The Practice of Programming
The Practice of Programming by Kernighan and Pikeby Brian W. Kernighan
Shares rank 71 of 115 programming books by recommenders
People recommend it for timeless programming advice from Bell Labs authors, and for steering beginners toward writing good code. Critics raised no complaints.
People recommend it for timeless programming advice from Bell Labs authors, and for steering beginners toward writing good code. Critics raised no complaints.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: 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
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 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
Timeless advice from Bell Labs authors
“I will always associate him with Bell Labs and Unix and The Practice of Programming”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Rob Pike Goes Nuclear over GenAI” “It's not that long and much of it is timeless.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Rob Pike's 5 Rules of Programming” Helped beginners learn to code well
“steered me in a really good direction when I was first learning to write code”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition (2023)” Short and mostly timeless
“It's not that long and much of it is timeless.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Rob Pike's 5 Rules of Programming”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Matthias Felleisen and Robert Bruce Findler and Matthew Flatt and Shriram Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| The Practice of Programmingby Brian W. KernighanThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's not that long and much of it is timeless.”
“I will always associate him with Bell Labs and Unix and The Practice of Programming”
“steered me in a really good direction when I was first learning to write code”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.