100% possible to be a self-taught software engineer. I have hired many over the years. The hardest part is breaking into the industry, but once you have some experience and references the degree doesn’t matter for many high paying companies (although FAANG and academia might disagree).
When I interview ICs it is a very free flowing conversation. When there is a lull I will jump to a new subject. I will just start asking things and keep going deeper until I exhaust your knowledge.
“What is the command for listing directories in a terminal? Name a flag you can use - what does it do? How do flags actually work anyway? Do you know any libraries for CLI parameter processing? Ever heard of argc and argv? How do you think those variables are mapped into memory of the forked process?”
I go on and on and on. If you just become obsessed with computers and software engineering and put in some years of effort you can beat what school charges you for. Plenty of MIT and Brown and Harvard grads don’t know fuck all about software development. Credentials are a signal for sure but that is all they are.
When I interview ICs it is a very free flowing conversation. When there is a lull I will jump to a new subject. I will just start asking things and keep going deeper until I exhaust your knowledge.
“What is the command for listing directories in a terminal? Name a flag you can use - what does it do? How do flags actually work anyway? Do you know any libraries for CLI parameter processing? Ever heard of argc and argv? How do you think those variables are mapped into memory of the forked process?”
I go on and on and on. If you just become obsessed with computers and software engineering and put in some years of effort you can beat what school charges you for. Plenty of MIT and Brown and Harvard grads don’t know fuck all about software development. Credentials are a signal for sure but that is all they are.