careercs-fundamentalsself-taught

Self-taught in 2026 — does the missing CS degree still actually matter?

Anonymous19 Jul 2026

I keep going back and forth on this. Half the internet says the degree is dead and it's all about what you can build; the other half says you'll hit a ceiling without the fundamentals, and some companies still filter on it.

I'm self-taught, about a year in, trying to decide whether to grind CS fundamentals (OS, networking, DSA) hard or just keep shipping projects. What's been your real-world experience — has anyone actually been filtered out explicitly for having no degree, or is it mostly fear?

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Anonymous19 Jul 2026
Different angle: stop treating the degree as the variable and think in terms of proof of work. A degree is just one (expensive, slow) proxy for "this person can build hard things and stick with them." A strong portfolio, real contributions, and reasoning clearly out loud are other proxies — and you fully control those. Companies that only accept the degree proxy are self-selecting off your list anyway.
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Anonymous19 Jul 2026
Honestly depends a lot on region and company size. Some big enterprises, and a lot of visa situations, still hard-filter on a degree and there's no charming your way past it. Plenty of other places genuinely could not care less. Figure out which pond you're fishing in before you decide how much to stress.
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Anonymous19 Jul 2026
Self-taught, 3 years in, never once been explicitly filtered for no degree at the companies I targeted (mostly product startups and mid-size). Where I felt the gap was fundamentals — I could ship features fine but got wrecked on one systems-heavy interview. I'd keep shipping AND drip-feed fundamentals, not pick one.
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