&gt; With only a year of instruction and no coding background previously, he was able to get a position at Google? Is this the norm?<p>That depends on your definition of &quot;norm&quot;. The average person could probably spend their entire life preparing for a Google interview and never get an offer. Others could enter any field of their choosing and reach a very high level of competency in just a matter of months. Seems like the OP falls in the latter category.