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Does Software Engineering require a lot of math?

I'm a part of the ITA academy in my school and I'm still deciding on what I want my career to be, I'm curious if Software Engineering requires a lot of math, I'm oookaay at math but not the best so I just wanted to know if there is a lot of math involved. Also I want to know if being a Software Engineer is stressful.
#technology #software-engineering #information-technology

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Adam’s Answer

A "software engineer" job title is usually "writing code", "programming", "software developer". It does not use a lot of math, but it does use lots of LOGIC.

At college, you want an "Information Technology/Systems" or "MIS" degree (Business College),
NOT "Computer Engineering" (math-heavy, hardware-centric).

Of course, a Business Management minor is ALWAYS a plus.
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Daniel’s Answer

Yea agree with Adam. The actual amount of math required in day-to-day Software Engineering is extremely minimal, if any. (Except for a few esoteric positions). However you *need* to be able to think extremely logically. You can learn how to do this, but it is a weird mindset to get in to.


Whether or not it's stressful depends a lot on your company, role, teammates, boss, etc. There are a lot of really stressful Software Engineering jobs. There are a lot of more laid back Software Engineering jobs (assuming, as mentioned earlier, you've learned how to think very logically).
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Doug’s Answer

I agree with Daniel and Adam about there being minimal math required for software engineering, when we are talking about software for business applications (software that automates business processes like for finance, accounting, HR) and public/ consumer applications on the web like social media websites. Of course there can always be some simple arithmetic in those applications (programs), but not much mathematics like geometry, trigonometry or calculus. However, there is a whole world of engineering applications for software. Software runs everything and is everywhere. For example, there are so many computer chips in our cars that run software - controlling the engine, steering, braking, emissions, etc. etc. Software in our cell phones controls the connections to the cell phone system and the internet. Its in all the appliances in our homes. This is "embedded" software, you can think of it as "behind the scenes". There can be a tons of mathematics implemented in engineering application software (and software that controls mathematic equations running on specialized chips, e.g. "video chips"). People developing that kind of software need to understand and work with higher mathematics of engineering. This type of software engineering is relatively specialized in terms of the number of people doing it compared to non-engineering applications. Most doing engineering application software come from an engineering background. As for software engineering being stressful - it can be, but so can any job, and part of growing in our professional as well as private lives is learning and practicing healthy ways to handle stress.
Well, I'm afraid this answer has gone beyond what was asked but I hope it helpful for Niya and the community.
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