Only 3 of the 56 classes I took at UCLA matter in my daily software engineering work. Any engineer would agree that those three courses are worth their weight in gold.
No class I took at any level of education has had more of a direct effect on my success than middle-school typing. Being able to touch type quickly and accurately is a force multiplier across multiple dimensions.
This syllabus is a perfect example of what happens when you just used HTML and not include CSS 😝
But anyways, thanks for the classes. I agree that some classes weigh more than others, but I also think it's important to have a broad understanding of CS since there are times when a class might seem unimportant, but can actually be important in the future.
It's like when Steve Jobs said "Creativity is just connecting things...And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people... A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem."
Just taking more classes in CS will give you more experience and understanding of computers. I think it's also important to focus on open-source projects, but having a broad understanding can make it easier.
Hey - also a UCLA grad here, we might have overlapped. Any recommendations on open source resources for each of these fields? I work very closely with SWEs and SDEs so I want to get smarter on the backend.
Mar 17, 2023·edited Mar 17, 2023Liked by Ryan Peterman
I go to Georgia Tech and I can agree that only a few of the classes really mattered for SWE and it's pretty similar to your list. For me, it was CS 1331 (intro to OOP), CS 1332 (Data Structures & Algorithms), CS 2340 (Objects and Design aka class we learned git). The other nice to have classes were CS 2110/2200 (low-level programming), CS 3510 (Algorithms) and CS 4400 (databases).
Everything else, I've learned on my own using resources like FullStackOpen, Leetcode, and working on open-source projects and internships.
No class I took at any level of education has had more of a direct effect on my success than middle-school typing. Being able to touch type quickly and accurately is a force multiplier across multiple dimensions.
I disagree that only three classes mattered. It simply may be the others matter in ways in which you are unaware. This article touches on some of those details: https://www.pearlleff.com/the-value-of-an-undergraduate-degree
This syllabus is a perfect example of what happens when you just used HTML and not include CSS 😝
But anyways, thanks for the classes. I agree that some classes weigh more than others, but I also think it's important to have a broad understanding of CS since there are times when a class might seem unimportant, but can actually be important in the future.
It's like when Steve Jobs said "Creativity is just connecting things...And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people... A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem."
Just taking more classes in CS will give you more experience and understanding of computers. I think it's also important to focus on open-source projects, but having a broad understanding can make it easier.
Hey - also a UCLA grad here, we might have overlapped. Any recommendations on open source resources for each of these fields? I work very closely with SWEs and SDEs so I want to get smarter on the backend.
I go to Georgia Tech and I can agree that only a few of the classes really mattered for SWE and it's pretty similar to your list. For me, it was CS 1331 (intro to OOP), CS 1332 (Data Structures & Algorithms), CS 2340 (Objects and Design aka class we learned git). The other nice to have classes were CS 2110/2200 (low-level programming), CS 3510 (Algorithms) and CS 4400 (databases).
Everything else, I've learned on my own using resources like FullStackOpen, Leetcode, and working on open-source projects and internships.
It seems Math majors are most useful than CS majors. Definitely intertwined.
Funnily enough if you spoke to engineers working in Meta's Infra Org, they would have different answers than yours.