Beyond Code

Contents

Algorithms, data structures, design, and the engineering judgment that connects them — with Nex.

Foreword — What This Book Is For Foreword Prologue — The Day the System Broke Prologue

Part I Seeing The Problem

What Problem Are We Actually Solving?

Looking at the Real World

Writing a Problem Statement

Edge Cases — Where Systems Break

From Stories to Specifications

Our First Tiny System

Part II Modeling the World

Why Software Needs Models

Entities — The Things That Exist

Relationships — How Things Connect

Designing a Good Data Model

Modeling Change

The Model Redesign

Part III The Shape of Algorithms

What Is an Algorithm?

Breaking Problems Apart

Thinking Recursively

Measuring Algorithm Behavior

The First Experiments

Part IV Organizing Data

Lists and Sequences

Trees — Structured Data

Graphs — Networks of Everything

The Scaling Crisis

Part V Algorithms That Power Systems

Searching for What Matters

Sorting the World

Exploring Trees and Graphs

Finding the Best Path

When Algorithms Compete

Part VI Building Real Software

From Algorithms to Components

Functional Thinking

Object-Oriented Thinking

Designing Interfaces

The Architecture Refactor

Part VII Making Software Trustworthy

Preconditions and Postconditions

Invariants — Rules That Must Never Break

Testing as Exploration

Debugging Like an Engineer

Part VIII Systems That Grow

Managing Complexity

Designing for Change

Refactoring Without Fear

Part IX Programming in the Age of AI

Working With AI Coding Assistants

Reviewing AI-Generated Code

Human Judgment in an AI World

Back Matter

Epilogue — The Systems Behind Everything Epilogue Glossary Reference Index of Terms Reference References Reference