Mathematics for Computer Science
Mathematics for Computer Science by Lehman, Leighton and Meyerby Lehman, Leighton and Meyer
Ranked 2 of 20 mathematics textbooks by recommenders
People recommend it as a valuable, witty discrete math and probability text that is free as a full PDF. Critics say it lacks solutions, which makes self-study harder.
People recommend it as a valuable, witty discrete math and probability text that is free as a full PDF. Critics say it lacks solutions, which makes self-study harder.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Valuable resource, understandable despite difficulty
“I really love this book, it is hard af but I still can understand 1-2 pages of each paragraph.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” “This is a very valuable resource for me.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” Available as free PDF or paper
“I've literally been looking for this recently and now I get it as a full PDF.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” “I prefer paper for dipping into and working through bits and pieces.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
No solutions for self-study
“without solutions it makes it much harder to use for self-study”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” Too much packed into one book
“I'm not such a fan of trying to cram everything-mathematically-relevant into a single huge book”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” Missing proof of circular buffers
“It did not see the proof of the correctness of circular buffers?”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” Focuses on numbers over relations
“seems more about the numbers than relations”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]”
Other mathematics textbooks people recommend
The four most recommended other mathematics textbooks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algorithms for Optimizationby Kochenderfer and Wheeler | 10 | 1 | 91% | 1 | — | — |
| Mathematics for Computer Scienceby Lehman, Leighton and MeyerThis page | 8 | 4 | 67% | 1 | — | — |
| Numerical Recipesby Press et al. | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
| Concrete Mathematicsby Graham, Knuth and Patashnik | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Start Doing Graph Theoryby Sam Burns | 7 | 1 | 88% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
11 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“without solutions it makes it much harder to use for self-study”
“the writing is witty, full of MIT humor”
“I'm not such a fan of trying to cram everything-mathematically-relevant into a single huge book”
“I prefer paper for dipping into and working through bits and pieces.”
“This is a very valuable resource for me.”
“I love that each citation has back references to _all_ the places that it is cited from.”
“The probability section is great, especially how they handle the Monty Hall paradox.”
“It did not see the proof of the correctness of circular buffers?”
“seems more about the numbers than relations”
“I've literally been looking for this recently and now I get it as a full PDF.”
“I really love this book, it is hard af but I still can understand 1-2 pages of each paragraph.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.