Do you really need to take classes in CS to learn how to program?

Katsurou
Sun, 30 Jun 2013 18:50:02 +0000

With the vast number of online resources available (codeacademy, udacity, APIs), I feel that one could learn how to program decently without taking official classes. I’ve certainly learned how to program through that route, and I feel that this DIY way is more efficient than taking official classes.

Sure, there are some great professors in the CS department like Sinclair and Hilfinger, but is it really necessary to to take university-certified CS classes to become a top-notch Google software engineer?