I believe GP's implicit point was that you also need to know even to ask the right question. Granted, an autodidact programmer might have encountered the conce

I believe GP's implicit point was that you also need to know even to ask the right question. Granted, an autodidact programmer might have encountered the concepts, but a CS graduate must have. In my case, I was an autodidact well before I went in for Electronics Engineering. Because of personal interest, I put in a lot of time into these things, and did get to know them, but didn't really hear once about them in EE. I guess if one engages long and deeply enough, they'll get to a high enough level - they'll acquire "sufficient expertise", per PG's turn of phrase. Conversely, no amount of CS courses will get one any wiser if they don't pay attention. Everything always depends.