By Gergely Orosz, the author of The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter and Building Mobile Apps at Scale
Navigating senior, tech lead, staff and principal positions at tech companies and startups. An Amazon #1 Best Seller. New: the hardcover is out! As is the audibook. Now available in 6 languages.
: A high-stakes rescue mission set inside and around a grounded Boeing 747 aircraft.
Shipment, a Modern Warfare map, has become infamous due to its small size and fast-paced gameplay. This map's emphasis on close-quarters combat made it a favorite among players.
| Map Name | Description/Connection | | :--- | :--- | | de_dust2 | The quintessential competitive map separated by "Long A," "Cat," and "Mid". | | de_inferno | Tight banana corridor leading to A site and the archway-controlled B site. | | de_nuke | A multi-level facility where the upper floor sits directly above lower bombsites. | | de_train | Set in a rail yard with deadly "pop-dog" alley and ladder-filled hallways. | | de_aztec | Ancient ruins with two bridges crossing the river and the "double doors" choke point. | | de_cbble | Castle map featuring a massive courtyard drop and a twisting spiral staircase. | | de_prodigy | High-tech research facility with glowing green coolant and armored doors. | | de_vertigo | A construction site built on the edge of a skyscraper. | | de_vegas | Las Vegas casino map with a sphinx statue and a vent system. |
Correctly updating head/tail pointers when deleting or adding elements.
abstract data type using various list-based underlying structures. In these foundational computer science courses, students explore how to transition from simple arrays to more complex associative containers. Loyola University Chicago Understanding the Map ADT is a collection of unique , where each key is associated with a specific
Even today, the core design principles of these maps live on. Modern CS:GO and CS2 maps like Mirage, Inferno, and Nuke are direct descendants of the original CS 1.5 maps list, often retaining the same basic layout and chokepoints.
Beyond the Premier pool, the Competitive and Casual modes offer a mix of classic maps and new community creations introduced by Valve in early 2026.
The book is separated into six standalone parts, each part covering several chapters:
Parts 1 and 6 apply to all engineering levels: from entry-level software developers to principal or above engineers. Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 cover increasingly senior engineering levels. These four parts group topics in chapters – such as ones on software engineering, collaboration, getting things done, and so on.
This book is more of a reference book that you can refer back to, as you grow in your career. I suggest skimming over the career levels and chapters that you are familiar with, and focus reading on topics you struggle with, or career levels where you are aiming to get to. Keep in mind that expectations can vary greatly between companies.
In this book, I’ve aimed to align the topics and leveling definitions closer to what is typical at Big Tech and scaleups: but you might find some of the topics relevant for lower career levels in later chapters. For example, we cover logging, montiroing and oncall in Part 5: “Reliable software systems” in-depth: but it’s useful – and oftentimes necessary! – to know about these practices below the staff engineer levels.
The Software Engineer's Guidebook is available in multiple languages:
You should now be able to ask your local book shops to order the book for you via Ingram Spark Print-on-demand - using the ISBN code 9789083381824. I'm also working on making the paperback more accessible in additional regions, including translated versions. Please share details here if you're unable to get the book in your country and I'll aim to remedy the situation.
I'd like to think so! The book can help you get ideas on how to help software engineers on your team grow. And if you are a hands-on engineering manager (which I hope you might be!) then you can apply the topics yourself! I wrote more about staying hands-on as an engineering manager or lead in The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.
I've gotten this variation of a question from Data Engineers, ML Engineers, designers and SREs. See the more detailed table of contents and the "Look inside" sample to get a better idea of the contents of the book. I have written this book with software engineers as the target group, and the bulk of the book applies for them. Part 1 is more generally applicable career advice: but that's still smaller subset of the book.