What is Computer Science anyway?

If you’ve ever wondered how computer science and learning to code relate to each other, you’re definitely not alone! The distinction between the two is often blurred and that makes the initial process of learning how to code – where to being – even more difficult.

Yesterday, I started reading up ahead of my data structures and algorithms intro course this summer, and found a great definition of computer science in the book, Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures using Python.

The authors provide various definitions of cs, one of which is a the study of problems – both solvable by algorithms and unsolvable. In addition, the authors go on to talk about how computer science involves a level of abstraction – computer scientists look at problems in a generic way to find solutions. Most of the time, they aren’t concerned about whether you can code a solution in Ruby or C, but in whether there is any solution at all, and if so, what an efficient algorithm might look like at a higher level. Figuring out answers to those questions then paves the way to the minutiae of implementing the solution in one of a hundred (thousands?) of programming languages, each with its own different way/syntax of expressing something as simple as an if/else control structure.

So while the study of computer science necessarily involves learning to code, that is not its primary focus. Computer Science is about problems – often new and difficult ones where the question is not how to code a solution in a particular language, but if any solution exists at all, and if so, what form it takes.

One thought on “What is Computer Science anyway?

  1. Thats true. i am a cs professional, i solved the data entry problem my dept. All used excel for that purpose but i came with an idea and used access and wo man it worked very nicely.

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