The A version has been around as long as the AB version. For those unfamiliar, A is roughly equivalent to 1 college semester and AB was roughly equivalent to 2 college semesters, just like AP courses for other subjects.

I was a developer in various imperative/OO languages already before I took the AB course, and I still found it to be challenging.

I think for many that have never done any programming or CS, the A version course may still be decent. It does fall short under Big O, but there should also be some extra buffer time to do something else in the year outside the AP material. That depends on the quality of the instructor though.