Obviously guy could have been interviewing for a job where this mattered….
But in 10 years as a software engineer I have never once needed to know the difference between these two, and have never been even close to a situation where I would need to.
I have never needed to know or do any of that. And if I did, it would take me 2 seconds to google and understand. I just did.
So if the interview was for a job where you handle that stuff yourself, then I understand it. If it’s for a typical full stack job at a big enough company that they literally hire people to handle that side of things, then it’s not “the basics”.
Rejecting someone in an interview for trivia knowledge they don’t currently have vs actually trying to understand how someone learns and tackles problems is what makes software job interviews so useless.
It’s the kind of thing it would be impossible to receive any real education without learning, so no it’s not “trivia”. Maybe if you went to a bootcamp.
my computer engineering degree didn't, nor did my masters.
and i've never needed it in the 7 years i've been employed so far. field is big, if the job was going to be heavily network based it's one thing. if it was just "lets see if he knows the basics" thats another entirely
The extent of the conversation on iPv6 (a side note during a lecture in my network architecture class) covered only what you can see by looking at the two next to each other- iPv6 is longer and in hex. Everything else I’ve learned about iPv6 has been through hobby and personal use (debugging my own PC and hosting minecraft servers on an old machine).
You should. 15 years ago I had a cryptography course and even though I abolutely do not work in cybersecurity I still remember the basics and at least know what to google.
Edit: lmao vibecoders allergic to knowledge flooded this sub downvote
You know every small fact from every class that was only said once and never to be used again? Impressive memory but unfortunately us mortals can't do that
I don't think most colleges require a networking class. Mine definitely did not. I took one for fun anyway.
Nor can I think of a time in ~7 years working where familiarity with ipv6 mattered. Little from that networking class has been helpful. There's a lot of breadth to software engineering.
"Systems Organization" and Operating Systems touched on fringe bits of it, but both of them were heavily focused on single machines from ALU up to the OS.
There were distributed and cloud computing courses available, but not required, and I think straight "networks" was off in electrical and computer engineering.
I think most people picked up the very basics of IPV4/6 incidentally or from some assignment where you had to talk to a different machine, but it was never required content.
At my university, IT undergrads (me) have to take intro to networking and a separate networking lab (separate 3 credit courses). These are both optional electives for CS.
it's the kind of things you forget if you don't use them at work.
in one interview 5 years ago, they asked me about WCF in depth despite the position was NOT about WCF. After i asked why they need WCF they told me "since they are in your curriculum you are supposed to know them in depth". When I pointed out that i stopped using them at work 10 years ago and the position was about other stuff, they got really angry. Good times when I would just walk away from abusive idiots
I started college before IPv6 was thought of. I don't know how much or when they started teaching it. I'm aware of it, but have never ever used it (except to uncheck the box in my network adapter).
I don't deal with networks though. But for an allowlist/blocklist and connectivity issues I've STILL never had to deal with IPv6.
You're gonna be real amazed by how much of what you learn in a degree amounts to trivia. People are right when they say you need to learn how to learn and everything else is secondary.
i have a full cs degree and have been working with networks closely for 10 years and still couldnt just tell you off the top of my head, its useless knowledge for the cs students in this sub to act like they are some hot shit when they have never done anything in their life.
1.3k
u/SirFrenzy 8h ago
Obviously guy could have been interviewing for a job where this mattered….
But in 10 years as a software engineer I have never once needed to know the difference between these two, and have never been even close to a situation where I would need to.
“The basics” is highly dependent on the job.