7 Reasons Why You Do Not Need a CS Degree to Become a Great Developer

Hot take: You do not need a CS degree to be a great developer. Building skills matter more than degrees in tech. Here is why…

Yeah I said it. You do not need a 4-year CS degree to write good code. To be a great developer. To build stuff that works.

Now before you come at me with pitchforks – I am not saying CS degrees are useless. They are not. They teach you important stuff. Algorithms. Data structures. How computers really work under the hood.

That knowledge is valuable. Some jobs require it. But here is the thing. Most jobs do not need that stuff day to day.

And if you are curious about how AI is changing coding, check out my post on vibe coding. That is how AI is changing how we write code.

1. What Really Matters?

What you need is:

• Can you build what people want?
• Can you fix bugs when things break?
• Can you work with others on a team?
• Can you learn fast when new stuff comes out?

None of these require a CS degree. You can learn all of them by building stuff.

2. The Self-Taught Developer Path

I know developers without degrees who are absolute wizards. They build amazing things. They solve problems that people with PhDs cannot solve.

The best developers I know are curious. They want to understand how things work. They build stuff for fun. They experiment. They do not stop learning.

You can do all of that without a CS degree. As freeCodeCamp shows, thousands of people have learned to code for free and landed developer jobs.

3. The Job Market Reality

Let me be honest. Some companies still require degrees. But a lot of companies do not care. They care about what you can do. They care about your portfolio. They care about your GitHub.

Many companies have stopped requiring degrees because they realized it was filtering out good people. Some of the best developers I know never finished college.

4. Learning Resources Are Everywhere

YouTube has tutorials. Online courses exist. Documentation is free. Open source code is everywhere to learn from.

Platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and edX offer courses from top universities.

5. Building Stuff Beats Theory

A piece of paper does not make you a developer. Building stuff does.

Ship projects. Get feedback. Improve. Repeat.

That is how you become a great developer. Not by memorizing algorithms. By solving real problems.

6. The Hybrid Approach Works

Some of the best developers I know did both. They self-taught first. Then went back to school. Or they went to school and then supplemented with self-learning.

There is no one right path. There are many paths to becoming a developer.

7. My Final Advice

If you are thinking about learning to code but feel like you need a degree first – you do not. You can start today. Right now.

Pick a language. Any language. Python is a good choice. JavaScript is another. Start with the basics. Build something small. Then build something bigger.

That is the real degree. The degree of building. The degree of shipping. The degree of continuous learning.