My experience with Bloc was overhwhelmingly poor. While good intentioned my advisor could never remember simple things like whether I was using Ruby or Angular. He frequently tried to push his own software solutions on me and several times had me scrap projects to try our new frameworks or generators that he considered the flavor of the week.

Their team is difficult to work with, impossible to escalate complaints with and has poor administrative oversite. For the amount of money they're charging you're much better off attending a different bootcamp.

I enrolled in the front end apprenticeship in September. It was a fantastic experience. Although I did have some difficulty at first with some of the JavaScript content, my mentor got me to where I needed to be. I think that the highlight of Bloc's program is its curriculum (which is constantly changing) and the mentors they hire to get apprentices through. The significant plus of the program is the mentorship, and they constantly challenge you with the material and extra material that's relevant to today's developers. I hesitated about joining Bloc because of the cost, but it was well worth it. I am actually going through their Ruby apprenticeship now, which I am finding difficult, but challenging and rewarding. They have added new material to their Ruby program, so I am having fun and learning a lot of new concepts and ways of thinking about programming that differ from my knowledge of JavaScript.

Bloc was helpful and I do recommend it to people, however it has some drawbacks.  

The positives:

- Great for students who are self driven
- Straight-forward curriculum
- Forces students to learn/research on their own
- Flexibility

The negatives:

- Limited time with a mentor
- Mentors were widely inconsistent in their knowledge and experience (I spoke with 6 along the way, mine was great luckily)
- Cannot cover topics with the same depth as other bootcamps
- Almost zero help with job placement (but you should be networking anyways...so not an issue if you actually plan)
 

My experience doing Full Stack Web Development Course at Bloc.io was an amazing journey from beginning to end!  I came into it without any background in computer programming and now I can build my own web applications.  My mentor was incredible.  He really understood where I was in my learning process at each point in the curriculum, and was therefore able to scaffold my learning so I didn't feel frustrated.  The office hours mentors are really great as well!  I don't know of any other bootcamp that has such extensive office hours.  Being able to get help when you need it makes all the difference. I would highly recommend Bloc's bootcamp!

I just finished Bloc about two weeks ago and am going through their job prep program right now, working 1-on-1 with their CTO doing practice technical interviews.

I’d say that the best part of my Bloc experience was the feeling of finishing a web app or site and moving on to the next one. The feeling of “I did this!” And then the being able to create a solid portfolio that shows the work that you’ve done, its just really gratifying and useful. In fact, that’s actually why I chose Bloc. I wanted to be able to come out with all the knowledge I’d need for a RoR job, but also be able to show what I could do becuase that’s a big part of getting a good job.

I also really liked Bloc’s mentorship aspect because I know that going in I had a ton of questions. Before I enrolled in Bloc’s Full Stack course I was teaching myself Ruby on Rails for about 4 months. But as I messed around with the XAMP stack I was also trying to improve my CSS/HTML skills. So having someone help me break down each of the languages and frameworks I realized where my gaps in knowledge were and what I really needed help with. My mentor, John, was just really helpful, and had a lot of information. If there were things I didn’t know the answers to, we would look it up and solve it together.

I recently graduated from Bloc, and in the time I signed up to leaving I have:

Learned the fundamentals of the Ruby language

Built three functioning web applications

Found not only a mentor, but a friend

Have lifetime access to Bloc's curriculum

Lifetime access to their open office hours.

If you can afford it, it's definitely worth the investment. You'll pick up an incredible new skill and become more creative in the process. They've also got a diversity scholarship in partnership with New Relic that could possibly save you some money. Also, they have a pretty good referral program, $100 off your tuition if you sign up through someone's referral link. It doesn't put much of a dent in the tuition, but an easy $100 back is always worth it.

I completed the 12-week Full Stack Course with Bloc just two months ago. 

Pros:

I could work/learn from anywhere with an internet connection, so I went home to the Philippines, lived rent-free for 3 months, got to spend time with family, while learning Rails development.

My mentor was engaged and cared about how I was learning - the one-on-one connection is rare opportunity. So much was accomplished in the 30 minute meetings. We are still in touch now, taking Coursera classes together.

I loved the pace, and that I was able to go my own pace. For me, this meant 9 hour days learning new concepts, or 4 hours debugging with Stack Overflow, or spending a day playing with Bootstrap. I was able to choose what I wanted to focus on.

Bloc is an amazing community. From the very beginning I had a real person call to onboard and ask me about my goals. Upon enrollment I got a welcome package. I get check ups from program coordinators. Little things like this let me know that they are accessible and are invested in my learning.

Cons:

The course gave me enough to be able to lay out the solid foundations of a Rails application. But it doesn't look pretty. I would have liked to have more exposure to front-end technologies (Ajax, jquery). 

