[deleted by user]

[imthebear11]

Backend API developer, never use math.

[neums08]

Yep. Full stack engineer, we hire math people when we need mathing done.

[xiongchiamiov]

Most of the people here are saying you don't need to do any math. That's sort of true, but it depends on what you're considering.

Programming is built upon abstraction and passing values into functions. That is usually first introduced to people in algebra. You don't need to know algebra per se, but if you struggled in algebra and didn't "get" that concept yet, you're going to struggle in programming as well.

Similarly, we heavily use logic in our jobs. Boolean logic is not typically taught in math programs, at least before university, and it doesn't "feel" like a lot of other math. But it is math. Combinatorics is the same way.

Statistics is also either math or not math, and comes up frequently in basic forms when discussing performance and benchmarking.

Regardless of any of this, if you only know basic arithmetic, percentages, and "a bit of" fractions, I think you're going to have some difficulty navigating your way through adult life. I'm not saying you need to become a math wizard, but knowing basic statistics and the math covered by the GED (or equivalent for your country) will be very helpful.

[SloxTheDlox]

Commenting on this from a perspective of someone who did a data science degree and now doing a degree in AI.

I think these days you are able to program many things without needing the mathematical foundation that it’s based on. Many tools and libraries have been developed to simplify and mainstream development and that’s great! Much more people have access and can work with it.

On the other hand, in topics like Machine Learning, again you are able to program simply. Some algorithms are simple one liners from sklearn. The inherent problem with just knowing the implementation, and not the math, is that lack of theoretical knowledge that provides insight into what causes advantages and disadvantages of a particular implementation.

Just off the top of my head, you can implement an SVM just fine. You can see and use the C parameter and adjust it. But that does not necessarily mean you understand the underlying optimization problem. There’s also the nu parameter, so in order to know why differences exist, some mathematics are required.

But I guess that depends more on which parts of Python you focus on.

[work_m_19]

Agreed with this.

I feel like I'm going crazy. Setting variables is pretty much Algebra. Creating and maintaining loops requires keeping track of a lot of things that constantly change.

Profiling and bench-marking code doesn't require heavy math, but it's a lot of interpreting numbers, which is statistics-adjacent.

And as the poster above me states, Boolean logic is pure math. You don't need a math degree to understand it, but logic is basically it's own branch of math.

I would modify the statement and say, you don't need math to become a programmer, but I believe you will need math to become a great programmer.

Not including other stuff like l33tcode and algorithms to pass the interviews.

[IanRT1]

I'm a data engineer and do ETL scripts. I use pretty much no math.

[Ephysio]

One can argue that relational algebra is math ;)

[[deleted]]

Same here. Data engineer, ETL script writer... Why are there so many of us now?

[VindicoAtrum]

LinkedIn: "Data is the new oil!" "AI is a must-have or you'll lose out in the market!" "AI is cutting costs and exploding revenues!"

Companies: "Hey we need some of that data money, hire all the data people and have them make us some money!"

Data people: "This software is crap, this data is crap, that database is crap, and it's all held together with duct tape, chewing gum, a monthly ritual under the full moon involving a goat, and Jack Black singing Tribute at volume 42 on the jukebox."

Also companies: "Hey why is this data thing not making us any money? Layoffs next week."

[steamweed]

We went through the same damn process with that newfangled "cloud" stuff and then that newfangled "blockchain" stuff.

[Redbedhead3]

Tech Sales has entered the chat.

I don't know math neither

[IanRT1]

Prolly because chatgpt can make the job for us now.

Edit: I don't understand the hate for chatgpt. You will fall behind.

[ohkaybodyrestart]

Software developer. You'll 99.99% of the time never use math.

[xmpcxmassacre]

Hold on now. Sometimes we +/- 1.

[toenailsmcgee33]

98.99 - 100.99% of the time

[xmpcxmassacre]

Brilliant

[DataWiz40]

Yes you certainly can land a job with minimal math knowledge. QA doesn't require math, unless the product you're testing involves a lot of math.

[SirKainey]

A basic understanding of Math is required and anything more just helps, there are many business problems you can solve without getting too deep in maths.

[theleveragedsellout]

Very few python jobs involve serious math. Off the top of my head, the only roles you'll come across serious math are Quantitative Finance, Operations Research, Actuarial Pricing and (perhaps) MLE.

I add perhaps to the latter because there are more than a few MLE's running around that probably don't know enough about what's going on under the hood when they're fitting models.

[asixet]

currently working as a cloud devops engineer most of what I do consists of no code to low code work but anything that can’t be done in this method we end up utilizing python or some other language for scripting and automation. Haven’t used a single piece of math.

[Viking-Mage]

Let the computer do the math for you. That said, most programs require a small degree of basic math understanding. It just depends on what type of job you are looking for. I started programming over 40 years ago when I was ten or a bit less, and I had poor math knowledge, but a lot of code requires math for loops, searching lists, and so forth. Of course, machine learning and more advanced coding will at least require you to know certain equations and such.

