Coding Bootcamp Praha

• Highly knowledgable instructors who are truly dedicated to their students.
• Very friendly environment, great classmates and patient mentors
• Great structure of the teachings, great to see how your knowledge ads up and ads up in a logical manner.
• Very practical so each student gets tons of practice. Further exercises always available when you need more practice for specific topics or even if you are more advanced and ahead of the class.
• The experience of developing the final project is valuable. Helped me learn and also helped me get a job. It is really useful to be able to talk about your code and show your progress.
• Staff always there to cheer you up or answer any questions you might have. Also super caring - free food for hackathons, free drinks from time to time - all really helped to create a nice atmosphere.
• Had two job offers already in the last week of the bootcamp from smaller companies but decided in the end to wait one more week to interview little more. Within two weeks of the bootcamp I started working in an awesome office with great colleagues, awesome equipment and trainings - couldn’t be happier!
• Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in learning web development

I joined the coding bootcamp in Prague around Autumn 2018. I started learning the basics of programming, as a hobby, in python from online tutorials but mostly I was not sure how to move beyond the basics of coding.  Thereafter, I started looking for full-time courses. My main aim was to get guidance from professionals as the programming field is vast and chances of getting lost are high. 
I enrolled myself in Coding Bootcamp Praha. It was a three months long, full-stack web development course. They introduced me to various front end technologies like Html, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript and React whereas in back end technologies we covered Php, Laravel, and SQL. During the boot camp, in a group of 4, we were also required to put together a comprehensive site/app as a final project. This project was built in the Laravel framework using the different technologies learnt (PHP, MySQL and react). 
The bootcamp itself is quite intensive but really good if you are a beginner looking to get into the web development industry. This course requires full time dedication, five days a week of classes along with plenty of assignments outside of class hours. The instructors are senior developers in the industry and are quite knowledgeable as well as helpful. They were also approachable over online chat outside class hours.  There were also plenty of events to connect with the alumni and other people from the professional scene which is useful for job hunting if you intend to continue staying in Prague after the bootcamp.
I learned a lot of new skills and made some really good friends. Overall, the bootcamp fulfilled my goal of advancing me from a complete beginner to having a more focused path towards getting a job in web development. I would strongly recommend the bootcamp to those interested in web development however make sure you have the time and attention to dedicate yourself fully to this for the whole three month duration as it is quite intensive.

I just finished Coding Bootcamp Praha (CBP) yesterday and would like to share my overall experience. Please note that everything below is just my opinion and many people feel differently, especially concerning the tech stack taught at CBP.

First, some information that I consider important:

• My previous background: lawyer.
• I will be working as a full-stack JavaScript developer, mainly focusing on the frontend (React) with a little bit of backend (Node.js).
• Why did I choose to enroll in CBP: I live in Prague, it seemed to have a good price/quality ratio. I also reached out to some of the graduates before enrolling and they had a mostly good experience.
• Was I able to find a job after the Bootcamp? Yes, I was even able to be a little picky. It is however important to note that I was interested in programming for some time before actually enrolling in the Bootcamp and had at least basic understanding of the core programming concepts before I even started at the Bootcamp. I also think it is easier for Czech speakers to find a job as most of my interviews were in Czech, but there’s a lot of jobs available in the Czech market. Not sure how hard it is to find a job abroad after graduating.
• I have found my job completely on my own. It will be mainly up to you to find a job. CBP does not seem to have many contacts with jobs available. They provide you with some HR sessions but if you already have some professional experience (regardless of your field), the odds are that you will already know most of what is said in the sessions.
• I think 4 out of 20 people have found their jobs during the Bootcamp, but most of the people are just starting to look for a job now or they won’t be looking for a job in the tech field at all.
• The age of the participants varies largely, most of the participants (including myself) were in mid to late 20s. 8 Czechs, 12 people from abroad (mainly from English-speaking countries).
• The motivation of the participants also varied, some of them were enthusiastic about programming and very well prepared from the beginning, some of them just wanted to try something new and see where it goes.
• To my knowledge, 1 person has left the Bootcamp before it ended.

Pros:

• The community is one of the greatest assets of CBP. Most of the people will be going through the same struggle as you and will be as motivated to learn to code as you.
• During the program, there is a hackathon every other week, focusing on one particular field (HTML/CSS, vanilla JS, PHP/Laravel, React, small full-stack application). I found the hackathons to be the most helpful days during which I’ve learned the most.
• CBP teaches React which is in huge demand right now. I would appreciate to learn even more React during the 12 weeks as those classes were the most useful ones.

