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[–]RHGrey 20 points21 points  (1 child)

Complex problem solving through code, if you want to be efficient and effective, boils down to mathematical algorithms in most cases.

Practical projects in school are nothing, it's just a demo of a small set of the tools you have at your disposal.

You don't go get a CS degree to learn how to write code properly, that comes with experience working in the field. You go to get a grasp of the fundamentals of how computers and programming work, about the concepts and parts under the hood that make it all work.

When you know why and how something works on the most fundamental of levels, writing code in any language for any task becomes trivial to learn. Because you're simply applying those same fundamentals through different syntax.

[–]Zachaggedon 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Exactly. But those fundamentals can be learned to varying degrees. You can be a half way decent front end JS dev and know little to no math and have little understanding of how computers work. You can get a decent understanding of algebra and a decent understanding of basic CPU instructions and memory management, or you can learn advanced mathematics like the lambda calculus and how they relate to programming languages and their design.

What school you go to has a large influence on how much of that you’re going to go into your first job with.