Core Curriculum

Launch School is one of those things in life that you give a shot and it ends up being a cornerstone to your life journey. It is absolutely worth every penny, second, and drop of sweat you give it. It is not a "bootcamp" in that you can hope to achieve a career transition or new skillset in 3 months and be going about your new business, or passively spend a few minutes a day and hope to divine a whole profession's worth of insight. The curriculum is long and dense, but perfectly curated to optimize the time you'll spend on it. No frivolous "micro-learning" or shortcuts. I guarantee you that if you're serious about learning this and you're willing to put the effort in, you will absolutely get what you want out of it. I'm seriously so much better off for the career transition I made and could not have done it without Launch School.A special shoutout, too, to their Capstone program. Their Core program feels like a mountain to climb and took me a good year and a half to complete it, but after looking ahead to the job market, I realized how much left there was to learn. They do a fantastic job building on the fundamentals that you've mastered and wrap around it the necessary knowledge of how to plug into a SWE position. Most importantly, too, they offer plenty of job-hunting assistance. Anyone who's spent a while looking for jobs knows how draining it is and having the resources and community backing you up is paramount to keeping a level head and putting your best foot forward on the next interview. The Capstone program is pricey but genuinely the most worthwhile expense I've ever had.If you're still not sure of whether Launch School is for you, dig into the preparatory reading (completely free, at least it was when I went through LS). If it's meant to be, you'll be super jazzed to give it your all after the first few reading assignments. Either way, best of luck whoever's reading this!

 Launch School drilled the fundamentals of software engineering into me. I work on a software development team and can now converse well with software engineers about technical topics I used to struggle with before signing up to Launch School. 

Learning the fundamentals so thoroughly has also left me much more confident about, and able to, quickly pick up back-end and front-end frameworks, as well as understanding how fully-fledged web applications work internally. The biggest takeaway for me was learning how to learn. I am now confident that I'll be able to learn whatever I want to in the future. The assessment feedback I received was detailed and thorough, and gave me lots of information that I used to improve my learning and technical skills.

All in all, I know I can work through a number of interesting yet difficult technical books and not feel the need to give up. That knowledge and confidence is priceless - and what mastery-based learning leaves you with. I have the Core Curriculum to thank for that (particularly the assessments I failed!).

Launch School has certainly changed the course of my career in tech and has left me empowered. I can take that all the way to retirement (and beyond!) 

I was not a typical Launch School student. While most people who join are switching from something else early to mid-career, I joined as a 62-year-old software developer with over 30 years of experience, with the goal of bringing my skill set up to date. It worked out very well for me.I had taught myself enough HTML, CSS and jQuery to put a decent website together, but I wanted to get strong skills in JavaScript and improve my HTML and CSS. As it turned out, I was taken way beyond the goals I started with. I became a strong expert not only in JavaScript, HTML and CSS, but I also learned Ruby and PostgreSQL to an expert level. I now have a set of coding skills that is very much in demand.I can't say enough about the quality of the courseware and TAs, the camaraderie among the students, and the motivational power of the human-graded written and interview assessments, which you must pass at least one of for each course before moving on to the next one.Launch School is exactly what it says it is. If you come prepared to do things their way, you will master the skills they teach. They structure things so that you aren't just given the concepts and sent on your way. Rather, you are asked to work on the concepts they give you until your understanding of them is perfected. When you graduate, you will have skills that hiring managers are looking for, and you will stand out for the thoroughness of your mastery of those skills. 

 Before Launch School, I got part-way through The Odin Project and Free Code Camp, and was frustrated that things just weren't clicking for me. I now realize that I wasn't learning in the best way, and part of what makes Launch School's curriculum so great is that they have an emphasis on improving your learning process. In addition, they teach the fundamentals from the ground up so you don't feel lost. Each part of the curriculum builds things up slowly so you have a full understanding of how things work and how to fix bugs in your code.        Another thing that Launch School does that is missing in other classes is teaching you how to figure things out for yourself. Anyone can follow a tutorial, but employers are looking for people who can look at a problem and figure out what they need to learn in order to solve it. Launch School gives you the tools to do that, while providing a supportive community of classmates and teachers who are there to answer questions when you need help. I also liked the exam format, which was challenging but gave me confidence that I really understood the material.       Finally, the goal is to get a job after this and I found that the Core Curriculum gave me the foundation to do so. I built a couple of projects and a personal portfolio website with the knowledge and skills I gained from Core Curriculum, and was able to get a job within 6 weeks of starting to apply. I even had a few recruiters reach out to me based on the quality of my projects! I have been in my current position for 3 months now and have gotten excellent feedback from my manager and fellow developers. I have been given some assignments that required me to learn new things quickly, and I felt confident in my ability to do so because of what I learned at Launch School. If you want to have a good career as a software developer, I highly recommend enrolling in Launch School!

