Code Institute

The course layout is not very well structured. Going from 1 coding language to the next. You're constantly doubting yourself if you study in the right way. Worst of all, if you start to get behind, it's basically over. There's not a lot of support. The time schedule is basically holy. It seems like they want you to finish the course as soon as possible so they can welcome new recruits. It's like a factory and you're the product. I'm very disappointed and regret spending all my money on this course.

Completed the C.I Full-Stack Diploma in E-Commerce Applications this year and overall when looking back, I can’t say I’m much more than moderately satisfied. 

The course material is decent, but is in dire need of a massive update to keep up with other courses out there. 
The cost of the course has gone up since I enrolled, and I don’t see the justification for it either. 

The mentorship is a bit misleading as you only get someone to basically go over your projects with you 3 times and they aren’t there to mentor you through the course as the name might suggest. 

The course also puts you together with other students regardless of prior coding experience, so a beginner coder is at a massive disadvantage compared to someone who has prior coding experience or a degree in CS. I think they should address this by splitting the course into two different categories to account for this or have more lenient marking for students without that background as an advantage. 

There’s a lively slack community and you can ask for help on there. But for the most part you’re on your own and will find yourself using resources such as W3School, MDN or Youtube tutorials to teach some material to be honest. 

There were several bugs and issues with some of the walkthrough content, especially between PP3 and PP4, and disappointingly PP5 was just the old MS4 recycled into this new course. 

On the plus side, you do get an EQF Level 5 at the end of it all. Though I am not sure I can say I feel like a qualified Software Developer as I hold the certificate in my hand.


 

I have currently been a "student" of this deplorable bootcamp for the past 4 1/2 months. I am also going through the bootcamp through Springboard which makes is absolutley free for me. Paying €8,000 for this course is the equivalent of throwing your money into the fire. 
1. The course is outdated. Several videos are 2-3 years old with a comment box above the videos saying how to "remedy" the issue. Which in my case mostly never works as the "remedy is often outdated aswell"
2. The way the "instructors" teach is horrific, they fly through the videos telling you what to do but not actually offering anything of informative value. They are all just code along videos which doesnt help anyone. It just makes you walkthrough dependant. 
3. From what I have learned while trying to become a software developer is that you must google everytthing which is perfectly fine. But if you spend €8,000 euro on a course they damn well better try and help you to the best of their ability and have as much content on their page as possible. Which they don't, I have spent 90% of my time on other sites I.E Coding with Mosh, YouTube and W3schools learning as the CI's attmept to teach is pathetic.
4. Up until project 4, the course is a solid 3/5, as you can teach basic HTML, CSS, JS, Python to anyone. When it gets to project 4 and you actually have to start coding and relaly learning the course just becomes a joke.
I could write all day but im just drained from this "Bootcamp". Biggest waste of 4 1/2 months. Thank God I didnt pay for it. 

I am a database developer working for over 20 years in this area. I love database development and I also love learning new things. I started learning web development some years ago, but I never worked professionally with it. So, I decided to take the Code Institute "Free 5 Day Coding Challenge" first and then I got accepted to the Code Institute "Diploma in Software Development (e-Commerce Applications)" course via Springboard.

From my experience and after completing the course, I can say the following.

The content of this course is great. It is suitable for both those who have no previous programming experience and those who have programming experience and just want to learn more about web development, like me.

Of course, as it is an online platform, the student must adapt to it and accept that the course is prepared to reach a large number of people. You should not assume the course will be tailor-made for you.

The Code Institute team is great, supporting anything you ask, as long as you follow the rules. You just need to take your learning experience seriously and get in touch immediately whenever you have any difficulties.

The rules are pretty clear. You must read and follow them, respecting the deadlines and contacting the Code Institute to temporarily block your access and postpone your deadlines, if there is any personal or professional situation preventing you from studying and progressing in the course, so that you have time to successfully complete the course after this situation is resolved.

My learning experience with Code Institute was very pleasant. I look forward to applying what I learned and continuing to learn.