Cons:

• We were taught very little logic during the program. Although I understand it is difficult, I think it is important to know a little bit more than just a simple if/else statement or a for loop to actually become a developer. If you go through FreeCodeCamp JS certification, you will actually know more logic than what is taught at CBP.
• Let’s face it, PHP is in decline. If you will be creating a new project right now, the backend will most probably not be in PHP.  Unfortunately, both of the backend instructors code mainly PHP/Laravel so that’s what they decided to teach. I would really like to see Node.js/Express instead. On the other hand, the only thing you need is to understand how MVC backend frameworks work and you will be able to understand that after learning Laravel. It would just be better to learn it using more relevant technology.
• We spent too much time learning the specifics of Laravel (e.g. sending email notifications). In my opinion, there will be 0 or 1 person that will be coding in Laravel after finishing the Bootcamp, there are more important things we could’ve learned (e.g. more React, Docker).
• The classes sometimes got really theoretical without coding anything ourselves for the whole day. Learning by doing is in my opinion very important and CBP should focus more on that.
• CBP should really start teaching Docker since it’s everywhere and it will be the first thing everybody will have to learn after they start their jobs.
• There are currently 20 people in the class and the instructors get sometimes really busy during hackathons/final project mentoring so it might be difficult to actually get their help.

Conclusion

• CBP gave me structure and allowed me to escape the “tutorial hell”. I would go again.
• Parts of the curriculum should be improved and PHP should be abandoned. Some instructors should focus more on learning by doing.
• I highly recommend preparing yourself well and see if you actually like programming. Go through some basic JavaScript courses at least.

If you have any specific questions, get in touch with me and I will be happy to answer them.

Hi everyone, I will try to sum up my experience at the Coding Bootcamp Praha, how I chose it, and how it went for me during and after the programme. I did a lot of research before choosing this particular bootcamp and chose it based on the great reviews and because no other bootcamp was so friendly and helpful when asking them tons of questions about their programme. They even gave me a personal tour through the campus because unfortunately I was not able to attend any scheduled info session. The staff is really nice and took the time to thoroughly go through what I was signing up for.

Before enrolling I tried to learn on my own a lot of the front end aspects of coding and while I made some progress I definitely struggled to put it properly into anything project-wise. I realised I needed more structure and guidance if I wanted to succeed at a career change. Before the bootcamp I worked in back office job in a bank and despite it was decently paid and a stable job I knew I could not do this for the rest of my life – I was missing the opportunity to create and to be intellectually challenged. 

Coding Bootcamp Praha was truly one of the best decisions I have made for myself and my career. The programme emphasizes community, collaboration and persistence over competition and natural-born talent and that’s exactly the type of environment I feel good at – doing my best, pushing myself as much as I can but not feeling bad when others are faster.

Each day at the bootcamp starts with a programming exercise to warm up your brain and I loved doing something practical right from the morning. It follows with the demo of the new materials and after lunch you have time to do exercises, sometimes individually and mostly in pairs or teams. 

In terms of the level of challenge, I suppose that this is really individual, so I can only speak for myself - for me, it was challenging, but manageable. All of the instructors are knowledgeable and are helpful throughout the 12 weeks. Considering that they know so much, it is pretty awesome that they are all really humble and down to earth. 

The final piece of puzzle was finding a job and I found one after meeting an HR person from my current employer at the Demo Day, which is the final event of the bootcamp. From my batch it was bit more than half students going into frontend (mostly JavaScript / React), and the rest into fullstack / backend (mostly PHP/Laravel or other PHP frameworks such as Symfony or different other backend languages, eg. Python). I didn’t keep track of everyone after the bootcamp, so this is just a rough number. Cause it;s definitely true what they tell you during the bootcamp – the bootcamp is intense but the first few months in your new job even more so! 

Overall, my experience at the Coding Bootcamp Praha was awesome, I highly recommend this bootcamp to all the people who want to learn web development!

To all who are considering taking this course:
I started the Bootcamp and didn't finish it, because i got offered a job full time 2 weeks before the demo day. I had to choose, stay till the end or take the job. And i don't regret my decision . I currently work with Java for BackEnd and Javascript for FrontEnd.

CONS:
- What they teach there is mostly JavaScript and PHP+Laravel. While Javascript is a really good subject to learn, php and laravel is completely useless, the only useful thing was GET, POST methods there and also VMC model in laravel. That is it. In my opinion spending on PHP and Laravel that much time is just a poor program planing, but the main teacher is a PHP developer which explains it.
- Only 1 Week on React.JS, which again, doesn't make sense if this Bootcamp is targeting to make a "ready to work" person. 
- Group projects are good, but, it lacks project management. What i mean by that is, i really had troubles because i was always in a group where the person just wants to do things his way. Sure you can change the group, but who can guarantee that this will not repeat again in the next one?
- They dont help you find a job at all. They just pretend that they do, but in the end, it's all up to you.
- No one cares if you passed this bootcamp,  got a certificate or both.
- The main teaches is the only one who actually teaches and helps. Others are just giving an assignment or pretending to explain.
- Exams are to easy. 

