Principles of Mathematical Analysis
Principles of Mathematical Analysis by Walter Rudinby Walter Rudin
Shares rank 14 of 20 mathematics textbooks by recommenders
Recommended for its terse, rigorous treatment of analysis that rewards line-by-line study and working through exercises. Critics say it throws theorems together with little context or pedagogical explanation.
Recommended for its terse, rigorous treatment of analysis that rewards line-by-line study and working through exercises. Critics say it throws theorems together with little context or pedagogical explanation.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: 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.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not 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
Rewards line-by-line proof study
“one has to work through the proof line by line in order gain enough understanding to do the exercises”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Simulacrum of Knowledge Work” Small and terse, yet demanding
“Small, short, terse yet has brought many undergraduates to tears.”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Short Little Difficult Books” Has problems of varying difficulty
“Take one of the easier problems from Rudin.”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Theorems stated with little context
“it comes from a time when mathematics textbooks were not at all judged by their pedagogical value”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “How I use LLMs to learn complex topics” “books that throw theorems one after the other without any context, like Baby Rudin”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning”
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 Meyer | 8 | 4 | 67% | 1 | — | — |
| Numerical Recipesby Press et al. | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
| Concrete Mathematicsby Graham, Knuth and Patashnik | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Principles of Mathematical Analysisby Walter RudinThis page | 3 | 2 | 60% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Take one of the easier problems from Rudin.”
“it comes from a time when mathematics textbooks were not at all judged by their pedagogical value”
“books that throw theorems one after the other without any context, like Baby Rudin”
“one has to work through the proof line by line in order gain enough understanding to do the exercises”
“Small, short, terse yet has brought many undergraduates to tears.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.