Top 8 Scala Books for Beginners in 2024

Scala is a strong, structural language. The language is operated like building the strong structure of a bridge.

Scala is a popular programming language that combines object-oriented and functional programming into one concise language. It was created by Martin Odersky in 2004. Scala is compiled to run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and is compatible with existing Java programs.

In this post, we will look at the five best Scala books for novice programmers to help them get mastery over Scala programming.

Why Learn Scala

Here are some reasons why you should start learning Scala:

• Simple Syntax: Scala has a simple syntax for defining functions and it allows functions to be nested easily.

• Java Compatible: Scala is compatible with Java. It also supports new technologies like Data Science or Blockchain with its amazing tools.

• Popular: Tech giants like Twitter are using Scala within production because it works!

• Community: Scala is good for self-learners due to its open and growing community.

• Professional Development: Finally, your value will be bigger if you know the Scala programming language well.

What Makes Best Scala Books

Here are our criteria for selection of the books:

• The book should contain a variety of instructional materials, including exercises, examples, questions, learning activities, and other features that promote a programmer’s engagement and active learning.

• It must have a structured, clear, and logical progression of topics.

• Content must be up-to-date and should thoroughly teach and explain the basic concepts of the Perl programming language.

• Use clear, precise, and easy-to-understand language.

• The book should have a clear layout and must be friendly toward self-taught programmers.

Best Books on Scala

Of course, the list of the best Scala books could go on and on. There are a lot of great books for beginners out there and with a little research, you can find them in no-time. Here are the five best books for beginners to learn Scala programming.

1. Best Book for Dummies: SCALA in 8 Hours

SCALA in 8 Hours by Ray Yao gives concise explanations of all aspects of Scala for a programming novice. You can learn complete primary skills of Scala programming quickly and easily. The book includes a lot of practical examples and exercises for beginners.

• Hour 1: What is Scala Language, The Feature of Scala, Install JDK, Install Scala

• Hour 2: “Hello World” Program, Basic Grammar, Scala Keywords, Scala Comment, Package, Data Type

• Hour 3: Variables, Declare Variable Type, Declare Multi Variables, Constants, Arithmetical Operators, Comparison Operators, Logical Operators, Assignment Operators

• Hour 4: If Statement, If-else Statement, If…else if…else, While Loop, Do-While Loop, For Loop

• Hour 5: Method, Default Parameters, Closure, String, String Length, String Connection, String Functions

• Hour 6: Array, Access Array Elements, Connect Array, Reverse Array Elements, Array Operations, Array Sort

• Hour 7: Scala List, Connect Two Lists, Scala Set, Set Operations, Scala Map, Connect Two Maps, Map Key & Value

• Hour 8: Tuple, Tuple Iteration, Scala Iterator, Useful Function in Iterator, Class, Object, Class & Object

The book has a neat layout, straightforward definitions and elaborate explanations for the topics. This book is only suitable for Scala programming beginners, high school students and college students

2. Best Book for Step-by-step Learners: Programming in Scala

Programming in Scala by Martin Odersky, Lex Spoon, and Bill Venners is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to learning Scala 2.13. It covers every concept of Scala starting from fundamentals and builds to advanced scala programming techniques.

The book is divided into thirty-five chapters and includes the following 

• Classes and Objects 

• Basic Types and Operations 

• Functional Objects 

• Built-in Control Structures 

• Functions and Closures 

• Control Abstraction 

• Composition and Inheritance 

• Scala's Hierarchy 

• Traits 

• Packages and Imports 

• Assertions and Tests

• Case Classes and Pattern Matching

• Working with Lists and Other Collections 

• Mutable Objects 

• Type Parameterization 

• Abstract Members 

• Implicit Conversions and Parameters 

• Implementing Lists 

• For Expressions Revisited 

• Collections in Depth

• Extractors 

• Annotations 

• Working with XML 

• Modular Programming Using Objects 

• Object Equality 

• Combining Scala and Java 

• Futures and Concurrency 

• Combinator Parsing 

• GUI Programming 

• The SCells Spreadsheet

The entire book is organized in a series of steps so that each new concept builds on concepts that came from the previous one. The book is easy to follow and includes practical exercises.