Not for the faint-hearted, be prepared to put in some extra hours, hardest course have ever done.  Amazing experience!  Amazing learning curve...........great programme!  Be prepared to do extra research, do extra coding and connect with the mentor.  Mentor Daisy McGirr is an utter legend!  Could not have gotten through this without her dedication to excellence.  Also big Thank you to Helen Mill for being so kind and supportive.  Jim Morel kept us motivated and always there to lend a hand.  These folk are the real deal, it is what made Code Institute stand out for me......................(beside killer skill-set). Awesome........... :-)

I recently completed the the Diploma in Full Stack Development. It took me about 1 year to complete. I found the course fantastic from start to finish. The content and delivery was great. Be prepared to work hard - you have to put in the hours but it's well worth it. I did the course via UCD and got some support via Skillnet - I felt it was great value for money given the volume of the course. I did the course to upskill in programming rather than career change - I got exactly what I wanted out of it. I would highly recommend it.

My review is for the Diploma in Full Stack Software Development (E-commerce Applications). 

I found the course to be interesting and to cover quite a lot of useful topics, particularly for someone like myself who is quite new to software development. There were plenty of challenging moments but overall I found it to be a worthwhile experience. Over the course of the diploma, you create 5 portfolio projects that range from HTML and CSS right up to a full-stack e-commerce application built in Django using technologies like Bootstrap, jQuery, Stripe for payments, AWS S3 for file storage and more. The course structure leads you from the more straightforward concepts like HTML and CSS, on through JavaScript, Python and then onto full stack development. There was plenty of support available to help students, in the form of the Student Care team, the Slack community, tutors and a mentor. There is also the Careers team who have plenty of tips and useful advice, such as help with your CV, LinkedIn profile, cover letters and more, as well as posting regular job alerts on the Slack. 

The part of the course I didn't really enjoy was the Design Thinking module, as it felt a bit vague and would've been better with proper scenarios; I may have enjoyed it more if that were the case. Equally, I don't really plan to get into design so this may be why I didn't really engage with it. However, I found the rest of the content to be really interesting and feel like I learned some very useful skills, which I hope to be soon applying in a new role. 

I would not recommend this Full Stack course with the Code Institute to anyone due to my experience with them. I applied and took on the 5 day challenge , Unfortunately I hadto request 2 days extension due to my laptop breaking but that was granted until Monday I was told. Monday morning I submitted the completed challenge with a 100% mark.

First off , I will admit the lessons provided were very good and I learned the basics pretty quickly and it has inspired me to start a proper Honours Degree in Software Development , so thanks for that.

But anyway I was told a few hours after my submission that my application was unsuccessful , so naturally I enquired as I figured a 100% mark was more than sufficient. I received an email the following day to inform me that the reason behind my application being denied was due to my extension request? Along with sections 2 & 3 of the coding challenge workbook being failed submissions. Unfortunately the coding application provided by the Code Institute for their 5 Day Coding Challenge is subpar to real world coding as the application did not recognize certain parts of the workbook in sections 2 & 3. I got very frustrated with this code constantly failing that I referred to a professional who confirmed my lines of code were in fact correct , so I submitted the correct code (marked as failed on their system) so I could view the "Solution" offered ,the solution and my "incorrect submissions" were the exact same lines of code. I also highlighted this issue in my application in the event that the Code Institute was not aware of this issue but it was marked as a reason for my denied application. ( Maybe they weren't too happy that I pointed this out )

Bottom line , I would not recommend this course based off of my experience with them and I personally wouldn't pay the near €7k price tag.

The short answer is the course is a full stack program, but it's absolutely not worth the money.

I completed approx 70% of the learning material and submitted 3 projects before deciding that the Code Institute boot camp was a waste of time. 

Online boot camps have a lot of cheaper alternatives to contend with and that can present a problem for boot camps, who must have something special to bring them beyond someone seeking cheaper alternatives.

Right from the get go, the Code Institute has issues, it's HTML course is weak, doesn't cover some basic aspects of website design and has a challenge system that is too restrictively coded at times, so that correct code submissions come back with errors. Hints are generally not helpful, and time can be wasted trying to find errors in your code where it turns out they were looking for an rgba input even thought the instructions were to put in an rgb. Often here the issue is less with the coding but more with understanding what they want you do. It doesn't help that the course is often reams of text with a challenge on another page, meaning if you want to check something, you need to either dance between webpages or have multiple tabs open, which can throw off their progress system. Sure these are minor issues, but also they're generally unique to Code Institute. My overall experience of going through the HTML section was it was beyond lackluster, I opted to supplement my learning with another course. I found this second non Code Institute course to be vastly superior in all metrics, more complete content, better presentation, more coding challenges, better coding challenges, clearer instruction. 

