Serverless Handbook: Dive into modern backend. Understand any backend

With Serverless Handbook, Swiz teaches the truths of distributed systems – things will fail – but he also gives you insight on how to architect projects using reliability and resilience perspectives so you can monitor and recover.

~ Thai Wood, author of Resilience Roundup

How do you dive into modern serverless backend?

You pick a project and start Googling!

You’ll find hundreds of resources. By experts for experts. All assuming you’re a seasoned backend engineer with decades of experience. They’re full of weird terms, strange concepts, and new references.

Soon you’ll find yourself reading obscure comments on GitHub issues and StackOverflow trying to glue it all together. You’re learning lots of little details, but how does it all fit together?

That was me in 2018.

Tired of traditional backend complexity I just wanted to run some quick JavaScript on the cloud. What followed was a rabbit hole so deep it made my head spin.

The whole time I wished there was a clear book for backend beginners. Someone who’s good with JavaScript, knows the basic concepts of backend, and wants to truly understand the mindset and tactics of modern backend development.

Serverless Handbook for frontend engineers is that book. The resource I wish I had 15 years ago when I wrote my first server, 3 years ago when I discovered serverless, and every moment in between banging my head against issues in production.

Serverless Handbook is a guide from the trenches. No academic bullshit

Here’s what early readers had to say:

Serverless Handbook taught me high-leveled topics. I don’t like specific courses with source code (unless it’s the exactly thing I want to build) but these chapters helped me to feel like i’m not a total noob anymore. The hand-drawn diagrams and high-leveled descriptions gave me the feeling that i don’t have any critical “knowledge gaps” anymore

I’m using these skills on some serverless projects in a dayjob. Also very convenient to use with my side projects.

The code examples! I like that you included a lot of code examples. It sparked my interest in serverless. Since reading the book I’ve taken a few courses/workshops in serverless but this was the book that started the serverless journey for me. Can’t wait to build a micro SaaS app with my friends

Serverless Handbook takes you from beginner to solid full-stack engineer. It shows you the mindsets and tactics to use with any backend. It talks about distributed data processing, designing a REST API, how to build GraphQL, handling authentication, and keeping your code secure.

Every chapter helps you choose what to do. Because your project is unique and understanding beats cookie-cutter recipes. This book is a why, not a how. But there’s enough how to start you off 🙂

Serverless Handbook is everything I wish I knew about backend programming 10 years ago.

This handbook is a fantastic overview of what it means to embrace serverless technology. After explaining what the heck “serverless” really means, the book digs deep into the core elements of serverless in an easy-to-follow illustrative manner with ready deployable code!

I’m highly impressed by Swizecs’s approach to teaching devs how to adopt new serverless technology

~ David Wells, Serverless Framework core contributor