I am learning Python, and I have no prior experience of any language. I am switching career.
I want to know if math is required to learn programming for web dev.
Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#2In general, nothing more than grade school math is needed to learn web development. Obviously, if your developing a statistical healthcare application you’ll need more math skills, but for most websites and web applications all you need is basic math skills.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#3In general, nothing more than grade school math is needed to learn web development. Obviously, if your developing a statistical healthcare application you’ll need more math skills, but for most websites and web applications all you need is basic math skills.
Indeed, I've seldom needed more than GCSE math (level of a 16 year old in the UK) in fact I can think of only a handful of times I've needed A-Level equivalent math (on notable occasion was solar insolation calculations).
It's just not a big issue in the life of a typical enterprise developer.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#4Database Applications Also require very low levels of math.
And depending on whether you use Artificial, Convolutional Neural Networks for solving PDE's, or Image Classification will depend on the level of mathematical training you will need to verify or analyse your results.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#5I would learn the basics in a few fields that they don't generally cover in high school: graph theory, number theory, set theory, statistics, and calculus. Just getting a few of the basic ideas from each of those in your tool kit will make it easier to think about certain classes of problems. Plus, you'll have a better idea where to look for an answer when you hit a problem that requires you to go deeper.
For web dev, statistics will help you spot A/B tests that are broken or meaningless. And set theory and combinatorics will help with database queries.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#6You don't need much math, in terms of specific knowledge. However, it is helpful to be able to reason in a mathematical kind of way.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#7Basic arithmetic and algebraic substitution.
Set theory, graph theory, stats, discrete math and linear algebra all rear their heads in various fields, but you could go your entire web dev career without having to understand them.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#8Of all the maths I use pushing code, statistics are likely the skills I keep using the most. Not required, but helpful.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#9Database Applications Also require very low levels of math. And depending on whether you use Artificial, Convolutional Neural Networks for solving PDE's, or Image Classification will depend on the level of mathematical training you will need to verify or analyse your results.
Depends what you mean by database applications. If you want to get your hands dirty and understand SQL theory, you'll need to learn relational algebra.
Re: Ask HN: How much math one needs to know to learn programming?
#10Maths for web dev? You don’t need any maths beyond what you’ll learn in junior school:
Arithmetic
Basic algebra
Basic Boolean logic
That’s it. You’ll mostly be wrangling interfaces and/or api/DB plumbing. Making things testable and repeatable. Reliable. Etc.
In my experience most programmers are useless at maths. Mathematicians and programmers are mostly separate populations and it’s relatively rare to find a solid programmer that’s also a solid mathematician or vice versa: totally different set of aesthetic preferences.
Meanwhile you will find plenty of programmers that skim a book on graph theory and think they know something. Or mathematicians that write crap matlab code and say they can programme.