The core curriculum moves from the basics of programming, OOP, cli tooling, testing, networking, DBs, html & css, advanced problem solving, the dom and api's. The focus is on allowing students to fundamentally grasp the problems at each layer of programming and understand why the current solutions are in use. The core curriculum really sets students up for unlocking what the school calls 'just-in time' learning - the ability to pick up new tools quickly because you understand the underlying problems they are trying to solve. Overall my experience with launch school was a positive one Things that I liked:- I felt like the instructors gave enough help and there was enough community to push my learning forward- The school seemed very receptive to feedback- Because they were upfront about what kind of program this was and the pedagogy, i never felt like i was played.- The content taught is directly relevant to my job experience and at different times i need to draw from almost all of the classes- Staff is receptive and warm, you couldn't really ask for a warmer group of individuals who are dedicated to their jobs while also things that could have improved:- I felt like there were times when i wasn't sure how much i was actually learning because i didn't know where or how to apply it - the program could have used more real world projects as a mandatory part especially around the end of the backend portion.- There was a lot of written content to study. I would have appreciated more video content and some of the video content could use updatingOverall, for where I was in life, this was the best decision I could make at that time in my life. Now as a working Software Engineer at GatsbyJS, I find that i use the concepts learned in the core curriculum daily. I find myself consistently needing to come back to what I learned in core and coming back to my problem solving approach

They charge $199 to teach students to ‘self learn’. There are no projects at all. The instructors are quite judgmental. You get an answer wrong in the study session and they’ll reach out to the owner Chris and complain and that’ll be on your record even though the whole point of study session is to attend and learn. After reading the previous reviews I can confirm Ableism and Racism does exist here. Save your time and money and learn by making projects and on a much faster pace. There’s a whole community out there willing to mentor and help aspiring developers.

My early experiences with programming education were a huge influence on my decision to study at Launch School. I took classes at university, explored online tutorials, and even built out a few projects using walkthroughs. Though these approaches to learning may work for some, they never seemed to resonate with me. They normally lacked two things: A mastery-based approach to learning, and a bottom-up pedagogy.Launch School's Core Curriculum is an excellent entry point for aspiring software engineers with little to no experience. This is due to not only the mastery and bottom-up approaches to learning, but also the self-paced environment. Learning fundamental programming concepts from the ground up finally allowed me to understand how to "think like a computer". Not only do I understand each character of syntax that I write, but I now can methodically reason about a challenging problem and solve it with relative ease. Also, the self-paced nature of Launch School made me confident that I had truly mastered a concept before I moved on to the next one.Despite not teaching any frameworks or libraries, the foundation that Launch School builds has made learning new technologies relatively simple. Just a few months after finishing, I've become comfortable with React, Golang syntax, and AWS. Professionally, I've developed a much deeper understanding of how our organization's databases are utilized and how our web applications are developed and deployed.Within just one year of part-time study, I went from "I have no idea what I'm doing" to "with enough time, I can build anything with code". That confidence boost alone is enough evidence for me to say that Launch School's learning model is by far the best I have ever experienced.