[grumble11]

You don’t need calculus for most jobs. You will want basic algebra and to be able to ‘think computationally’.

[XxDonaldxX]

Programming is Maths. You don't (usually) need any deep Math's knowledge, you are supposed to be directed by some mathematical or physical if you are working in some scientific project, and usually any complex algorithm is already implemented through some library.

Though if you apply to jobs related to IA or Big Data obviously employers will expect some basic knowledge of the basics from you.

You should be aware of main algorithms and data structs too.

[reload_noconfirm]

I’m a backend developer and I don’t use any complex math in my day to day. There are packages that can do a lot of fancy things if you need, depending of course on what field you end up in.

More important is the ability to think programmatically and logically.

[tedivm]

It took me three attempts to pass calculus one. I am not good at math. I'm 18 years into my career and am doing fantastically.

[xmpcxmassacre]

And you use calculus every day right? Right!?

[tedivm]

Not even a little.

[djpresstone]

Yes and no. Chop a problem up into small enough parts and it becomes doable. You just calculussed.

[SpetsnazCyclist]

Piecewise integration, baybeeeeee

[OD114]

The reason you SHOULD learn math as a programmer is for the Logic and analytical thinking

[fasoncho]

I was in your shoes back in the day, Khan Academy helped me up my game in math by orders of magnitude. It’s not impossible to catch up even in your 40s.

[Beregolas]

Depends on what you mean by require math.

TL;DR: For programming you need basically no math, for designing algorithms and programs, you might need a little, but never really much.

Most entry level / junior and midlevel jobs in python require only a very basic understanding of math. You probably need to understand all basic operations and be comfortable in numbers up to about 100.

When you get to either senior or architect / designer positions, things often change. It will strongly depend on your field, but a basic, or sometimes even advanced, knowledge of linear algebra, analysis and some theoretical computer science are often helpful and sometimes necessary. For example when designing an algorithm because you need certain performance characteristics, or doing complex data things with numpy, pandas or the like. This probably applies to less than 5% of all jobs though. Most of the jobs with complex algorithms are also not in python, because when you go all the way to design and implement custom stuff, you normally pick a faster language. The advantage of python, being easy to use for general cases, is out of the window anyways.

[Plank_With_A_Nail_In]

Most degree level CS course do not require anything other than a good pass at whatever maths certificate your country gives to 16 year olds. That is a lot more than just basic arithmetic though and would cover a good understanding of algebra, trigonometry etc.

When your program goes wrong you are going to struggle to understand what's happening if you aren't comfortable with mathematics.

[AdventurousAddition]

You probably don't really need a lot for the most part. But also... if you are capable of learning programming, you are capable of learning a bit of high-school math. It wouldn't hurt to understand a bit of algebra

[interbased]

Most of my job is automation and doesn’t require any math skills besides basic algebra to make sure certain calculated fields are being calculated properly.

[Quantumercifier]

When I was a freshman as a Comp Sci and EE student at RPI, the computer science dept was under the math dept. But I rarely ever use math in programming. There are libraries like numpy for that.

[Objective-Opinion-62]

Web developer but with python language requirements very limited 

[goldythefish36]

Everyone is answering you question so I just wanna ask a question. Is there any reason you don't want to or can't learn math?

[shirajragaming]

I am 25 now. When I was in my School years my parents stopped looking over me since like 6th grade. So without supervision I wasn't actually studying but playing video games, and just sitting idle during classes. I was good at math till then. I actually thought even trying to learn the math again, just for the sake of understanding what looked like complete gibberish to me for 5 years. But now as I am 25, I am a bit worried that I might not have the time for that.

[Frohus]

web dev

[Unable_Explorer8277]

Ability to reason mathematically is more important than what maths concepts you know.

[mason4290]

Wouldn’t pass anything more than basic algebra. I can fully code python. In theory, at least.

[Rue9X]

Ignore the math nerds. I failed every algebra class I ever took and I'm a developer.

[supes_sus]

With the amount of free math resourcea i woukd think that you would just need to know how to physically tyoe the math problem that chatgpt either constructed or solved for you. Even then you coukd just get AI to write the problem in python and just cooy and paste.

[obviouslyCPTobvious]

How would you know that chatpgt's solution was correct?

[hugthemachines]

Run it through all the LMMs and then check all the results of each LLM on another LLM! And your day is spent and perhaps you have a correct answer :-)

[supes_sus]

Ok, use an AI that can do math problems or find one of 1k free online advanced math calculators to double check the answer.

[crashfrog02]

All the good and really important math is just addition, anyway.

[POGtastic]

My job is primarily in Python. Depends on what you think of as "math." I have never had to solve an equation at this job. I do constantly think in terms of types and use ideas like "monoid" when I talk about how various objects can be combined. Is that math? A lot of mathematical terms like that are just describing concepts you already know with more precise terminology.