Thanks for your feedback! 🙏

Short answer - no, you don't need a collage degree. I know great developers who work as seniors (or higher) without any formal background.

Long answer - you don't need it, but sometimes it's worth it. As you said, for upper-level positions some companies won't hire you if you don't have a degree. I assume that will change in the future, but now it is what it is. It also depends on what you want study and do in the future. Computer Science is worthless when you want to work as a front-end engineer (at least it was for me from the curriculum perspective). But there was a lot of knowledge that you would benefit from as a back-end or a machine learning engineer. Nevertheless, a degree still exposes you to a lot of problems and ways you can deal with them - and that's pretty universal stuff, gives you really broad perspective. But for me the biggest thing were people I met there, who helped me learn and with whom I became friends - I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for them, I'm sure. Finally, a degree is pretty expensive - in time, money and opportunity cost.

I actually like the idea of finishing a degree and having a successful career being correlated - I think that's also true to some degree.