I will start off by saying my Launch School experience has by far exceeded any expectations I had when signing up.  I have grown as a person and professional in ways I couldn't even have imagined. It's not just a school for software engineering, but rather a school for equipping its students with a completely overhauled and highly optimized mindset, as well as a 500 pc LS toolset, with a lifetime warranty, for use in constructing your new future. Furthermore, don't be intimidated by the words 'software engineer', that term encompasses many topics. You can always explore any of these topics further and/or focus on one or more as a career. In addition, you will be a more complete and valued developer/engineer as a result of having a mastery of the other fundamentals. Once you truly "learn how to learn" you will notice yourself applying these life-altering principles across all areas of your life. Prior to Launch School, I had been working in front-end web development for close to 8 years. In order to paint a fuller picture, I first have to share a bit of my background. I graduated High School in 1999, technology for the most part wasn't even a blip on my radar. If you were lucky enough to have a cell phone it most definitely wasn't smart, it was $16.53 per minute, $3.49 for sending a text message, and you had the 15-minute monthly plan with no rollover. I'm exaggerating a little, but not much. Anyways, I had taken one business/computer course in 10th grade, and I think we may have used Geocities for an hour or two to create drag and drop web pages with fire gifs and blinking text. Even for those times, it looked horrendous and served no purpose whatsoever. That was the extent of my intro to CompSci, and I was probably fortunate to get that versus other people of my age and complexion. Long story short, I attended Bowling Green State University following high school with the intent to play football and study sports marketing, but 1 week into school my girlfriend at the time let me know she was pregnant. 2 semesters later I was back home. However, while at BGSU a buddy of mine gave me a proper introduction to computers and emulators. My grades may have been better if not for that NES emulator!After coming back home, I worked menial jobs for a few years before taking a job with a guy who contracted for FedEx Home Delivery back when it first launched. A little less than a year later I owned the route. It was decent money for a person my age, but the burnout and turnover rates were real. It was a stressful job, one poor guy even had a heart attack one morning while arguing with a manager. But, like I said the money was good and at the time it was allowing me to finance a side hustle co-producing a DVD Magazine. Unless you're 30 and up you may have never heard of a DVD Magazine, but they were pretty popular back in the early 2000's. Ultimately, we could see that everything was moving to the web and we wanted to be first. We were trying to build something along the lines of a World Star Hip-Hop before it was the “WOOORRLLDDD STAAARRR” we know now. Unfortunately, none of us knew how to code, nor did we know anybody who could code. Back then, companies were charging up around $100k for what would now be a $10-15k WordPress site. This price point is what ultimately led me to the path I am on today. A long and strenuous journey up several towering mountains, and down into many low valleys, but finally, I HAVE ARRIVED!Launch School is what got me to where I am now, but as I mentioned, I have been in web development for the last 8 years. After striking out in our many attempts to secure development, I ultimately decided to go back to school and learn how to build a website in the summer of 2011. I attended a private institution and graduated with an A.A.S. focused on digital design. While attending school, I realized then, that I wasn't going to get the necessary skill set needed to actually build anything other than a static website, or hack something together using WordPress. Unfortunately, by this point, I was 3 semesters in and $25k down, in what was a 4-semester program. So, I saw it through and finished up, grappling with the knowledge that I had just dropped $30k in what I could have learned at the local community college for $5k, and still didn't know how to program. I share these numbers in part to let you know, "don't live with regret, forgo the debt." So more debt was out of the question in terms of procuring the programming knowledge I would need. This sent me down the spiraling path of tutorial hell.Yes, tutorial hell is just as scary as it sounds. It is an endless cycle of tutorials, death by a thousand cuts style, in which you take millimeter-sized steps in completing a 30k marathon. Eventually, I did bite the bullet a few years into the struggle and enrolled in a PHP certification course at the local community college. I felt more confused after the class than I was going into it. But that's not all, I also purchased around 30 Udemy courses, a $400 course on Coursera, completed several tracks in Treehouse, Freecodecamp, Codeacademy, KahnAcademy, audited several Edx courses, and had various subscriptions to other platforms throughout the years. With all that, I probably learned 30% of what I've learned in just a little over a year at Launch School. To be honest in writing this, I have no clue why, or how, I stuck with it. But damn, am I thankful I did.Finally, I'm going to let you in on why Launch School is so amazing. First, the cost, LS is $200/mo or $2400/yr.  At one point during the height of COVID, they were also providing financial assistance to students in need, but I'm not sure if that's still going on. A typical 3-4 month boot camp is $15k on the low-end. Second, integrity, they not only tell you but show you, in their free and extensive prep course, exactly what you're in for. Third, the curriculum is second to none. It is so in-depth and the assessments are like nothing I've ever experienced, the standard they hold you to is almost infuriating at first. That's until you get through it and can look back to appreciate it for what it is. The sense of accomplishment is unreal when you finish a module. Lastly, and this could have been number one, the community, the community of people are diverse, helpful, and super friendly. When you ask a question, it's usually answered within minutes. If you've ever learned online then you know what it's like to wait 2 days, if it ever gets answered, on a submitted question. You're connecting with a network of people. Folks that graduated years ago and are senior engineers are still on Slack providing newbies feedback and advice. The founder and TA's are consistently online providing more resources, articles, advice, study groups, etc.Currently, I have 2 modules left to complete in the CORE Curriculum, and I have a goal in mind to finish by August. It would have been sooner, but due to money getting tight with COVID I had to start my job search somewhat early. As soon as I put open to opportunities on my LinkedIn profile my inbox was flooded with recruiters. Not soon after, I landed a 6 figure job, which was much more than I expected. Prior to accepting the offer, I was telling recruiters/employers I was looking for $75-80k/yr. After a couple of weeks of interviewing, I was turning down offers at that dollar amount. During my interviews, I was complimented several times on my Problem Solving abilities using the techniques provided by LS. The coding challenges were actually much easier than the problem sets Launch School provides.I just want to touch briefly on job assistance, since it is not a direct offering of the CORE Curriculum. I would say it's provided indirectly. As mentioned above, the LS community provides most advice that may be needed, even going as far as to look over a resume or LinkedIn profile. Just the other day, I read an article on what counts as work experience. There have also been several posts on the forums from former grads/students that their current company is hiring. It seems to me once a company gets one grad, they seek out other LS students. For me, providing the tools necessary to nail the technical portion of the interview was all the assistance I needed.  I know what you may be thinking, that I had previous experience. This is true and it did help some, but for the most part, the job offers I had didn't really take my past experience into account because I was self-employed and most of my work didn't involve much programming or custom development. Just talking the talk, using technical jargon was not a skill I had over a year ago. Most importantly, prior to Launch School, I most definitely did not have the problem-solving skills necessary to effectively work on a team producing globally scaled applications.
If you have been considering a change and have any interest in some type of development, do yourself a favor and enroll in the prep course. It cost you nothing to get started but can provide you everything you've hoped for if you see it through. My only regret is that I didn't find Launch School sooner.

