms reference and way to prep for coding interviews." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49970169)) "Helped me got my internship (and probably my job now lol)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49975945))
- Fun to learn from (2 comments): "The additional stuff in TCPH was fun to read/learn, but I never used it to solve any of those problems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982021)) "Very nice ! Thanks for sharing this. Fun to play around with algorithms during college days !" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49981054))

## What people warn about

- Extra material went unused (1 comments): "The additional stuff in TCPH was fun to read/learn, but I never used it to solve any of those problems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982021))
- Did not help with job goal (1 comments): "It really didn't help with that goal. ... It's well written." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49971352))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crafting-interpreters.md): 60 recommend
- [Clean Code by Robert C. Martin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clean-code.md): 31 recommend
- [The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pragmatic-programmer.md): 28 recommend
- [How to Design Programs by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-design-programs.md): 18 recommend
- [Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastering-emacs.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Competitive+Programmer%27s+Handbook+by+Antti+Laaksonen&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Competitive Programmer's Handbook by Antti Laaksonen", https://hackerapproved.com/p/competitive-programmer-s-handbook/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).