What areas of IT are strongly associated with algorithms and mathematics?

Question

IT education

Good afternoon.
I am a first-year student in the direction of "Fundamental Informatics and Information Technology", in parallel with my studies I am engaged in sports programming.
It seems to me that now we need to more clearly define for ourselves the general area of ​​​​work after graduation from the university.

Obviously, I want to do what I like and what I'm pretty good at - solving algorithmic problems (by algorithmic, I mean something like writing a specific function that should return a specific result, solving a specific problem, for example, a bicycle implementation of finding id in DB). Then in what specialties and where in general are specialists of this kind required? Or is it now some kind of dying / isolated area where no one needs new specialists?

I also heard somewhere about IT people who are engaged in proving the correctness of algorithms and similar things. What vacancies can generally have such tasks and what are the requirements for specialists?

And is it true that now data scientists are more engaged in research than in solving business problems? If so, how long will this state of affairs last?

Answer 1

When I was an Olympiad student (ASM) at the university, I also thought - the main thing is to write algorithms quickly and cool, this is real programming, and not these molds of yours to rivet.
In fact, as you have already been told, Olympiad skills are good in exactly one area - winning at the Olympiads.
And the main skill you get there is to be able to write code very quickly that will pass through hard-coded tests. In real life, unfortunately, this is called "little-maintained shit code that is easier to throw out."
Because "pass tests" is only a small part of good code and correct architecture and algorithms.
There is time to think and write well, come up with a better algorithm, test different options, and so on. Any good professional can do this.
Let me draw an analogy - there is an athlete who has learned to swim quickly in a straight line in the pool. He is one of the best and generally well done. Knows in detail how to move his arms, how to paddle water as efficiently as possible, which cap to use to reduce friction, and so on. And then I asked myself the question - where can I, such a fine fellow, work? The answer is in the same pool, by the same athlete. Because outside the pool, it turns out, you need another 100,500 completely different skills. Even a lifeguard on the beach will come out of him bad, because it’s not enough to quickly swim to a person, you first need to see him, and then you also need to save him. Professional rescuers may swim slower than him, but they know where to look, how to understand that a person is drowning, how to swim towards him, how to pull out, pump out, and so on. And while swimming is not much worse.
In programming, everything is exactly the same. There is no such profession as "algorithmic problem solver" (outside of sports programming). Any professional, first of all, will have to know a huge amount of knowledge from his field and be able to have a bunch of skills, and already in the second place - among other skills, he will also be able to solve algorithmic problems.
Therefore, if you want to develop good, serious programs that actually do something, you will have to learn how to do it. Of course, Olympic preparation will help in some way, by 10 percent, the rest will have to be taught in the same way as everyone else. Therefore, choose an area that is interesting to you in itself, where you can already apply your skills.
It is clear that the regions are different, but you think about what will happen in 5-10 years, but no one knows this. When I graduated from the university, programming was the lot of bespectacled people out of this world and some kind of rotten topic, even in NI programmers it was more of a farce and I went because I just liked it, completely without any prospects, but it’s like everything turned out - now it’s work dream.
So choose the area you like. Try one or the other. Information - the sea, think about data science - live for half a year as if you were gathered there, read articles, communicate in communities, participate in webinars - conferences, subscribe / make friends with those who work there. In six months you will understand for sure - it is or not. You will always have time to change, you have 5-6 such visits during study, you can not ask on the toaster, but just try everything. Perhaps by the time you graduate from university, there will be a bunch of new professions that will suit you perfectly.
Good luck in general and do not load your brains ahead of time in vain.

Answer 2

Development of low-level libraries, drivers and integrated solutions for high loads.
Such activities are financed from the budget of either corporations, or some funds, or simply donations (at the moment).