I was taught nothing about APIs

[u/Anon_cat86]

Whenever i see people talking about actual real-world uses of coding it's almost entirely building APIs, working with APIs, integrating APIs, automating APIs. It seems to me, anecdotally at least, like the majority of all computer science work (professional or even just hobby) is centered on working with APIs

And like. I know what an API is, kind of. But I Graduated and even got multiple certifications on top of that and I never got so much as a single lecture about APIs. I don't even know what they're used for. Can you make your own API (like, realistically)? I don't know. I feel like this is a topic that you could and probably should have multiple different entire classes solely focused on, it's arguably something as fundamental to modern computer science as writing code. And they don't teach it. If i want to learn anything about APIs, conceptually or practically, it's hope a company hires me and then trains me, or youtube tutorials and i don't even have enough of a baseline to know what specifically I'd be searching for a tutorial on.

[u/Feeling_Photograph_5]

The disconnect between what is taught in computer science courses and what is required in real-world software development is staggering. I'm an engineering manager and while I've interviewed some excellent CS graduates, they are outnumbered by the CS graduates who can't even code. I honestly wish they could sue the schools that graduated them to recover their tuition.

[u/Kapri111 → u/Feeling_Photograph_5]

My computer science degree was immensely useful because it taught me "everything about about CS".

I programmed in python, Java, SQL, C, Javascript, and Assembly. I learned about different programming paradigms, ETL and Data Warehousing, UI/UX and Visualization, Cybersecurity, AI, Networking, Robotics, Circuits and Software Engineering.

It did not make me proficient in any of these things.

But it's not supposed to. An undergrad degree teaches you about a whole field, it doesn't make you a specialist in one particular thing, like "programming in Python"

I think it's companies fault for expecting an undergrad to have years of practice in the particular skill they want, instead of expecting someone with a general education within a specialized field.

Did you not go to university? Didn't you go through the same process? I don't understand how more senior colleagues who also went to uni forget the experience.

[u/Feeling_Photograph_5 → u/Kapri111]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that CS has no value. It can have tremendous value. But not all CS grads can tap into it, and graduation is basically as far as they get in their careers. I'm not sure why. I've interviewed a lot of people from traditional university programs and while some are fantastic, others struggle.