What was your experience like? Did you have to get certified? Was the code spaghetti and documented with crayons?
I'm currently working with an API contracted by the state of California. The API itself is okay, but the documentation (or lack thereof) make it impossible to work with unless I get direct help from the developers. And the lack of error messaging and response JSON leaves me poking and prodding around the API until I find the right endpoint and params I need.
Jason Knight
The less code you use, the less there is to break
I've dealt with the same type of thing for both the Fed and the Commiewealth of Taxachusetts. Generally the lack of anyone qualified to work on code being the ones DIRECTLY responsible for code in government leads to the painfully cryptic garbage we're seeing today.
It didn't used to be as bad back when it was "program in ADA or GTFO", but ever since the Fed greenlit using C++ as an option codebases at the federal level have gone to shit, and dragged the various states along with them.
The COMPLETE lack of documentation typically just being the tip of the iceberg given the train wreck disasters the user-facing sides are; aka the thing I'm usually hired to clean up to meet WCAG / ADA minimums.
Requiring bullshit "certifications" certainly doesn't help, since quite often the practices advocated in the coursework/study are the opposite of anything resembling sanity much less good methodology.
In general, the people higher up the food chain in government failed upwards into their positions, being completely unqualified to hold their jobs. As a result the rot sets in from top to bottom.