I · Distributed systems & databases
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
What it does
The single book to read if you build software that handles data. Storage engines, replication, partitioning, transactions, consistency, distributed processing — all explained with the same patient clarity.
Who should read it
Senior engineers and tech leads. The book "everyone has a copy of" in any infra team.
Why it stands outChapter 7 (Transactions) is what made snapshot isolation click for thousands of engineers.