Code Fellows
Code Fellows is a technical skills training academy in the Pacific Northwest that offers full- and part-time software development, ops and cybersecurity courses online and in-person from their Seattle, Washington location. Code Fellows guides people from all backgrounds to change their lives through fast-paced, career-focused education. Since their first cohort in 2013, Code Fellows has taught over 1,600 graduates and iterated on their curriculum and format to ensure students receive the most industry-relevant training as effectively and efficiently as possible. Code Fellows shapes passionate learners with immersive training to meet industry needs and improve diversity. Students are immersed in their learning with daily lectures, pair programming, weekly presentations from full-time instructional staff who are seasoned industry professionals, one-week project sprints, and more. Code Fellows graduates work at Amazon, Microsoft, Zillow, Expedia, XBOX, NIKE, Amazon, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and over 800 other companies.
The modular style of the Code Fellows program allows students to test into the course level that is most appropriate for their current skill level. In addition, the modular class structure allows students to choose the schedule and timing that meets their needs.
Code Fellows believes everyone should have the opportunity to succeed. Code Fellows offers scholarships to help individuals who come from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds find rewarding careers in tech. They are committed to breaking down systemic barriers and ensuring all people are treated with respect and dignity. They are united with their staff, students, alumni, and partners in the fight against systemic racism and injustice.
Code Fellows supports both domestic and international licensing partners through its Powered by Code Fellows program. Code Fellows also offers a tutoring program and platform to both students and non-students, technical instructor certification, and corporate training.
228 Code Fellows Reviews
AnonymousGraduate • OnlineAug 14, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceJob hunt afterwards
Quality education. Most people get jobs fairly quickly afterwards, but I have met quite a few graduates from different programs that are failing to find anything. So I would say that Code Fellows will give you the resume to get interviews, but it's up to you to get the job from there.- AnonymousStudent • OnlineAug 14, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Excellent program -- A bit on the expensive end
I really enjoyed my time at Code Fellows! This is a great course for any one who wants to learn how to build a website and learn JavaScript. It does not go in too much detail but it gives you the foundations to keep learning on your own or take one of the Development Accelerators. The curriculum is good and you learn a lot and get the foundations for things you might have trouble learning on you own. The two books for the class are about 50$ total. Which is a lot less than most universitie...
I really enjoyed my time at Code Fellows! This is a great course for any one who wants to learn how to build a website and learn JavaScript. It does not go in too much detail but it gives you the foundations to keep learning on your own or take one of the Development Accelerators. The curriculum is good and you learn a lot and get the foundations for things you might have trouble learning on you own. The two books for the class are about 50$ total. Which is a lot less than most universities. The instructor I had was very fun and helpful. He had a passionate drive which was obvious. You also get as much help as you need the whole day which is great. The class is rather expensive for one month of learning so be cautious if you are coming in with little money. I would take the foundations 1 course for 500$ and you learn a decent amount and then try to self study until you have enough for the development accelerator. I am planning on taking one! Be weary if you live outside downtown seattle and don't have a good bussing option to SLU because parking is expensive and traffic is horrible. You can always bus to westlake and walk faster than taking a second bus or trolley.
- KevinDeveloper • Student • OnlineMay 26, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Worth
I attented Code Fellows near it's infancy. While the Job Gaurantee initially attracted me to the camp, it does provide a great incentive for the school to invest in all the students success. The camp not only provided a good basis in technical skills but also intensive career advice. The instructors and speakers were every bit as supportive as they were informative. The amount of speakers provided a great variety of insight and the time spent with the mentors and instructors ...
I attented Code Fellows near it's infancy. While the Job Gaurantee initially attracted me to the camp, it does provide a great incentive for the school to invest in all the students success. The camp not only provided a good basis in technical skills but also intensive career advice. The instructors and speakers were every bit as supportive as they were informative. The amount of speakers provided a great variety of insight and the time spent with the mentors and instructors provided the deeper more personal advice.
- Jake AndersonGraduate • OnlineMay 01, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Python Development Accelerator
This course sets you up to be a full stack python developer. We covered everything form data structures and algorithms to deployment and web development. Assignments included building a pyramid blog app that acted as a daily learning journal, a django app that was build for image sharing. Other small assignments covered building everything from a linked list to graph traversal and dijkstras algorithm to find the shortest path along with sorting algorithms. The instructure and TA's were...
