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I don’t think this is a very controversial take, and I’m not arguing against the value of a CS degree. You just can’t assume that someone knows even foundational topics because they have one.

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No, but it makes it fairly likely that they were exposed to the fundamentals, like a lack of a degree makes it likely they weren't. "Well, actually, not EVERY CS major knows their fundamentals!" is not nearly as strong of an argument as people seem to think.

One example I can think of: A CS major is likely to have at least been exposed to the idea of Big-O estimating algorithmic complexity.

A non-CS grad is much less likely to have. They may not even have a concept that estimating algorithmic complexity is even possible. They may have zero understanding why a massively nested loop structure is slow.

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