> I mean you listed several database libraries, static analyzers, and a code optimizer.
Correct.
> Is it your suggestion that those kinds of applications do not require solid knowledge of a variety of different data structures and algorithms?
No -- precisely opposite.
Your response confused me quite a lot, but after some thought, I think I've realized how things have become mixed up. I took this for sarcasm:
> Which innovation of Facebook are you describing? Instagram, WhatsApp, or the stories?
Why did I take that for sarcasm? Because it is apparent to me that Instagram, WhatsApp and stories are not innovative. So I thought the main point of the poster I was replying to was to take a dig at Facebook. I didn't realize that we were in agreement about the importance of data structures and algorithms, but then I also didn't realize that we were still on that topic: my intention was purely to refute the [what I believed to be the implied] notion that nothing innovative was happening at Facebook.
I listed the most innovative things that happened. They were product innovations that could have killed Facebook as a company, not RocksDB or React. At the same time I'm a software engineer, and I could write a database much easier than create something that grows faster than Facebook.
I use instagram and WhatsApp, no Facebook anymore (except messenger), as young people went there (and I'm following).
TikTok is a bit too much for me though, I think creating videos for it takes too much time, while for Instagram it's easy to take nice photos while I'm travelling.
Is it your suggestion that those kinds of applications do not require solid knowledge of a variety of different data structures and algorithms?