Are computer science graduates up to the mark?

KARACHI: The perception that few among the 35,000-odd computer science graduates the country produces every year are actually skilled was reinforced on Saturday at +92Disrupt, a two-day startup and technology conference held by Katalyst Labs.

The CEO of one of the country’s largest software houses made a 30-minute presentation to drive home a single point: computer science programmes run by Pakistani universities of all stripes are doing a job that’s hardly enviable.

“Universities are focused on everything except teaching the foundation of computer science,” said Yasser Bashir, who co-founded and leads Arbisoft, a prominent software house that employs over 1,000 people and hires on average 50-100 fresh computer science graduates every year.

His insights aren’t anecdotal. Since 2016, Arbisoft has conducted a nationwide exam simultaneously to hire top-of-the-shelf fresh graduates from all universities that teach computer science in Pakistan. In 2023 alone, the software company received interest from 7,000 fresh graduates from 144 universities across the country. After a basic screening process, about 4,000 people took at the same time the 19-minute test that had 30 questions.

“The goal is to test their understanding of the computational problems in computer science,” he said, adding that the questions test the candidates’ understanding of algorithms, programming, data structures, databases, operating systems and discreet math besides assessing their general mental ability.

Mr Bashir said his company “struggles” to find even 10 per cent students — from a pool of about 4,000 test-taking computer science graduates a year — who score even 70pc marks.

His company’s website displays aggregated data of more than 17,000 test-takers from 432 universities and 265 cities. The interactive chart allows one to look at university-wise median scores over the years and change variables like algorithms or discreet math to identify strengths and weaknesses of applicants from each computer science department.

“This kind of test is really great for filtering false positives. If somebody didn’t learn the foundation of computer science in a four-year degree programme, they’re unlikely to do well in writing software,” he said.

Speaking to Dawn, Mr Bashir said the reason for the poor quality of computer science graduates is that universities are incentivised to admit unnecessarily a high number of students every year.

“Even though it sounds counter-intuitive, ours is an over-supply and over-demand problem,” he said.