Strong CS fundamentals is understanding all the various patterns and tricks in algorithms and data structures, and how they could be applied to problems outside

Strong CS fundamentals is understanding all the various patterns and tricks in algorithms and data structures, and how they could be applied to problems outside of where you originally learned them. That is it, outside of actual CS research work, when applied to an actual software job. Ask any self taught person how much they need “CS fundamentals” to blow the pants of any business need for an app and they’ll tell you probably very little. When you’re doing tools for programmers, it gets a lot more complicated. That is not most jobs.