For context, I graduated Core in a bit under 8 months and am starting Capstone in August.I came into Launch School with no expectations. It seemed good, and thought it'd be a good skill to develop as I worked towards product management roles. I didn't seriously consider that I'd end up as a software engineer.I didn't have expectations partly because I had tried to learn how to program multiple times before in different years. I can remember 3 moments where I somewhat seriously tried to learn, but never got far (one of them involved a month-long stint at 42's "piscine" in Paris).It's only been a bit over half a year after I started LS but everything's changed. It's easy for me to pick up new languages because Core went to such depth and am set on doing Capstone to go into a career as a software engineer.In retrospect, everything else besides Launch School was noise. If you're interested in learning and having a career as a software engineer I couldn't think of a better option — at least trying Launch School out is a no-brainer.

Launch School has been critical for me while I made a huge career transition going into 2021. Last year, I was unhappy as a not-so-technical Technical Support Engineer at a startup after a long and challenging self-taught coding journey. Still, I would look at job interviews elsewhere and feel stuck due to huge gaps in my knowledge, lack of confidence when coding live, and general insecurity about what I knew vs. what I didn't know. Since I did come in with experience, Launch School has solved all of those problems for me and helped me make a pivot into my goal career, all in about half a year of full-time studies.I want to highlight what made this program so fantastic for me: 1) The community – practicing with students who wish to practice the material until they've mastered it is HUGE. They aren't saying, "Okay, we finished this, let's move on." – they want to dissect code and understand all of the nitty-gritty details. 2) Having assessments. You can't move forward until you've truly mastered the earlier pieces. That might sound frustrating, but I'll tell you what's way worse: when you are trying to debug something in your code because you went lightning speed and used a library without knowing the fundamentals first. Learn your fundamentals and humble yourself to re-learn how to learn, and the new mastery approach will be so rewarding.
After completing the back end curriculum, I applied to one dream job, and it got it! I'm now in an SE program at Snowflake, and I'm so excited to be in the exact career that I wanted. 

Without a doubt, I can say that completing Launch Schools core curriculum is one of the most positive life-altering experiences I have undergone. Launch School instilled in me invaluable knowledge about web development, but its focus on mastery-based learning has changed how I think about education and approach life in general. The problem-solving skills I picked up well-attending Launch School have made me not only a more competent web developer but also a more competent person.I initially became interested in web development while building an application based on one of my hobbies. Even though the application was nearly identical to the tutorial I followed, once I tried to alter it and make it my own, it started to fall apart. I didn't understand enough about web development's core concepts to know why the code I had copied worked, let alone make it my own. I reached out to a professional web developer friend and asked him to look at it with me. He asked me a few questions and explained that he could fix the site with me, but I was missing a ton of fundamental knowledge and if this was something I was serious about, what I should do is learn that first, not build a project I didn't understand. His advice led me to Launch School as this fundamentals-based approach he suggested was exactly what they were advertising. 
 
