My CS course at Edinburgh had similar levels of projects, as did many others I’ve heard of - so I don’t think it’s anything particularly out of the ordinary for

My CS course at Edinburgh had similar levels of projects, as did many others I’ve heard of - so I don’t think it’s anything particularly out of the ordinary for a good teaching university. The thing is, “professional programming” is a very different challenge from a task like this one, and it’s hard to describe either as objectively “easier”. The provision of a clear outcome, resources, guidance, teaching time etc. can go a long way to helping deliver a good outcome - often things professional developers don’t have as much access to. I’d bet the majority of developers I know (and respect) put on to this project would fail at it without support - similarly, an early-career student would likewise crash and burn if put on to, say, developing a front-end architecture for a modern web app. Horses for courses.