I agree that University is worth going to.  But not for any of the reasons you mention.<p>I&#x27;ve had a very successful career in this industry not being able to do any of the things you ask in your first paragraph.  Sure, I&#x27;ve taught Normalization to new devs (without needing to recite the actual forms), but I find that Google is pretty good at memorizing algorithms, and it did in fact have A* ready to go every time I&#x27;ve done pathfinding.  It probably still will when this kid needs it.<p>University, in my mind, is for two things:  It gets your brain shifted into &quot;Engineer Mode&quot; (or painfully informs you that you are not capable of thinking that way), and it teaches you how to be an adult.<p>The actual algorithms and interview trick questions that a CS degree give you aren&#x27;t very useful at all in the real world, and I&#x27;d actually go as far as to recommend getting your degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering instead, so you can focus more on mindset and preparedness.  You&#x27;ll find it easier later to forget the trivia about Brunell Hardness and Eigenvectors when they&#x27;re far removed from your actual field.  And you won&#x27;t be that annoying guy in every meeting talking about Big O notation instead of actually solving the issue at hand.<p>But yeah, go to school if you have the chance.  The big offers will still be there in four years.  You&#x27;ll have many of the experiences that you&#x27;ll spend the next 50 years reminiscing about.  And you&#x27;ll come away with a whole pile of other benefits that you never expected.  (And some trivia to get you through your first job interview that you can then safely forget forever).