Maybe, but SMTP and IMAP are still widely used. It seems reasonable for a computer science student to implement these protocols.

You'd expect a CS student to at least know what SMTP and IMAP are, even if they don't know how they work.

Just as you'd expect a CS student to know what Emacs is, even if they've never used it.

Relying on gmail horrifies me, because it's a classic political enclosure pattern.