I&#x27;d only heard the name App Academy before this article. I did a bit of reading on it. It&#x27;s an intensive twelve-week program, and it looks like applicants have to pass heavy screening for aptitude. I can well believe that properly screened and highly-motivated people can learn a huge amount in twelve weeks. And Qureshi seems highly intelligent. He&#x27;s described in the Business Insider article as a former professional poker player with an English degree. His blog says he was a millionaire poker player by the age of 19. So I&#x27;m guessing he&#x27;s pretty powerful analytically.<p>But still. If a company is putting a <i>quarter of a million dollars</i> on the table, I would think they&#x27;d be able to find somebody as smart as Qureshi who also had a computer science or computer engineering or mathematics background and <i>years</i> of coding experience.<p>I don&#x27;t work in the tech world this article is describing, so I don&#x27;t know. But it seems odd to me.