PROS:
- The overall experience is really good. You learn, struggle and try with people like you.
- When working on a group project, If you get a good group, where you can work together as a team, then the knowledge and experience you gain.
- Besides PHP and Laravel, the program is really good.

Conclusion:
If you are the type of person who can't learn by himself(like me) then definitely try it. But be aware, they don't teach you like in school, they just help you learn. Don't get me wrong, they do present with information and topics, but it's not even close to enough. Its just basic things that you MUST know. In the end, if you will not practice or dig deeper into what you learned, then it's just a waste of time.

I attended the Coding Bootcamp Praha last year after thinking about joining a coding bootcamp for about a year. I came across an article comparing various bootcamps & I went for this because they already have been on the market for a while, they have great reviews and their graduates work at cool tech companies. But that was just the start. 

I was excited to get accepted and resigned from my job the very same day. Afterwards I had about three free months before my batch started and I tried to learn as much as I could from the pre-bootcamp study materials as well as any resources I found myself. When the bootcamp started I was glad that I did this. 

I really enjoyed getting to know my classmates and we had a lot of fun together studying as well as just hanging out. We studied a lot together also during the weekends and it was great to spend an intense Saturday learning stuff and then going out together for dinner. 

My biggest thanks go to the instructors who were all extremely helpful, experienced, and knew how to help us efficiently. They all were creating a really nice positive atmosphere and cheering us up when we started being tired. 

My best advice to anyone who thinks about this journey is not to compare yourself to anyone else! I wasn’t the fastest at my batch to understand every new concept but that really didn’t matter in the bigger picture. It took me six weeks after the bootcamp to find the right job and start and Im really happy that I did this career switch.

I highly recommend Coding Bootcamp Praha to anyone interested in starting a career as a web developer.

I had been teaching english in Prague for a few years but needed a career change. I met a graduate of the course randomly and she told me how she had found a job quickly after completing the course. I jumped at the opporunity to sign up as I was desperate to get into a carreer with room to grow. Following the course I was getting plenty of interviews and offers. My visa situation was the only barriar to many of them, although I was able to find a company that would sponser an employee card for me. I am now happily and gainfully employed in a job that will take me much further than anything I have done previously, I am very happy and grateful to have found Coding Bootcamp Prague. 

Coding Bootcamp Praha's instructors are definitely what secures their program's reputation as a five-star coding bootcamp experience and sets them apart from other programs. The mentors are well educated, experienced software engineers and very good at teaching others. I had a fantastic time at the bootcamp, I learnt much more than I ever could imagine (partly because I had no idea how much is there to learn :) ) and I met a great crowd of people.

My advice for the bootcamp? Be disciplined, do the work, be on time and be courageous. Also, make sure you do the pre-bootcamp studies - they are there for a reason! Finally, it's easy to fall into the trap that the field is so vast and you might start feeling that if you know only 5% it's not ever enough. Also, if you are not 18 anymore, you might also think that you are too old to learn all this - at least that's how I felt few times. If you ever feel down, talk to the other students, talk to the staff - they are extremely nice and supportive and it might be a cliche but if you feel you are not the only one, it really helps.

Finding a job in Prague has proved to be much easier than in my home country so I stayed in the Czech Republic after the program. It's a lovely country and with so many opportunities in the tech environment right now, so it was an easy choice despite I never lived abroad before. Good luck whatever you decide to do!

Hey there, I have graduated from the Coding Bootcamp Praha about a half a year ago and have worked as a software developer since February 2018. I have been asked a number of times about my experience - by my new colleagues, by random encounters at events or even by strangers who found me on LinkedIn. So, I have decided to share my story here (to save myself a bit of time :-D ). What do I get asked mostly:

What did I do before and how much I knew?
I worked as a customer support manager in a corporate environment for several years. Before I studied communications and management at a university. I guess I have always likes computers and figuring out stuff on my own but being a girl I have never considered IT to be the path for me. None of my girlfriends were interested in this area so not really having anyone to share my passion with probably made me choose more generalist study fields. I liked that one third of my batch were girls because I finally felt more normal haha. In terms of my previous knowledge - I have studied on various online platforms on and off for about two years and learnt HTML and CSS and played with JavaScript. But since i had a fulltime job I sometimes managed to study every evening for a week and then I had a two month break. After this repeated few times I decided i need a more structured approach.

