[gedy]

It's interesting as I studied Computer Engineering which focused on the hardware and low level, with some programming on top of that. I was pretty good at that too. However afterwards the Google-style interview algorithm questions do not come naturally for me, and you'd think I'm a complete imposter by the look in some 20-something interviewers eyes, even though have been programming for 20 years...

[cmroanirgo]

I feel exactly the same way: Computer Systems Engineering. Took to programming easily, as well as digital. (Not as good in analogue though). Was teaching my tutors programming by the end of first year. Getting asked to hack/ deconstruct software in 2nd.

Would fail miserably in these Google style tests.

I think the difference is that our brains are wired to solve issues from first principles. Some of the best CS I've come across use pattern recognition to determine the best algo to apply to a situation.

The end result is the same code, but we speak different languages until we arrive at the same end. Other design methodologies help give us a better framework for cross communication.

Eg. Voronoi diagrams. Absolutely fantastic way of doing mesh reduction. Took a CS guy to point it out to me ... (I was mostly thru designing my own).

Eg. Same CS would never consider using ASM to save clock cycles.