Weird, most programmers I know consider compilers to be at least somewhat advanced. To answer your question, two years ago I knew nothing about programming, I w

Weird, most programmers I know consider compilers to be at least somewhat advanced. To answer your question, two years ago I knew nothing about programming, I was poor, living in China, with no marketable skills. I had to teach myself everything in my spare time. In that time I mostly studied frameworks, algorithms, data structures, the quirks of JS etc. I managed to do well enough that I'm now working 9-5 in silicon valley making UI for medical software. Unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to learn about compilers or database internals.