This course sets you up to be a full stack python developer. We covered everything form data structures and algorithms to deployment and web development. Assignments included building a pyramid blog app that acted as a daily learning journal, a django app that was build for image sharing. Other small assignments covered building everything from a linked list to graph traversal and dijkstras algorithm to find the shortest path along with sorting algorithms. The instructure and TA's were all very knowledgible and were willing and able to drop anything at any time to help you when you got stuck.
- Mandi GrantAssociate Software Development Engineer • Graduate • OnlineApr 24, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
100% worth it, but you get out of it what you put in
The JavaScript dev accelerator was a great experience, it changed my life and was the best educational experience I've ever had.
I attended Foundations I in June 2014, Foundations II in July, and the Full Stack JavaScript Development Accelerator from August-September 2014. I am now employed full time as a software engineer at Expedia in Bellevue, WA.
I'm normally a do it yourself-er when it comes to learning new stuff, and I had been learning on my own for ...
The JavaScript dev accelerator was a great experience, it changed my life and was the best educational experience I've ever had.
I attended Foundations I in June 2014, Foundations II in July, and the Full Stack JavaScript Development Accelerator from August-September 2014. I am now employed full time as a software engineer at Expedia in Bellevue, WA.
I'm normally a do it yourself-er when it comes to learning new stuff, and I had been learning on my own for years before I attended the accelerator. What the accelerator gave me was a lot of things I couldn't get on my own:
- access to knowledgable teachers and TAs
- an instant network of peers
- exposure to technologies I wouldn't have discovered on my own
- team project experience as a developer
- my resume in the hands of CF's 40+ employer partners
This program is for students who have already been self-teaching for some time and already understand the fundamentals. You will continue self-teaching in the accelerator, just at a much faster pace and greater intensity.
To prospective students I recommend the JavaScript Road Trip on codeschool.com and setting up a website and/or Wordpress blog on some $5-month shared hosting (and you can re-use that same hosting later for your professional portfolio site). Build as much "real stuff" as you can - codeschool is only good for an introduction to the concept. Actually getting something working and available online is much, much more challenging. If you enjoy these things, though, you will probably enjoy the accelerator.
The accelerator is INTENSE and HARD (which is good, considering what it costs). Plan on being there every single day. People who missed a day missed a lot and fell behind. You will get a fresh dump of homework daily. It will be difficult to keep your head above water. You will have to fight through frustrating problems, work on the bus ride home and all the way until bedtime just to keep up, and stop socializing and playing video games and whatever else you do for fun for the 8 weeks you are in it. If this sounds horrible to you, you will probably not enjoy the accelerator.
If you're still eager to start, don't worry about which language to go with - there's no "one right choice", and you'll learn new languages on the job. Start coding now, in anything. It's a long journey (for me, it was about 8 months from the first day of Foundations I to the first day of my new job) but it is absolutely worth it if you have the drive and the discipline. (And the money.)
- Fan YangPortlandApr 09, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
A great start
Bootcamp brings me from a piece of white paper to a real web developer, and to a foreign student like me, the instructors are clear and loud speakers without any accent. I think we should cut off some of the afternoon self-study time and try to learn more even though instructors answered all the questions.
- Ron FloydWeb Developer • Graduate • PortlandApr 09, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
What you get out of a program like this is largely up to you.
My overall experience with the Code Fellows web development bootcamp was very positive. I gave the curriculum three stars because for the amount of pre-work they have you do before you get there, I felt like the curriculum should have been harder and perhaps taught at a faster pace.
I was in the first cohort offered in Portland, so things were a bit rough around the edges at the start. Week one was fairly disorganized and slow going, and I questioned whether I'd made the righ...
My overall experience with the Code Fellows web development bootcamp was very positive. I gave the curriculum three stars because for the amount of pre-work they have you do before you get there, I felt like the curriculum should have been harder and perhaps taught at a faster pace.
I was in the first cohort offered in Portland, so things were a bit rough around the edges at the start. Week one was fairly disorganized and slow going, and I questioned whether I'd made the right decision. But the wonderful staff at Code Fellows are very concerned about making your experience as great as possible, and things really started to take off after that. We completed several projects during the course which were good enough to include in a portfolio.
