This is a survey of achievements in the theory and applications of finite fields and in many related areas such as algebraic number theory, theoretical computer science, coding theory and cryptography. Topics treated include polynomial factorization over finite fields, the finding and distribution of irreducible primitive and other special polynomials, constructing special bases of extensions of finite fields, curves and exponential sums, and linear recurrent sequences. Besides a general overview of the area, its results and methods, it suggests a number of interesting research problems of various levels of difficulty.