> I suppose the target groups of people studying his introductory book is not any random junior student at a random CS department if he is expecting them to pick up Knuth's Art of Computer Programming right after Introduction to Algorithms.
I don't think he's expecting a student to do that. He recommends the book in response to the question "What’s next?", implying that if a student would like to learn more, they should go to Knuth's books. Also, judging from the Quora link, he assumes the student has had a course in discrete mathematics, so they should be familiar with mathematical proofs and be comfortable with some level of rigor.
I don't think Knuth's books are impossible to read, but a primer to some of the material can help (and understanding mathematical proof is a prerequisite).
I don't think he's expecting a student to do that. He recommends the book in response to the question "What’s next?", implying that if a student would like to learn more, they should go to Knuth's books. Also, judging from the Quora link, he assumes the student has had a course in discrete mathematics, so they should be familiar with mathematical proofs and be comfortable with some level of rigor.
I don't think Knuth's books are impossible to read, but a primer to some of the material can help (and understanding mathematical proof is a prerequisite).