Fast forward over a year later, and though it wasn't easy, it was worth it. After completing the core curriculum, I rebuilt my project from the ground up. Thanks to the fundamentals I picked up with Launch school, not only was I able to understand what needed to be done and do it, but I was also able to quickly pick up, understand and integrate new technologies into my project with confidence. By the time I was finished rebuilding my site, I had taken it to a level I hadn't even dreamed was possible before. When showing my project to my friend, he was blown away by how far I had come in such a short time. The same project helped me land an opportunity to work on a project with a team of professional web developers.I am now building a career out of web development. Thanks to my time at Launch School, I feel confident in my ability to pick up whatever technology is required to get the job done. Though I was skeptical at first, trusting the process and basing my knowledge on problem-solving and fundamental skills has paid dividends. Attending Launch Schools is one of the best decisions I have ever made, and if you're willing to put in the time and effort, I have no doubt you will come to feel the same way.

I remember starting Launch School almost two years ago in 2018, about the same time that I started a new job. I was already working in tech as an IT Systems Administrator, but I wanted to propel my career into something more fulfilling where I could not maintain systems all day. I wanted to get out of the grind of a cost centric job and propel myself into something that provided more value to the business. After dabbling for years, trying to find a program that worked for me, and never feeling satisfied, I finally ran into launch school and started the Ruby Track.Suffice to say, I have finished the core curriculum and was promoted to a DevOps engineer at my current company. I have Launch School's Core Curriculum to thank heavily for providing me the skills needed to transition into my current role. I almost exclusively use python for automation in my current role; working with API's and the bottom-up approach that launch school provided has helped me succeed in this endeavor. At the beginning of launch school, I wondered how you could have so few courses, and people still admitted that this course could take a year+ to get through. Once I started, I ducked into the deep pool of reality on how much information Launch School expects you to master. 

From learning arrays to reading documentation to solving problems, everything went into so much detail I immediately knew this program was for me. Learning the basics started to give me incredible insights into stuff that I was already working on at work but had no idea how they worked at a fundamental level. I always ended up googling for answers and would spend hours searching for someone else's solution to fit into what I understood to solve the problem that I had at hand.Currently, I am a key point of contact for developers when they need help with an API because I have demonstrated my knowledge and expertise in understanding how an API works at a fundamental level. I know how to dissect APIs so well that I have almost become a resident expert. Making calls to an API is the same stuff you learn in Launch School but with little extra knobs and features attached. This fundamental approach is true for almost everything that I currently do at work and why I firmly believe that Launch School is worth the time and effort. You will see things in the Launch School curriculum that are hard to find almost anywhere else on the web without long hours of searching. The thing with Launch School is once you are done, you will realize just how fundamentally necessary everything is. You will continue to go back to that foundation for everything you do, regardless of what language or program stack you decide to work in or pursue.

I'm early on in starting my software development career, as I graduated Launch School's Core Curriculum just a couple weeks ago. I'm busy preparing my portfolio, seeking out open source projects, and expanding my network. That being said, I am already aware of how Launch School has given me the skills to analyze new problems and grasp how different programming pieces fit together.In my opinion, the best features of Launch School are the in-depth curriculum, extremely knowledgeable TAs, extensive assessments, and high-caliber students. The curriculum is thorough, organized, and carefully scaffolded to build upon each block of knowledge from course to course. Students can get any question about the curriculum answered quickly by TAs. Assessments are thorough and demand precision in all responses. And, because of all of these things, Launch School by and large attracts students who are diligent, serious, disciplined, and incredibly motivated. Every student that I had the pleasure of coding with cared deeply about the work at hand. We all shared a common goal of wanting to master the material.When initially researching and comparing coding schools, I realized that Launch School sees learning software development as a lifelong journey of mastering a craft, not learning to code in three months in order to land a job. Launch School is honest and transparent with what they offer. Just by taking a look at the website, you can see that there isn't the window dressing that other online coding schools have. Before enrolling with Launch School, I stumbled across a section on their website: "Who our Program is NOT built for". The description is frank about the extensive time investment, difficulty of the courses, and strict philosophy on first principles at the exclusion of the newest, most sought after modern frameworks. It was clear to me that Launch School wasn't interested in just making a sale to one more customer. The people behind the program believe in the work that they do and the approach that they have. On top of that, they offer a free preparatory course and a dozen free eBooks. And the commitment is only month to month, so I was never locked in longer than I wanted to be.The curriculum content can be daunting and at times even overwhelming. But rest assured that by taking your time, slowly combing through the material, connecting with other students, and taking advantage of opportunities to ask TAs all of your questions, you can and will get through it all. If I can do it, then so can you.

