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>>I think it's just a necessary culling of the people who aren't going to be happy or successful in programming careers. Thanks for the article, but he is wron

>>I think it's just a necessary culling of the people who aren't going to be happy or successful in programming careers. Thanks for the article, but he is wrong on this point. I have been programming for 17 years and I a) probably wouldn't do well if given an test on algorithms b) have many happy customers that would vouch for me. In 2013 I don't need to know how to traverse through a linked list to write web software that pleases clients. The thing about needing to know pointers and algorithms to have a successful career in programming is wrong. The closest thing to algorithms I need to know is that I need indexes in my database if the queries get slow. I would argue most developers need to learn marketing more than how to program a fibonacci sequence using recursion.

dragos2 14y ago
"That's just like...aa.. your opinion man." - The Big Lebowski Spoiler: every set of instructions you code is an algorithm. An algorithm is not something magical, it's just a series of steps that lead you to a result. Knowing different algorithms and knowing which one is better for you allows you to create the best solution for a problem. For example, having to display a sorted list of contacts or a list of geographic locations can be achieved in many ways. Depending on what algorithm you use for sorting that list you can have a result in 1 second or 2 hours. Says that you can be a programmer without the use of algorithms or pointers is like saying you can be a chef without knowing how to cut onions.