After Bloc, I would've loved to even just a small document giving me options on the next step. Maybe that's delving deeper into CS with algorithm design, or learning Javascript for front-end, or going with the MEAN stack. When I submitted the capstone, I was left thinking, okay now what ? 

Job prep is exactly that, a prep for interviews, giving you technical topics to review and hints on how to present yourself honestly. I wish there was more of a network or platform for Bloc alumni and employers to meet. This is hard for Bloc as each student has her own completion date, but one can dream.

I recommend Bloc to someone new to development and is committed to delving deeper. 

Bloc is an amazing program and I highly recommend it for anyone looking to delve deeper into the world of coding.  

I became interested in development because I have an entreprenuerial streak and wanted to learn how to build out some of my own ideas. Bloc has provided me with the skills to do just that.

Furthermore - I am going through the job-prep phase now and I am confident that this will further prepare me for finding work as a developer.

The recommend Bloc for the following reasons - 

1. Mentors - Bloc has amazing mentors - and I absolutely loved working with mine. The fact that you are assigned a single mentor - and they work with you one-on-one really allows them to cater to your learning style and customize the material so that it is presented in a way that is clear for you. Their mentors are very high quality, and my Mentor, Chris, was beyond helpful.

Furthermore - for anyone who has learned on their own and spent copious amounts of time banging their head against the wall - the mentor is there to make sure you do not get stuck and can progress forward. Having this help and not having to waste time was invaluable to me.

2. Curriculum - The curriculum itself is great and I liked the way it was strucutred. It allowed for more hand holding at the beginning and then worked its way to more freedom towards the end. The fact that you are able to build several applications by yourself throughout the course - allows you to see the progression of your own skills as you move thorugh the curriculum.

3. Cost and accountabtiliy - I wanted a program that would hold me accountable and push me - but also one I could afford. Bloc is much less expensive than the other bootcamps so I could actually afford it. Furthermore - it created a framework where between the curriculum and the Mentor - I was able to hold myself accountable and push myself. 

Again, I would highly recommend Bloc - it is a great investment in ones' skillset -but like anything else - you get out of it what you put into it. So if you are willing to work hard, Bloc will help you leverage that effort to get you to where you want to go.

I'm a graduate of the UX design course and I'm starting the Job Prep. I think BLOC is a great solution if you want to enhance your skill, without having to commit with an 'on campus' course. I had to take the course while I was working and I was looking for an online course that also had a bit of human touch and interaction. BLOC was perfect in that sense: the plus value of having one-to-ones with a mentor during the week is invaluable and something that is hard to find in on line courses.

I'm a designer and I'm already working as academic lecturer, but I wanted to move towards the UX design area and BLOC met my expectations. I wanted to create a good collection of work to build my portfolio and eventually enter the UX design world and the meetings with my mentor really helped me with that.

Additionally, I've been contacted at the end of the course for starting the Job Prep and so far I'm excited about what they cover and I'm sure that's exaclty what I need.

As student you will receive tons of suggestions and references by tutors, students and the BLOC team in general, so that you'll definetly know how to spend your free time!

Of course this course requires your effort and you'll need to work in your free time to get the work done (late evenings and week ends mainly, in my case), but you'll be willing to do that in order to achieve the goal you set to yourself, I suppose!

Great experience overall, highly recommended if you want to make a twist in your career and you want to be in touch with great people.

I honestly feel like Bloc has the potential to change your life.  In many ways it has changed mine and the best part is that it will continue to.  

If I wanted to find a job as a developer I'm confident I could find one - especially if I'm willing to relocate.  I am an entrepreneur and wanted to learn enough to be able to create my business ideas.  What I learned in Bloc has given me power to make my ideas become a reality.  

I chose Bloc for three reasons.  

1. The first was it was online.  I simply couldn't relocate and I needed something flexible.  
2. Even though it was online I wanted something intense, something that pushed me, something comparable to an at-location bootcamp. I was so impressed with Bloc in this aspect. The first few weeks are very guided and directed and not that difficult. Slowly it becomes more challenging until you get out of the guided work and you begin building apps on your own with the help of your mentor.  There is flexibility here so for the person who finds this in and of itself challenging gets the challenge but for others who want to do more I was able to work with my mentor and do more advanced work. I loved that customization for me.
3. The leads me to the third reason I chose Bloc. The mentors. This is the heart of Bloc and what makes it stand out. I met with my mentor three times a week!  When I originally signed up I didn't realize it would be so often. I got to work with him on my capstone project which is a business idea I wanted to create. It was amazing to work together with my mentor to create a business.  Just this was worth it for me.  

