Test Driven Development
Test Driven Development by Example by Kent Beckby Kent Beck
Shares rank 71 of 115 programming books by recommenders
People recommend it as a foundational book for learning test-driven development. One critic says the approach has already been tried and failed.
People recommend it as a foundational book for learning test-driven development. One critic says the approach has already been tried and failed.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: 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.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 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
Good starting point for learning TDD
“the right starting point is _Test Driven Development by Example_ by Kent Beck”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: Books on Unit Testing and TDD?” “It's still a good foundational book to start with though.”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: Books on Unit Testing and TDD?”
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 |
| Test Driven Developmentby Kent BeckThis page | 3 | 1 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 4 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's still a good foundational book to start with though.”
“the right starting point is _Test Driven Development by Example_ by Kent Beck”
“I thought we already went through this and saw its failure.”
“It's very sensible. There's no requirement to get 100% coverage.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.