It is a complete book to learn and master Scala programming for newbies and experienced programmers.

3. Best Book for Quick Learners: Scala for the Impatient

Scala for the Impatient by Cay Horstmann introduces the key Scala 2.12 concepts and techniques you need to be productive quickly. The book includes carefully crafted examples and hands-on activities to guide you through well-defined stages of competency, from basic to expert.

The book has a straightforward writing style and includes exercises and practical examples to give you a real-world view of Scala programming. After reading the book, you will be able to

• Get started quickly with Scala 3 interpreter, syntax, tools, and current usage

• Master core language features: functions, arrays, maps, tuples, packages, imports, exception handling, and more

• Design and build better object-oriented code with Scala 3

• Use Scala for real-world programming tasks: working with files, regular expressions, and processes

• Work with higher-order functions and the powerful Scala collections library

• Create concurrent programs with Scala futures

• Understand the Scala type system, including revamped enums, intersection and union types, and enhanced type inference

• Use contextual abstractions to easily extend class hierarchies, enrich existing classes, perform automatic conversions, and elegantly hide tedious details

• Apply advanced "power tools" such as annotations and given values

• Discover how to "program with types," analyzing and generating types at compile time

• Get a taste of what's now possible with Scala macros

The book is a perfect introduction to Scala programming for impatient readers.

Other books you might like:

4. Best Book for Visual Learners: Learning Scala: Practical Functional Programming for the JVM

Learning Scala: Practical Functional Programming for the JVM by Jason Swartz provides a comprehensive yet approachable introduction to the Scala language. 

This book includes step by step learning while knowing how things work in JVM. It is packed with syntax diagrams, examples, and exercises.

• Learn about the core data types, literals, values, and variables

• Discover how to think and write in expressions, the foundation for Scala's syntax

• Write higher-order functions that accept or return other functions

• Become familiar with immutable data structures and easily transform them with type-safe and declarative operations

• Create custom infix operators to simplify existing operations or even to start your domain-specific language

• Build classes that compose one or more traits for full reusability, or create new functionality by mixing them in at instantiation

The book doesn’t assume any serious pre-requisites and is quite self-contained. It is an excellent first book for someone who is just looking to learn the language.

5. Best Book for Hands-on Learners: Hands-on Scala Programming: Learn Scala in a Practical, Project-Based Way

Hands-on Scala by Li Haoyi teaches you how to use the Scala programming language in a practical, project-based fashion. The book gives an introduction to the Scala language and goes heavily into use cases and projects.

The book is divided into twenty chapters and the contents include:

• Chapter 1 covers Hands-on Scala

• Chapter 2 covers Setting Up

• Chapter 3 talks about Basic Scala

• Chapter 4 covers Scala Collections

• Chapter 5 covers Notable Scala Features

• Chapter 6 talks about Implementing Algorithms in Scala

• Chapter 7 covers Files and Subprocesses

• Chapter 8 talks about JSON and Binary Data Serialization

• Chapter 9 covers Self-Contained Scala Scripts

• Chapter 10 talks about Static Build Pipelines

• Chapter 11 covers Scraping Websites

• Chapter 12 covers Working with HTTP APIs

• Chapter 13 talks about Fork-Join Parallelism with Futures

• Chapter 14 covers Simple Web and API Servers

• Chapter 15 covers Querying SQL Databases

• Chapter 16 covers Message-based Parallelism with Actors

• Chapter 17 talks about Multi-Process Applications

• Chapter 18 covers Building a Real-time File Synchronizer

• Chapter 19 talks about Parsing Structured Text

• Chapter 20 talks about Implementing a Programming Language

In the process, you will learn how to use the Scala language to solve challenging problems elegantly and intuitively.

6. Best Book for Serious Learners: Scala Cookbook

Scala Cookbook by Alvin Alexander is packed with more than 250 ready-to-use recipes and 1,000 code examples to help you solve the most common problems when working with Scala 3 and its popular libraries. This cookbook provides recipes based on real-world scenarios for both experienced Scala developers and novice programmers.