I now have skills and knowledge I didn't have before. I am better. I have more potential. I couldn't put a price tag on this. Invest in yourself. But, that's just my opinion.  

After taking off the training wheels after codecademy I was eager to jump into more challenging courses for web development. Most of the other on-prem bootcamps ask for upwards of 12k for 10-12 weeks of dev school. Bloc was a great alternative. It cost less than 5k (it cost me like 2.7k because of a scholarship they had available at the time). 

The weekly pairing sessions and office hours are invaluable when coding by faith. Starting off with a big project that runs the gamut off rails apps was another plus. 

One of my drawbacks was that there was not a lot of emphasis on JS. One lesson was devoted to it when truthfully JS is one of the most important aspects of modern day web dev. So maybe there should be an onus to have students learn more of it by the time the second project rolls around? 

All in all, there are only so many things you can fit into 12 weeks and they all rival each other in terms of importance. It was a great launhing pad but the most important thing is in the desire of the student. 

I just landed a job after graduating from Bloc. Feel free to read an interview about my Bloc experience here - http://blog.bloc.io/full-stack-grad-lands-job-at-adfitech/

highlights - I had been in the IT field for a while, and wanted to learn Ruby on Rails. I liked the curriculum, I really enjoyed working with my mentor Ryan, and I liked the flexibility / accountability balance. 

Seeing as Bloc is online and essentially self-paced / self-motivated learning, it is entirely over-priced. There are a number of comparable online bootcamp programs for a fraction of the cost. In addition, the staff neglected my need to work out a payment arrangement. This company is in it purely for the profit. The redeeming factor would be the high quality mentors.

 I really did like my bloc experience. it was pretty intense. The best part about the experience was my mentor Aaron.

 I'm based in SF and looked pretty closely at Dev Bootcamp. I ended up choosing Bloc's 18 week track and I was able to keep working (as a marketing manager at a startup) full-time at the same time. I'm going thru the job prep phase right now, and just got an offer and will be starting as a rails developer in about 10 days. 

There are a number of coding and design bootcamps available. Bloc is offered online and provides you with weekly mentor meetings. As such, it seems similar to several online bootcamp programs. In my opinion, I wish that I had selected one that wasn't so expensive or an on-location bootcamp that guarantees job placement. The fact that this is online, means that you are self-paced and self-disciplined. For me an in-person option would have been better. To do something like this online at my own discretion, I would have preferred a more affordable program.

I really wanted to like Bloc program. I liked having a mentor, but some of the program material was confusing / not clearly explained for a beginner.

I started in 2016 but not sure what month I started, I looked at my first Invoice and it was in November of 2016 so I know I started around that time most likely a couple months before. My review is really late and I decided today I want to write my experience because it wasn't a good one. When I started I was very excited and enjoyed it but about a month into the track, it started going down hill. First thing first is everything they teach you , you can learn on your own.  There's so much resources out there especially on Youtube or other websites that offer a FREE curriculum and courses that cost $10 to $20. The curriculum is not anything special and like I said you can learn all of this on your own. Now when I started this program I didn't know this and that is why I was enjoying at first ,  but after finding out you can learn to code for FREE or for $20 a month , that is when I felt pretty upset with myself I didn't do enough research before this. I am currently a Full Time Web Developer in Los Angeles and I learned everything from online resources and courses that are $10 to $20 so I know for a fact what I'm saying is true.  Now as for the teacher I had, he was smart but at times rude. I can't say he was the worst teacher because he did give good advice , just when you would ask a lot of questions he would get annoyed but I understand that a bit seeing he probably had a lot of students. I would give them one star but because I feel the teachers are actually smart I'll give them the extra star. The things that really just threw it off for me is the price ,  the curriculum , and the teacher being rude occasionally. You can learn everything from the program on your own without paying thousands of dollars. I hope this review will help some people.

Bloc is a great online platform with a strong curriculum that teaches you everything you need to know to be a UX designer. It covers three main topics - UX research/testing, visual design, and basic frontend development. The way the curriculum is designed is innovative as well. It starts with teaching you the fundamentals for each topic, then gives you a project to do where you have to repeat the steps with some guidance. Then another project where you repeat the cycle but you have more freedom to design as you want. That system has been strong as it allows you to learn the basics and then repeat to strengthen your skills.

Besides the curriculum, there's an always-active Slack channel where students, mentors, and staff alike can interact! It's a great place to support other students by taking their surveys/tests, but also learn from the mentors and staff.

Most importantly IMO, you have a mentor who you can meet with on a weekly basis for 30 mins! My mentor has been critical in getting me to the finish line. It's easy to get in your head and become discouraged with your work, but my mentor has always encouraged me to keep going and have confidence in myself. That's something a curriculum can't teach you, so having him was so key for me.

