Computer Science Is Not Software Engineering

Why computer science is not the same thing as software engineering and what to do about it.

[danny.golcman]

Me who is majoring in Software Engineering 😎

[nandeyanen_chiggachan]

CS is literally science of computation, using computer and maths. It’s very broad in that sense, hence very applicable in various fields. SE is about software/applications on computers.

[kwith]

I took Computer Engineering in college. We did everything from Basic Electricity and Calculus all the way to programming in Assembler and Operating Systems with analog and digital integrated circuits in between. It was really interesting.

[orpheus]

Going into CS because you want to learn JS 💀💀

[ioio]

My BS/MS in CS are 50 years old (now retired). I've done software engineering, cryptography, data science/database administration, full stack on cold bare metal, OSs, cyber security, system software engineering/architecture, project management, guidance/navigation & control, and etc. It is a core capability across a wide range of engineering.

[sunoo_sun]

Oh definitely! I'm a CS major and I honestly just do feel like a Math and Physics major.

[Zullfix]

>"Cool frameworks or languages"
>"react or js"

[AV_YOUTUBE_X]

Very true. Unfortunately CSci programs usually give students very few coding projects — instead providing lectures, book study, written assignments, presentations, and exams. The unfortunate result is, many CSci graduates cannot code very much after receiving their diploma.

The only way to gain software engineering knowledge is through years of project experience, trying many APIs and frameworks, and getting feedback from many users of your software. Over time you will develop a sense of how to structure and maintain code. But CSci programs unfortunately are not able to deliver this experience.

[ITGirlll]

When you interview for Engineering jobs, but it’s all CS questions 😅😭

[psilocybimen]

I definitely do agree that you should try and do hackathons and side projects because those do really go a long way. But this is not to say that you won’t be doing ANY types of projects with your CS classes. Yeah you have to have a lot of supplemental math courses and the actual CS courses can be pretty math heavy, but you will still be doing plenty of coding projects to apply that knowledge, especially for any CS electives you may need to opt in to do. I landed my first job/internship because of a core CS class’s project I had to do and I talked about it during the interview and they ate that shit up.

[TheVeron]

im taking CS and in my free time I'm actively learning to code since there's so many free resources online, I'm currently in the process of learning python right now, anyways CS is a lot more theoretical then software engineering but one thing I notice is that CS dig really deep in the foundation of software engineering and it's really good to improve your problem solving skills although what he says its true there are times where your are gonna need those core basics and foundation especially during interviews where they question you useless things that you'll never use, for any CS major like me I suggest you learn coding while also learning to code you'll be ahead of your peers and you'll also learn the basics and build a solid foundation on what you learn, remember a software engineer doesn't just code they solve problems

[cs]

I'm a CS student, and i felt like I'm math major.

Edit: There's war happening in this thread and I love it.

[TheDutchisGaming]

Me doing Computer Engineering: :)

Me having to do front end(CSS, HTML) web stuff for projects: :(

[guisande]

That's not quite true. In my university we learn about everything a computer has to offer. Binary representations, how the OS works, memory management, data structures, algorithms, and sure, cryptography, a little bit of AI, but we do study software engineering, management phase, prototyping, databases, network, https, tcp, peer to peer connection, distributed systems, robotic, embedded systems, graphical programming and a lot more

[pavelZhd]

I mean... In my uni the first thing we learned in CS class was like "here is what Turing complete means. Here is what theoretical Turing machine does. Now we prove that it is Turing complete. So supposedly any task that can be solved within limited time can be solved by a Turing machine. There are a few problems for you. Now figure out which ones are solvable and write Turing machines for those.

That was fun as hell. But that is like pure math.

[alexanderouseph]

This is so true. I too thought that learning computer science engineering would help me learn software development but I was completely wrong. Learning different programming languages and frameworks are upto you. Things they teach in the classes are more base level computer science mostly theoretical and component level. If you wanna build software, you will have to do it yourself

[othfrk]

And ML/deep learning is more a branch of statistics than CS. Anybody wanting to explore a career in AI should definitely explore having a strong foundation in statistics and linear algebra.

[gibsonliketheguitar]

CS gives you to roadmap to hop into any discipline in software engineering. SWE is a secondary skill that can be taught easily

[flynn]

If you’re doing pure CS, guaranteed you will use c++ or python, assembly, MIPS, ruby+rails, html, css, java, bash scripting, regex, some type of database language like sql, if you take game dev its usually unity, rust for microprocessors which is new. The things I actually wanted to learn like blender, unreal engine, even GitHub, react and other modern frameworks are not covered you need to start your own side projects and learn on your own time. I expected to make sick 3D simulations and use VR in class and make games as a freshman. It’s not that. I waited until senior year. It still didn’t become that. Focus in your linear algebra, calculus, discrete math classes and you will pass. It is science in the end, calculated and clinical, all about the facts. The fun is what you make of it.

[ruzzelladrian]

This is EXACTLY my fear about Computer Science.