People learn at different speeds, and intelligence + natural talent is a huge factor when it comes to learning this stuff. The two most talented programmers I k

People learn at different speeds, and intelligence + natural talent is a huge factor when it comes to learning this stuff. The two most talented programmers I know have quite different backgrounds: One is your archetypical hacker - started coding as a young child, demo-scene by the time he was 13, and got headhunted before he could enroll college. The other guy didn't write a line of code until he was 21, after switching majors from econ to engineering - three years later, he was getting offers from FAANG companies and quant/hedge funds. But, I do think that if people consistently work and study programming for 10 years, then most will have a solid grasp afterwards. That means doing actual constructive work almost every day, for 10 years - doing work that either challenges you, or teaches you how to use the tools. Being an expert (or highly competent) programmer is not only about knowing CS-theory at heart, and being able to translate that into working code - it's also being fluid with the tools. And, luckily, becoming good with tools doesn't take much more than time and effort. You could be the worst programmer in the world, but given enough time, you could learn every nook and cranny of some language and its ecosystem.