Derived categories and equivalences between them are the pièce de résistance of modern homological algebra. They are widely used in many branches of mathematics, especially in algebraic geometry and representation theory. In this note, we shall survey some recently developed construction methods of derived equivalences for algebras and rings, with applications to homological conjectures, such as Broué's abelian defect group conjecture and the finitistic dimension conjecture, and to computation of higher algebraic K‐groups of algebras and rings.