Like most things in life however, you will get results from this course which correspond directly to the level of commitment and effort you are willing to put into it. You don't actually need Code Fellows to learn the topics covered in the curriculum. The value that Code Fellows provides is the structure and interaction that comes with being in a classroom, working with other students, and being guided by industry veterans whose knowledge and experience far exceeds yours.
Throughout the course, Jordana (our campus manager) regularly presented us with info on meetups and other tech industry gatherings in the local area. If you decide to take one of these courses, I highly recommend attending as many of these as you can. You'll soon discover that developing soft skills and making connections is just as valuable (if not more so) than the actual coding skills you are learning.
- AnonymousOnlineMar 03, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Poor quality for the price
I recently wrapped up the iOS dev accelerator and felt like the overall experience was pretty weak give the high cost. In hindsight, I likely would have gone to another program and simply done a web dev accelerator, but I wanted to do iOS. If you are really looking to get into iOS then this is really the only option for newbies in the area, which is unfortunate. The team at CF is great, but you really don't get much instruction - you basically sit in a room with other people and work o...
I recently wrapped up the iOS dev accelerator and felt like the overall experience was pretty weak give the high cost. In hindsight, I likely would have gone to another program and simply done a web dev accelerator, but I wanted to do iOS. If you are really looking to get into iOS then this is really the only option for newbies in the area, which is unfortunate. The team at CF is great, but you really don't get much instruction - you basically sit in a room with other people and work on the homework.
- AnonymousOnlineFeb 06, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Spend that money elsewhere
Code Fellows is ok, but the evening courses are definitely not worth the cost. The material for the Python class is available through codecademy.
- AnonymousGraduate • OnlineJan 14, 2015Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Challenging in the beginning but excitement fizzled out at the end
I attended the 8 weeks iOS accerelator bootcamp. The beginning weeks were fabulous and challenging, but the excitement soon fizzled out towards the end. Although they claimed it was a 8 weeks course but the actual lesson time were much much lesser. Among these 8 weeks, 2 weeks were used on team app development (2 different apps), the final week was mostly interview mock test, and there was NO lesson on every Friday too, so all in all it was only 5-week&nb...
I attended the 8 weeks iOS accerelator bootcamp. The beginning weeks were fabulous and challenging, but the excitement soon fizzled out towards the end. Although they claimed it was a 8 weeks course but the actual lesson time were much much lesser. Among these 8 weeks, 2 weeks were used on team app development (2 different apps), the final week was mostly interview mock test, and there was NO lesson on every Friday too, so all in all it was only 5-week lessons. The instructors were very good, the lesson was given in the morning at 9 o'clock till noon time, the afternoon was merely self/group practising. It would be so much better if it was a FULL 8 weeks course and they offered lessons in the afternoon.
- Mark PalfreemanAssociate Front-End Developer • Graduate • OnlineOct 31, 2014Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Take your static web skills to production-level front end best practices
Summary
After attending Code Fellows to learn front-end web development, numerous friends have asked me questions like "How was it?" and "Would you recommend it?" My response differs depending on the person's prior experience and interests, but here's a high-level review to help with these inquiries.
The world of web development is one giant rabbit hole that requires c...
Summary
After attending Code Fellows to learn front-end web development, numerous friends have asked me questions like "How was it?" and "Would you recommend it?" My response differs depending on the person's prior experience and interests, but here's a high-level review to help with these inquiries.
The world of web development is one giant rabbit hole that requires continual learning, admitting you're wrong, and progress as the industry continues to evolve and shift. That aside:
The Decision to Attend
I would absolutely recommend Code Fellows, but it comes with a variety of variables/caveats that are different for everyone. Mainly: cost, ability to sacrifice the time, potential unemployment after completion, etc.
For me, I wanted a career change, so I knew it would be an up-front investment that would be repaid upon finding a job. The job guarantee, as well as local press and quality of leadership, made my decision to jump into Code Fellows feel safer to me.