These issues just pile up the more you go through the course. One of the more egregious issues runs with parts of the course that are out of date. More often than not there's just a quick note attached to the top of a video to ignore a chunk of it and do something else, or the video starts with setting up a legacy coding environment Code Institute no longer uses. Some of these videos are pushing 2 years, so this patchwork of fixes becomes the norm. Again generally looking at other coding courses I've conducted, and no other course is so out of date.

The coding projects aren't particularly inspiring either, rather than provide any real instruction, it's a more free from 'do something'. Issues with really stem from a lack of clear understanding of what is required for submission. Code Institute don't present examples of pass/merit/distinction of projects and the mark scheme is vague and uninformative. It didn't help that my mentor wasn't available for 2 of the 3 projects I submitted, and was only available for the last night of the other one. The overall feeling I got was to not be adventurous or push yourself, just do a simple and safe project, which I feel is a terrible way of assessing potential. 

Feedback from the project submissions is similarly vague and often questionable, but ultimately unhelpful. As someone who has teaching and mentoring experience as a postdoc, the feedback is just lazy. This should be a real strength of a bootcamp but with the Code Institute, it's just another missed opportunity turned into a weakness. 

I really wanted to use the Code Institute as the core for my learning experience and entry into coding, I was drawn into the rather nicely setup and laid out 5 day coding challenge, which is a good experience. However I came away from every module with a deep dissatisfaction in the learning outcomes. More and more I found myself going to other courses to learn material that should be covered in sufficient depth in the Code Institute subject matter.

Outside the learning objectives, there is a friendly Slack environment, but this is mainly students, and I am a member of a number of similar communities. Still it's not bad. I didn't find the career crunches helpful, this may be because I've come from a professional background and have been involved in recruitment before, but they were very basic, and ultimately not helpful. They're not at a great time for people doing the course with a standard day job either. 

I can't see any justification to using the Code Institute in its current form. There are far superior examples of learning objectives online, and I don't think any of the strengths of a boot camp really come up here. The fundamental issue is that the curriculum is muddled, out of date, and presented in a unique, but unhelpful fashion. Not enough care has been put into the construction and the over-reliance on proprietary systems frustrates more than supports. 

There are many better systems out there to learn how to code, Code Institute could get there, but it would need a large overhaul, most of the course videos need to be updated/reshot, the learning objectives need to be thrashed out, and the courses need to be bulked. More complex coding challenges, and more implementation to real world situations. As it stands there is a long way to go before the course could be recommended, even if it was free. 

I just completed Code Institute’s e-commerce path and the past year has been very impactful for me. The course was fully remote and I’ve been impressed throughout the course of how this was handled as it’s not easy to put together content, support, and networking opportunities for people across borders and in different time zones. 

I am very satisfied with the outcome, and although you can technically learn all of this via other (free) paths you will not have the same support, nor a diploma to show to future employers. The standards they expect you to follow are strict, but fair, and just the fact that you have the purchase of the course + expectations + deadlines weighing on you will push you to reach your goals. You have plenty of support and I never experienced poor or delayed feedback to my questions or concerns. After completing the course you have it on paper that you can create fully functional full stack e-commerce applications in line with university/industry standards.

The content is very engaging and helpful and they give you a clear path to your goal. They don’t teach you everything (you find out during the course that it would pretty much be impossible), but they give you the tools you need in videos, quizzes, and exercises, and they have a ton of slack groups that are really helpful. Also, they offer a lot of courses on LinkedIn, job hunting in general, and share job posts all over Europe every day.

About the negative:
On a personal note I started to feel the solitude a bit, but that we mostly due to me doing the course over a year. You can do it in a few months, and that would probably have been better. In any case you have to get used to mostly everything being via text or video, so whenever you have a questions you have to be prepared to be proactive, search the Slack forums for info, and always type out and post your problem(s) instead of explaining them in person. You get used to this, but if you do the course over a year you may start to miss face to face interactions.

Also be aware that the company is based in Dublin and the careers team is mostly engaged in the UK. They will share job posts from different countries but the majority of them are in the UK. This is just a little side note and did not subtract from all the other great content they had.

Overall:
I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is interested in learning how to code. You start from scratch and work your way up to understand complicated flows to produce and realise a plethora of projects. I can only speak for myself but I at least feel confident in starting a junior developer position with the knowledge I now have.