.NET Learning Path For Students

Lately, I have been receiving many emails from students and fresh graduates asking for advice or recommendations about the right way to become solid in the development field – I mean here programming under Microsoft .NET Platform –

So, I decided to write this blog post about my perspectives about the best learning path that I recommend for students including online resources, Books, Tutorials, and some blogs.

To be completely honest, at the moment of writing this post, I totally believe in one thing regarding the educational system in our region (Middle East – Specifically the Gulf and Arab World), That the complete IT educational system is a big failure and it’s killing the talent and passion in any student due to many factors that definitely will prepare the students for unemployment world.

I will begin with the fundamentals that are necessary for any student, fresh graduate, and even some developers in the field, Let’s start with non-technical books, It’s going to help you a lot in preparing your mindset for systematic thinking:

The Art of Systems Thinking: Essential Skills for Creativity and Problem Solving by Joseph O’Connor Read more about this book…

I assume that you are familiar with some programming languages such as C++, Java, or C#, and you studied the Object Oriented Programming course, and as usual 99% of students study the OOP without understanding the real need for such a concept, and a big percentage of them finish their class to get the degree without even building a solid understanding of the basic concepts, to fix this I recommend to read the following awesome book about OOP basic concepts and I am sure that you will understand the basic concepts in a very smooth way:

Object Technology: A Manager’s Guide by David A. Taylor Read more about this book…

Now it’s time to get your hands dirty with some code, I definitely recommend to focus on C# (CSharp) language, basically because it’s an ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) standardized language meaning it’s a commercially recognized language in the market, and many big names and vendors are supporting it, Click here for more information. This time I recommend tutorials from Microsoft Beginner Developer Learning Center, and not a book:

After finishing the C# tutorials in Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3, you will become familiar with the .NET code and style.

Now it’s the time to understand what you are writing and how things are going on inside the .NET platform, and from my perspective, this is the most important piece in your learning path, and you have to focus here, and read the book that I’ll mention carefully, It will change your career for ever

CLR via C# 3th (third) edition Text Only by Jeffrey Richter Read more about this book…

“CLR via C#” is one of the most important books in your career, If you read it, understand it, and practice it, you will become a very solid .NET Developer, even if you are a senior developer or architect, this book is one of the must have books, and if you didn’t read it yet, believe me you are missing a very valuable information that can make a real difference in your career level.

Finally, this is a simple guidance in your .NET learning journey and I hope you’ll find this helpful.