Curriculum & Classwork
Coming into the program only having tought myself basic HTML and CSS, almost everything at Code Fellows was new knowledge. That said, Dale Sande pushed us to learn in-depth, production-level code, and it was a crash course on best practices in the industry. Our class focused on the interaction of design and development with a heavy emphasis on modular reusable CSS using Sass, semantic HTML, and web standards. Out of everything today's "front end developers" are expected to know, I do think the class fell slightly short on JavaScript and its many modern frameworks, but you can only do so much in two months.
I put in a lot of hours during that time to absorb as much as I could, but the learning still has only just begun—after graduating, it's time to really apply everything, put it to practice, and gain repetition.
Learning
What I will say is I never could have learned so much so fast on my own, and there's also a great support network of classmates and instructors both in class and after graduating. The small class sizes and tight-knit group made it easy to get help and share learning experiences very quickly, and nobody felt alone. After Code Fellows, people continue to work on projects, share job search experiences, and more. It was awesome to have this while we were all looking for something new and entering a new industry.
Job Placement
I did start a contract at a small startup after only one month and solidified a position at a larger firm two months later—both of these came through personal referrals, which helps immensely. All this said, there are still students in my class that don't have a full-time job yet (after four or five months as of this writing). Regardless of the quality of our training, it's not easy to convince companies hiring that we are suddenly "experts" that can solve their problems right away. A lot of people still want proof like projects and work we've done.
TL;DR
If you have the desire, the money, the drive to learn (and keep learning), and you can afford a few months of life without making any money to fully jump into something, Code Fellows is a high quality school offering a lot of potential growth. It was quite literally a life- and career-altering decision for me, and I'm thankful I got the opportunity to attend.
- Ivan LeskoGraduateSep 15, 2014Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Ivan Lesko
I took the iOS Boot Camp (now called the iOS Development Accelerator) in January/February 2014 and I can say without a doubt Code Fellows is the best educational experience I have ever had. I started learning how to code on my own 6 months prior to Code Fellows and landed an iOS dev position a month after the program ended. The best thing about Code Fellows is the pace and environment. Being surrounded by a class full of students on the same interests as you to bounce ideas off is invaluab...
I took the iOS Boot Camp (now called the iOS Development Accelerator) in January/February 2014 and I can say without a doubt Code Fellows is the best educational experience I have ever had. I started learning how to code on my own 6 months prior to Code Fellows and landed an iOS dev position a month after the program ended. The best thing about Code Fellows is the pace and environment. Being surrounded by a class full of students on the same interests as you to bounce ideas off is invaluable. You will leave the development accelerator as an employable dev and make a great group of friends in the process.
Code Fellows Alumni Outcomes
| Description | Percentage |
| Full Time, In-Field Employee | 81.7% |
| Full-time apprenticeship, internship or contract position | 12.1% |
| Short-term contract, part-time position, freelance | N/A |
| Employed out-of-field | N/A |
Recent Code Fellows News
Code Fellows Alumni Reviews Summary
How much does Code Fellows cost?
Code Fellows costs around $12,000. On the lower end, some Code Fellows courses like Ops 101: Explore Ethical Hacking & Cybersecurity Careers (Full-Time, Online) cost $99.
What courses does Code Fellows teach?
Code Fellows offers courses like Code 101: Explore Software Development (Full-Time, In-Person), Code 101: Explore Software Development (Full-Time, Online), Code 102: Intro to Software Development (Full-Time, In-Person), Code 102: Intro to Software Development (Full-Time, Online) and 45 more.
Where does Code Fellows have campuses?
Code Fellows has in-person campuses in Seattle. Code Fellows also has a remote classroom so students can learn online.
Is Code Fellows worth it?
The data says yes! In 2019, Code Fellows reported a 100% graduation rate, a median salary of $72,500, and 98% of Code Fellows alumni are employed.
Is Code Fellows legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 228 Code Fellows alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Code Fellows and rate their overall experience a 4.49 out of 5.
Does Code Fellows offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Yes, Code Fellows accepts the GI Bill!
Can I read Code Fellows reviews?
You can read 228 reviews of Code Fellows on Course Report! Code Fellows alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Code Fellows and rate their overall experience a 4.49 out of 5.
Is Code Fellows accredited?
Code Fellows is a private vocational school licensed by the State of Washington. Code Fellows was the first code school in Washington State to be approved by the Veterans Association to receive the GI Bill. Learn more at www.codefellows.org/gi-bill