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Beyond Code – Building Software Systems That Last
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Foreword: What This Book Is For
Prologue — The Day the System Broke
Part I — Seeing The Problem
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What Problem Are We Actually Solving?
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Looking at the Real World
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Writing a Problem Statement
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Edge Cases — Where Systems Break
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From Stories to Specifications
Studio 1 — Our First Tiny System
Part II — Modeling the World
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Why Software Needs Models
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Entities — The Things That Exist
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Relationships — How Things Connect
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Designing a Good Data Model
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Modeling Change
Studio 2 — The Model Redesign
Part III — The Shape of Algorithms
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What Is an Algorithm?
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Breaking Problems Apart
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Thinking Recursively
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Measuring Algorithm Behavior
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Algorithm Lab — The First Experiments
Part IV — Organizing Data
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Lists and Sequences
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Sets and Maps
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Trees — Structured Data
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Graphs — Networks of Everything
Studio 3 — The Scaling Crisis
Part V — Algorithms That Power Systems
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Searching for What Matters
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Sorting the World
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Exploring Trees and Graphs
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Finding the Best Path
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Algorithm Lab — When Algorithms Compete
Part VI — Building Real Software
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From Algorithms to Components
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Functional Thinking
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Object-Oriented Thinking
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Designing Interfaces
Studio 4 — The Architecture Refactor
Part VII — Making Software Trustworthy
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Preconditions and Postconditions
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Invariants — Rules That Must Never Break
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Testing as Exploration
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Debugging Like an Engineer
Studio 5 — Reliability
Part VIII — Systems That Grow
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Managing Complexity
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Designing for Change
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Refactoring Without Fear
Studio 6 — Evolution
Part IX — Programming in the Age of AI
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Working With AI Coding Assistants
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Reviewing AI-Generated Code
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Human Judgment in an AI World
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Epilogue — The Systems Behind Everything
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Glossary
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Index of Terms
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References
Table of contents
Beyond Code – Building Software Systems That Last
Author
Vijay Mathew
Published
March 18, 2026
Foreword: What This Book Is For