Recipes cover:

• Strings, numbers, and control structures

• Classes, methods, objects, traits, packaging, and imports

• Functional programming techniques

• Scala's wealth of collections classes and methods

• Building and publishing Scala applications with sbt

• Actors and concurrency with Scala Future and Akka Typed

• Popular libraries, including Spark, Scala.js, Play Framework, and GraalVM

• Types, such as variance, givens, intersections, and unions

• Best practices, including pattern matching, modules, and functional error handling

The cookbook provides a very comprehensive information on Scala programming in terms of conceptual and practical context. If you're a programmer coming from another language to Scala this is probably a must have.

7. Best book for Completionists: Hands-on Scala Programming

Hands-on Scala Programming by Haoyi Li teaches you how to use the Scala programming language in a practical, project-based fashion. This book is designed to quickly teach an existing programmer everything needed to go from "hello world" to building production applications like interactive websites, parallel web crawlers, and distributed systems in Scala.

The book teaches you the basics of the language, how to perform filesystem operations, how to work with JSON, building projects, and much more. It has practical examples of the construction of the most common components or algorithms in the day-to-day creation of solution architectures.

The book is divided into four parts and twenty chapters:

Part I: Introduction to Scala

• 1 Hands-on Scala

• 2 Setting Up

• 3 Basic Scala

• 4 Scala Collections

• 5 Notable Scala Features

Part II: Local Development

• 6 Implementing Algorithms in Scala (not in sample)

• 7 Files and Subprocesses (not in sample)

• 8 JSON and Binary Data Serialization (not in sample)

• 9 Self-Contained Scala Scripts (not in sample)

• 10 Static Build Pipelines (not in sample)

Part III: Web Services

• 11 Scraping Websites (not in sample)

• 12 Working with HTTP APIs (not in sample)

• 13 Fork-Join Parallelism with Futures (not in sample)

• 14 Simple Web and API Servers (not in sample)

• 15 Querying SQL Databases (not in sample)

Part IV: Program Design

• 16 Message-based Parallelism with Actors (not in sample)

• 17 Multi-Process Applications (not in sample)

• 18 Building a Real-time File Synchronizer (not in sample)

• 19 Parsing Structured Text (not in sample)

• 20 Implementing a Programming Language

All the exercises and problem sets (with solutions) are neatly linked to Github. The unique feature of the book is the coverage of a suite of utilities including uJson, uPickle, fastParse, Cask, and Ammonite.

Whether you’re new to Scala or looking for a refresher or some fresh takes, this is definitely the book for you!

8. Best Book for Expert Insights: Programming Scala

Programming Scala teaches you how to be productive with Scala quickly and explains what makes this language ideal for today’s scalable, distributed, component-based applications. You'll learn why Scala is ideal for building today's highly scalable, data-centric applications, while maximizing developer productivity.

Here’s what you’ll get from the book:

• Program faster with Scala's succinct and flexible syntax

• Dive into basic and advanced functional programming techniques

• Build killer big data and distributed apps using Scala's functional combinators and tools like Spark and Akka

• Create concise solutions to challenging design problems with the sophisticated type system, mixin composition with traits, pattern matching, and more

The third edition covers the new features in Scala 3.0 with updates throughout the book. Programming Scala is ideal for beginning to advanced developers who want a complete understanding of Scala's design philosophy and features with a thoroughly practical focus.

More Ways to Learn

The world of Scala programming is in constant growth and the learning opportunities are simply endless!

While learning, I always recommend doubling up on resources so that you do not burn out on just reading. Using all of the senses and changing your environment is the best way to learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Here are some more ways you can learn:

• Udemy: I recommend taking Udemy’s course Scala & Functional Programming for Beginners, which is a highly-rated bestseller that is packed with 15 hours of video content.

• Coursera: Coursera offers Functional Programming in Scala Specialization, which is a highly-rated series of courses that you can take altogether or separately. The course is project driven and gets you coding.

And there’s one last things: I’ve compiled over 70 free learning resources for beginner programmers to help you continue your journey. I hope to see you over there and have a wonderful day. 😊