20 years ago? Definitely. Today things are a little different. So much abstraction makes it possible to plug programs together without knowing such things. If

20 years ago? Definitely. Today things are a little different. So much abstraction makes it possible to plug programs together without knowing such things. If I were hiring a generalist hacker type, they'd better know the answer. I expect a generalist to be able to do all kinds of tasks. But a specialist on something high level might get a pass.