When gyms advertise "Train here to get lean and jacked within 10 weeks!", most of us roll our eyes and are skeptical. But coding bootcamps do the exact same thing and people bite. LaunchSchool is the "boring" coach that tells you to follow a longer path but you'll 100% get into the best shape of your life. And trust me, it works.If you want to land the best jobs in the tech industry without having to go through a 4 year computer science degree, LaunchSchool will help you do that. I recently landed multiple offers from FANG type companies and I couldn't have done it without LaunchSchool. 

Hello there. My name is Chian Yee and completed the course at Launch School from 2016 to 2018. Recently I went for 5 programming interviews and got 5 job offers, even one from IBM Hong Kong. I even got admitted into the University of Pennsylvania Master in Computer and Information Technology program. I really want to thank Launch School for the life-changing experience and education they gave me.

A Unique Approach

LS has a unique approach to teaching software engineering. You don’t just learn Ruby on Rails here. You learn fundamentals of programming like object-oriented programming, abstraction, encapsulation, polymorphism etc. These concepts are easily transferable to other programming languages. One of the core skills emphasized by LS is problem-solving. The whole course is peppered with plenty of programming exercises. Students are encouraged to find answers on their own first, guidance will come later. Even today, when I go for technical interviews, concepts learn from LS comes to me naturally because it is imbued in my mind after so many exercises.

LS used a mastery-based approach to learning. They make sure that students understand the basics before going to more advanced topics. This is so important because it prevents confusion and frustration later down the road. It also means that there is no time-limit (I personally took 1 year and 8 months to finish LS) and instructors/TA take the time to assess you. At the end of each subject, TAs/instructors will assess and interview you and if you pass the assessment, it means you really understand the subject.

A Place with Heart

Although it is an online learning environment, LS is placed filled with care and friendliness. I remember the first day I join the course, Chris, the instructor and co-founder personally greeted me to welcome me to the course. A special thanks to him also for writing me a letter of recommendation to the University of Pennsylvania.

TA are very friendly and helpful to me throughout my journey. They genuinely wanted to help you with your learning. Never had I had to wait for longer than a day to get a reply in the forum from them. Specifically, I want to thank Victor Paolo Reyes, Brandon Conway, Pete Hanson and Naveed Fida for all the help you extended me throughout the course.

Conclusion

There is an understanding that you don’t stop learning after you leave LS. LS provides a solid foundation for serious learners to learn on their own in the future. So if you are a serious learner and are willing to put in the effort and time to learn software engineering, LS can change your life!

I would say Launch School helped me build my confidence in programming and helped transform me into a software engineer with my non-technical background.

The self-paced course with a very low cost allowed me to learn to code with more flexibility while I also had a job at the time. Yes, it might take you a longer time to finish the core curriculum. If you aim to get a developer job within a very short period in 3 - 4 months, you might be hesitant to join Launch School. However, building a solid programming foundation really helps you to become a real Software Engineer in your career, and it is a key to differentiate yourself with a lot of "coders" in the market. If you are serious to build a career in the software field, and not just getting a job ASAP, you will not regret learning from Launch School.

The instructors and TAs are also very helpful, supportive and they are always active in the learning platform as well as Slack channel, if you get stuck somewhere in the course content or need code review, they are always there for you.

Finally, whether or not you are in LS's Capstone program, the instructors and alumni are willing to help if you need any job assistance. All you need is just to reach out and ask questions in the Slack channel, they are so easy to approach.

Mastery Based learning is a concept that is easy to understand, accept and even embrace but I think it is only after experiencing its true power can you learn to fully trust it.

When I began my Launch school journey I read all the MBL related literature that Launch School throw your way. I accepted it at face value. I understood the logic and was ready to apply it. And i did... to an exent. I remember working through the back end and still having a slight feeling of anxiety that the target day I had in the back of my mind was slipping further and further away. It was only when I reached the half way point that I was able to look back at what I had learned and know that this approach to learning really was different. From this point on I slowed down, really taking the time to soak up the material.

