Autor: Codenga 23.01.2023

So, math - what do we think? Some will say that every programmer should have math all mastered, locked and loaded, in order to be ready to jump into coding. Others think the exact opposite - that for your everyday programming, math just doesn't come in handy that much. The truth, as always, lies somewhere between…

A lot of it depends on the exact specialization you may take on. Remember that programming as a category consists of a lot of distinct from each other subcategories. In some of them, proficiency in math is required, while others may only need the basics - the stuff you would learn in elementary school.

Don't let anybody tell you that you’ll need advanced algebra or analytic geometry to learn programming - that’s a plain lie. Everybody can learn to code, if you know how to add two numbers together or divide them, you will do just fine. As a starting point, you don't really need much more :)

Now there's the obvious - if you're specifically interested in writing advanced algorithms, the math is unskippable. If you want to be an engineer and do complicated calculations, or get into statistics, there's no way to go about it without math - you probably expected that though.

A great deal of what we know as programming includes building websites, writing mobile apps etc. In those particular fields there’s rarely a need for over-the-top calculations. At the same time, these areas are ones with a great demand for developers, which should be a very bright, green light. You can start learning, and not worry about math.

In the next part of the article we’ll take a closer look at a few popular specializations. We’ll assess which ones of them are math-heavy, and which don't put that much pressure on it.

In this field your task would be to create “fronts”, or the part of the application that the user can see. Think websites, web applications or mobile app interfaces.

Here the situation is pretty simple - if you have an elementary-school-level understanding of math you're all good to go! Can you divide 1200 by 12? Or 1000 by 4? That’s the kind of math related issues most front-end devs face in their everyday work. There are certain projects, of course, that would require a little more mental heavy-lifting, but most of the time some basics will do the job.

Pretty much what it says on the tin - this is the game development section, and here the simple math just won't do. Games are very demanding when it comes to programming - code optimization is top priority, as it needs to run fast and without any hiccups. This level of optimization can't be achieved without certain mathematical tricks.

In games there's a lot of coordinates to keep track of at all times. You might need to perform some matrix calculations here and there, some calculations related to physics and such; you may need to create some complex animations using math. No wonder, then, that the field very much requires a level of math proficiency.

Lately Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a really topical subject. We have increasingly more interesting algorithms that can generate images, mostly sensible texts or music. The potential usages are, of course, way wider than that - the field is just getting started.

There's no need to mention here that math is a core part of this area. AI algorithms perform complex calculations, and to write such algorithms you need the ability to utilize parts of advanced algebra, statistics and calculus of probability. It is a very quickly progressing field that, on top of all this, has its own specializations. Each of them has its own requirements when it comes to typically mathematical skills.

Does a mobile application developer need math in work? Well - it depends.

Mobile apps are a wide topic in itself. If you're creating an application for sending pictures, you could probably slide by with no advanced mathematics. But if what you're making happens to be a game with complicated physics, chances are you're going to need to spend a lot of time with all kinds of calculations and equations.

As you can see, the answer to our main question is pretty convoluted. There’s not really just one answer - math is an absolute necessity in some areas, while some others are pretty easy about it. You might need calculus and geometry, or just plain and simple adding things together - all depending on the path you choose to follow.

To start out with programming you don't really need anything besides the basics of math from early elementary school. That should be the main takeaway from the article - don't let a supposed lack of math skills hold you back from taking up coding. Everyone can learn it, even if your math proficiency ends at adding two numbers together :)