This book is non-trivial. Programmers without a background in Mathematics should take care not to be intimidated by the formalism and lose heart while studying this book (i myself have not finished it). Some knowledge of Discrete Mathematics, Logic and in particular; Abstract Algebra are prerequisites. I can recommend https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201179571/ref=dbs_a_def_r... for the reqd. background. It is one thing to know mathematical concepts and quite another to know how to apply it to programming. That is where this book comes in.