I'm a self-taught developer with significant programming experience who has worked as CTO of a successful startup (multimillion dollar exit) founded by others,

I'm a self-taught developer with significant programming experience who has worked as CTO of a successful startup (multimillion dollar exit) founded by others, has sold one of my own businesses for six figures, and who currently runs several independent, profitable projects. In more than a dozen years of programming, never once have I had to talk to someone about IPC. And if someone pulled that sort of higher-than-thou test-by-acronym-recogition at a job interview I would laugh at them unless the salary is literally 200k and in an area which involves kernel hacking, which is pretty much the only situation in which I think it would be reasonable. Reality is that there is a bias against hiring self-taught people and many common practices like these are basically screeners against that as opposed to measures of actual skill and expertise. One tip if you are job-hunting is to ask potential employers to review your code before you jump through their interview hoops. The places/people who are serious about hiring will do it. Those who will not are more likely to filter using this sort of arcane minutiae and are not worth your time unless they are paying for you to attend the interview. Your salary expectations are also quite reasonable fwiw.