Launch school seems like one of the best kept secrets in the software education sector. I stumbled across it by accident one day listening to a podcast. Other students have similar stories. Even after the podcast I wasted another four months trying to learn on my own before signing up to the program. When I signed up and tried the prep course I realised the full extent of the quality of the material.

You might have read some of Chris Lee's medium articles on his philosophies around education and MBL but what you probably haven't heard him talk about is the sheer quality of the materials that have been put together by Launch School team. They have done an outstanding job of engineering an effective, cohesive and interesting curriculum. The attention to detail is second to none and this attention to detail inevitably gets imparted on students.

The team of Launch school TAs and instructors are an extremely helpful and friendly bunch. They seem to be available no matter what time of the day or night you need help. Between code reviews, forum discussions and chat room inquiries they are always willing to go the extra mile and give you more time than you could have hoped for.

After completing the core curriculum I feel like Launch School will always be part of me. I genuinely believe I could not have gotten to where I am now without it. Launch School has given me the ability to see problems that can be solved with software and see how these problems can be broken down and managed. Overall it has given me the belief that I can accomplish anything that I put my mind to, perhaps the most valuable lesson of all.

I learned a little programming while in school but I thought I was too far along in physics to make the switch to computer science. After getting my doctorate in physics, I still had an itch to learn programming so I started looking for a way to learn. After six months of researching my options: more school, boot camp, books & tutorials; I stumbled upon Launch School. While listening to the podcast Learn to Code with Me, by Laurence Bradford, she was interviewing a founder of Launch School. Their approach to learning by focusing on the fundamentals was the key strategy I was looking for to ensure I would be left without gaps in my education.

Launch School's perfect blend of one-on-one attention and self-paced learning allowed me to learn while working full-time. Their flexible teaching style allowed me to seek guidance when I needed it and buckle down with my headphones on when I was going strong. I spent the first six months in the program studying the fundamentals of programming before touching advanced topics. This ingrained the core concepts of programming in me so that when it was time to learn advanced topics I didn't have to keep looking back to remember the basics. This kept my focus sharp and progress steady. At this point I couldn't show anyone the programs I built because there weren't any. Launch School isn't about building a portfolio, it's about building a career. The second six months were spent on advanced topics, building complex applications, and gradually taking control of each project from start to finish. Launch School gave me more freedom, i.e. responsibility, as courses progressed; by doing so I became a self-sufficient programmer capable of making meaningful contributions to real-world applications. Thanks to Launch School I landed a full-stack developer position at a fast-growing start-up in DC.

Launch School uses mainly Ruby and JavaScript to teach but the most beneficial lessons were not about the languages. They taught me how to progress through a problem, from origination to completion, in a controlled yet flexible way. And this is exactly what I was tested on in the interview for my job. My employer cared about my ability to think through a problem more so than my knowledge of any language. Learning the language is a must, of course, but it is not the true skill of a programmer.

Every day on the job I use the skills I learned in Launch School. My job consists of at least a little bit of everything I learned in Launch School. Because I was prepared so well for the tasks they had in mind for me, I was able to take on additional responsibilities, become proficient with Vue.js (which I had no experience using prior), and even become a valuable resource for other new developers. Three days into the job my boss said, "I have never seen a new hire contribute valuable work to a production application so quickly." Suffice to say, I'm excelling at my job and it's all thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work, dedication, and Launch School.

I started Launch School with zero coding experience, and I am now gainfully employed as a programmer. I finished the core curriculum in just under a year. The transformation is long and certainly hard, but I don’t know of any curriculum – other than Launch School’s – that can teach web development fundamentals so well. Launch School is in a league of its own. I highly recommend it.

At the beginning of 2017, I started with the course. I had many doubts because there were several other programs on the Internet, but I was lucky to choose this one and I want to help other people who may be going through this situation.

If you are looking for a course where they teach you the fundamentals on which to build your career, this is the course for you. But if you're looking for shortcuts or something quick, then this is not your best option.

After having finished the course in 1 year and 4 months, I can say that today I feel with super powers because I have all the necessary knowledge to look for a job as a programmer or even start my own startup.

I have a HUGE happiness because it was a dream come true and the possibilities that I add to my career are spectacular.

If you sincerely want to be a professional programmer then I recommend what I did, spend a year and a few months of your life studying at Launch School, it will undoubtedly be your best decision.