In one of the first interviews I conducted (for my first ever startup), I interviewed a guy who had enough of his corporate job. He was a java architect, studyi

In one of the first interviews I conducted (for my first ever startup), I interviewed a guy who had enough of his corporate job. He was a java architect, studying for some of those SC... whatever exams. He was also a graduate of my alma mater. Same univeristy, same faculty. I thought he would be great. I was new to this, but had looked up two coding quizes. The first one was really simple, I found it a bit embarrassing during the first few interviews. Now that was the interview, with this guy, when I decided that I'll never state that I'll give them two coding challenges and that the first one is really simple. Because the dude wasn't able to solve it, at all. And when I say simple, I mean simple. My co-founder, who sat over all those interviews and who really had nothing to do with programming, did already understand the problem and solution after a few rounds of interviews. So while I do think that getting CS (or similar) degree does indeed give you a lot it's by no means a proof that someone can actually write code.