Lastly, this program has everything you need but it's really up to YOU if you use it to its maximum potential. I had a lot of trouble getting started since I was working FT and in this program. Bloc is here to support you but you definitely need to put in the work. It takes a lot of self-discipline since you're not sitting in a classroom environment. If you can accomplish that, I believe Bloc can do great things for ya!

*Even though Bloc has Job Support, I did not give any star ratings for it since I'm not at that point of the program yet.

I had another career and really didn't enjoy what I was doing but didn't want to go back to school for another 4-8 years to switch careers. I looked into software design programs and realized this is something I really wanted to do but when I found Bloc, I was blown away at how hands-on the program was and how it truly prepared you for real-world experience. It also is continually being updated changes it's curriculum based on what's currently going on in the tech world. My mentor has supported me along the way and I'm so excited to get a job once I finish. Bloc place has changed my life!

I have a lot of previous design experience but I wanted to learn UX design inside and out. I'm still in the early part but I feel like I made a great decision choosing Bloc. It's a great fit for me and it's been very flexible which is exactly what I needed as I juggle other responsibilities. The curriculum isn't easy but the instructors are great and they give you plenty of help when you get stuck.

I'm enrolled in Bloc’s web development program and it has been an incredible experience for me. Even though the curriculum is designed to be self-paced, I've never felt I am on my own and adrift. For my part, I commit 25+ hours each week to my course of study. Admittedly, there is a considerable learning curve; however, after the four month mark, the concepts clicked. I am able to bridge theory to practice and am looking forward to creating my portfolio over the coming months. As each day passes, I become more comfortable and confident. Additionally, I have also consistently been supported by my mentor who I meet once a week online, by the wonderful mentors who are available at all hours of the day on Slack, and the superheroes from student success, such as Taylor. I had a life changing event at the end of November and Taylor was my rock; she worked with me to resolve the concern in such a manner that my studies could continue seamlessly. If your desire is to create a firm foundation in front-end design and a future in the field of web development, the only choice is Bloc.

I have been at Bloc for a year and have waited to write a review but I am at my wits end. Since my first day, I had a mentor who was a former Bloc student. They gave me very little support and always cancelled our meetings. Looking back they really offerend any "mentoring" and was not qualified in my opinion to be a mentor yet. Luckily now I have a great mentor but honestly he is the only positive part of my Bloc expierence. The hours they say it takes to complete are not feasable. I work full time and it takes hours to finish projects, not to mention the revisions. Hey I totally get that things need revisions but its not realistic to say 1 project takes 4 hours! try more 10-15 hours realistically from start to finish. Now the grading....we are being timed to complete the program. Again, some of us have full time jobs and they are suppose to take 48 hours to grade. Well it actually takes 4-5 days...and you have to wait to continue to the next project depending on the material. I have also asked for someone to call me from the support team multiple times and yet nobody has.....luckily I have UX designers who are friends & they have taught me more than Bloc. Do not waste your money. I regret it in hindsight. I am sure there are better programs out there with more supportive staff.

I'm a design student with Bloc and I'm very glad I decided to take this course.  They've taught me things that I wouldn't have thought to learn myself, like tons of design software, color psychology, step-by-step coding, logo design, and so much more. The feedback I get on my assignments and the online technical coach assistance has been a huge help for me, along with weekly mentor appointments. I'm only about halfway through and I feel like I've learned so much! Plus, there's a scholarship for women so let's get coding ladies!

I have already wasted so much time and energy with this useless program.  For prospective students, please do not waste your money!  I can not even begin to explain how awful this program is.  The content is made up of links to free programs.  If you are lucky enough to get the "mentor" who actually cares.  You might be told, "just give it a bit longer" or "wait until you reach Blocs original content".  Long story short.  I am not the only person who was strung along.  I do wish more people would share these experiences.  Not sure what happens to negative reviews on these sites?

I was enrolled in their Software Developer Track for 3.5 months, and I completed the entire frontend programming portion, including the projects.  My experience was the the actual course material that bloc was providing was hardly professional or thorough.  Each "checkpoint" consists of a small section of information, which covers maybe 10% of what you need to know.  Additionally, they link you to external resources that are all free (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/).  All of the actual "educational" material that bloc provides are also just links to Code School, which you can do for free on your own.  The entire 1st module uses Code School's material: https://www.codeschool.com/learn/html-css

As for my mentor, they were really cool and eager to help me, but I honestly felt like I didn't need them.

Additionally, bloc's student advisors/student success team is extremely disorganized and unhelpful.  It actually took 3 weeks for them to respond to one of my emails.