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Comment by aisofteng | Hacker News Reader

For some reason, basic things like the Boyer-Moore string search algorithm seem to be viewed as "advanced" or something by most programmers. In reality, it's basic (that's why it's taught in undergrad).

Fewer and fewer computer science students seem to graduate with an understanding of or appreciation for actual computer science.

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If it usually comes from a library and is not implemented by yourself, then to almost all programmers it's an advanced algorithm. Yes, that includes sorting. Most code is incredibly trivial, midsize state-machines at best. The problem is that we still expect the run-of-the-mill CRUD programmer to have a degree.

Well, Computer Science and Software Development are different disciplines, and quite a few universities have a differentiation between them.

Fewer and fewer computer science students seem to graduate with an understanding of or appreciation for actual computer science.

All the big tech companies ask pop-quiz questions and the same handful of "regurgitate this algorithm on a whiteboard" problems in interviews, and then say they've checked for "fundamentals".

Are you really surprised that people adjust to and optimize for doing well at that?

what is "real computer science" in this case? automated theorem proving? that is decidedly a graduate topic so I'm not surprised undergrads don't know anything about it.

I think the problem is that, while the undergrad doesn't necessarily need to understand graduate-level topics, they should be aware of their existence (and their own current inability to appreciate it)

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