It seems you only care about the perceived difficulty. I know everyone is proud of their children, but there is really no need to equate programming with any ki

It seems you only care about the perceived difficulty. I know everyone is proud of their children, but there is really no need to equate programming with any kind of math, let alone any "levels". Programming can and does stand on its own, you don't need to legitimize it through comparison with socially-accepted math skills. The premise is flawed, in two ways. First, programming is not math. It can be math-y, but that's not the same thing. Neither is programming any "level" of linguistics, even though it can be language-like at times. You can reason about certain aspects of programming by using math concepts, such as lambda calc, discrete logic, or Turing machines and similar constructs. Second, and most importantly, math is not a valid measure of difficulty! Some people have an easy time with equations, but can't for the life of them figure out how loops work. With other people, it's the opposite. And it really is that trivial.