The Best Zurich Coding Bootcamps Of 2023

I participated in the Data Science Full-Time bootcamp, and despite all the fear and hesitation because of my low level coding skills it was by far the best step I took to improve them and more. I definitely learned more than I anticipated in the course of 3 months AND from no chance of finding a job in a new country to having a new door of possibilities open for me.

I would like to address the most important aspects of this bootcamp:

The Curriculum:

In order to be accepted one must pass a technical interview. I was very happy when I was sent the materials that will be covered during the interview, practice as much as possible especially as a python beginner. After getting accepted and before the bootcamp begins I've received preparation material for the bootcamp which included statistics, math, git and coding exercises. The pre-work was constructed in notebooks which contained thorough explanations and accompanied with videos, articles and book recommendations not only to expand our knowledge in these subjects but also to brush up on things I’ve learned during university (which was long ago, longer than I wish to admit). The pre-work was a vital step to begin the bootcamp with more confidence. 

During the bootcamp I must say, it was tough but by all means worth it. I am still amazed how much I learned. The days are basically lectures until 12 (maximum until 14 - depending on the subject) and then practicing what we learned until 18. This structure made sure we understood the material that we learned and proved that programming skills are gained best by doing. The topics were very comprehensive and included many subjects to ignite the data science career as well as preparation for interviews. It consisted of programming tool kits, visualization, statistics, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, SQL and machine learning engineering. One of the best parts is that it included a number of group challenges after each major topic that helped us practice our knowledge and work in a team.

During the bootcamp and especially during the group challenges we also learn how to present our results not only to data science experts but also to those who do not have such experience which will be handy in the future.

Point for improvement: practice more statistics.

Instructors:

Probably what makes this bootcamp special, great instructors with lots of experience in the field. I have to give a shout out to Dipanjan Sarkar, our machine learning, deep learning and NLP lecturer, one of the best teachers I've had. 

Throughout the bootcamp we get the support of a teaching assistant to consult us when we encounter challenging problems, the bootcamp encourages us to try our best to solve our coding problems which is great practice for the future. 

The last month of the bootcamp is a capstone project done in collaboration with companies tackling real world data and business problems. Bootcamp lecturers are supervising these projects and support us in the process. These are a couple of intense weeks practicing our skills, participating in company meetings, planning a data science project, communicating about the problems and solving them together. 

To sum it up, I had a great experience and finished the bootcamp with a new passion for programming and data analysis. 

Le Wagon was a great learning experience. To be honest, I learned more than I expected from a bootcamp and I was impressed by what I could build at the end of the nine weeks (and I was a complete beginner, never coded in my life before). It's intense but their methodology is awesome, you really learn by doing. And their online learning platform is really well built, it's a great support in addition to the teachers and teacher assistant. You can find recording of every class and detailed correction of each exercice as well as detailed tutorials, really useful (and the best for me is that you keep your access to it after the bootcamp, you even get access to the update/new class they post). Beyond the learning experience, I really enjoyed my time there because I got to meet a really diverse group of people in term of age and experiences (which you rarely do in your job or even in university). I wanted to do Le Wagon to improve my tech skills before starting my own tech company, I applied because a lot of people told me good thins about it but I was not certain it was the best move when I started (afraid it might be a loss of time/money), in the end I really don't regret it!

Awesone experience studying Security+, 1 on 1 lessons are the best. Looking forward to do the 2nd certificate.