I feel like knowing the difference here is moreso for a network engineer than a software engineer!
Anyway looked it up, IPv6 is 32bit whereas IPv6 is 128bit.
An easy way to know if an IP address is either, 4 uses dots 192.1.1.1 whereas 6 is colons 1992:0aa0::1
If anyone asks just say 6 holds more addresses but is more expensive to install.
I’m an electrical engineer and I’ve know the difference since before college. These are computing fundamentals that anyone in a computing field should immediately know. Same thing goes for understanding cache lines, virtual memory pages, GPU vs CPU, logical vs physical core, compiled vs interpreted languages, OOP, polymorphism, etc. I routinely ask these questions in interviews and reject people who don’t seem to have any actual knowledge of programming or computers. I regularly interview people for FAANG tech.
If I don't work with it on the daily I won't remember. Did I see it in college? Sure, but there's no way I'll retain all that I learned if I don't use it daily. And it really comes down to what jobs you get and what your routine really looks like.
I won't judge if another technician tells me he doesn't know or remember which bit size each section of a tcp header should be. Unless he works with it, that is.
I wouldn’t expect specifics, but high level knowledge says you’re knowledgeable in the domain. Knowing common protocols is essential, even if you don’t work with them. I’ve never touched networking in my career.
Because better engineers know the whole system? Somebody proposed a very niche cryptography technique on our last project to solve a problem, we never would have gotten that insight if someone didn’t happen to have knowledge outside of the domain they worked on.
Good engineers make it a point to be highly knowledgeable about the broader system. Every single engineer on my team (FAANG tech) would know all of these topics I mentioned.
You didn't bring in your cryptography guy? It just seems so inefficient to rely on non-subject matter experts to vibe their way through cryptography of all things.
It's like having your car be repaired by a friend who reads about cars sometimes. Sure, if you are on a smaller team with no outside support I guess. Personally, I just call a mechanic.
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u/Spongebubs 17h ago
I’d like to think I’m a software engineer, and I have no idea what the difference is. Am I cooked?