Contrary to what that article is saying, the Instagram founders did have a programming background. I was at a talk given by Kevin Systrom - he said something about having gotten a B in a programming class at Stanford, so he had at least an intro-level knowledge of coding (which is honestly a better start than something like Codecademy).
Mike Krieger got a degree in Symbolic Systems, which requires quite a few CS courses.
Mike Krieger got a degree in Symbolic Systems, which requires quite a few CS courses.