Why did I go for CBP and not another bootcamp?
Im from the Czech Rep and there arent any other coding bootcamps - just short courses on one topic, workshops or studying computer science at a uni. So i got pretty excited when i learnt that there is a coding bootcamp in my country too. I learnt about the coding bootcamps concept from an American friend, so i first actually researched there. I checked the taught languages, the instructors and i attended an intro workshop that the CBP organised - all that was great for me & ofc the location was perfect for me too. There were many foreign students in my batch - US and Europe mostly but also other countries, we had a lot of fun also outside the bootcamp.

Was it hard / how much did I study?
I studied a lot, almost every evening, on Wednesday afternoons, most of the weekends… i think that programming is hard, its a different way to think and its so easy to frustrate yourself when things dont work. But its also very rewarding once you start getting a grasp of things - i never had a feeling like that in any of my past jobs. I think that was the moment i realised this is really the right field for me. In general, i realised i have to try and try again, get help and try more - thats really the only way to learn anything at all i believe. I liked the instructors a lot, they are the reason why i managed to make it happen so big thanks to all of them!

How are the days organized?
On a normal day you start with a guided exercise, followed by a lecture on the new topics and in the afternoon you implement new concepts into exercises or projects. In the second half you work a lot of your final project, so the schedule is sometimes bit different. In the last two weeks you work fulltime on your project within your team - i felt the final project was where i learnt the most because it combined it all together.

Did I get any help with finding a job?
There are HR workshops and individual sessions or you can just ask Jana or Honza pretty much anytime for help. For the hackathons we also got extra mentors who are senior developers from the partner companies, so i also used that to ask about what they expect from juniors & how to get hired. I had a LOT of questions and I got help and guidance anytime I needed, many thanks for that.

As a person from an economics and finance background, when I decided to venture into the IT world I was a bit skeptical about my own decision. I ended up deciding on Coding Bootcamp Praha and wow.. I haven't regretted that decision ever since. 

The course content is rich and the teachers are very professional and helpful in all situations. The course is designed to help you build confidence in every programming language listed. The bi-weekly hackathons also help simulate an actual working enviroment and gives students the opportunity to practice what they study. 

What makes this school special is the extra mile they go to provide students with HR support and advice with regards to future employment opportunities; trips to actual IT firms to see how it works in the real world etc. 

I am so happy I am a graduate of Coding Bootcamp Praha; I went there with zero knowledge of programming and I am now full of some good skills and knowledge and I have just launched my IT career. I look forward to the future and I urge anyone who's in doubt not to hesitate. 

Why is Coding Bootcamp Praha the best value-for-money bootcamp you can get?

- It's 12 weeks rather than 9 or 10 weeks like most bootcamps. So you have 3 weeks longer to learn how to program and you spend more time working on your final project than other bootcamps. The final project is imo pretty important because it's the biggest project you're working on during the 12 weeks and you can use it as a visiting card for job interviews (you will work on the final project for 6 weeks, of which 4 weeks after class and 2 weeks fulltime).

- It teaches in-demand languages like Javascript and PHP.  When you don’t know anything about programming, it's difficult to know which bootcamp suits you best. A fair amount of bootcamps teach Ruby on Rails, but RoR is relatively specific, and after having talked to some developers it became clear that it’s better learn something other than Ruby.

- It's at least half the price of whatever other bootcamp you're comparing it to, anywhere in the world!

What I really liked about the bootcamp:

-  Great teachers: the teachers are really great at teaching. They are fun, and you can ask them anything (some of them even reply in weekends when you're stuck on an assignment…;)).

- Understanding the basics of front- and backend: every two weeks you get taught another subject. First HTML/CSS/Bootstrap, then Javascript/jquery, then PHP, then Laravel, then React, and then two more weeks on your final project. Before starting the bootcamp, I thought that everyone who takes a bootcamp comes out like a programming wizkid. This is not the case: the bootcamp is set up to teach you all the basics and show you what full stack web development is about. Going through these blocks allows you to better decide whether programming is really your thing and which aspects you like about it for a future job (more frontend, or more backend).

- Individual programming: From Monday to Friday you work on assignments by yourself as you go through the class content (no pair programming), which means you really get to understand how it works yourself. This at least worked well for me.

- Teamwork during hackathons: every two weeks there is a hackathon on one topic (eg Javascript, PHP, Laravel etc). This is the time to work in teams and a good moment to experience how programming works in the real world (because you’ll always have to work with others, one way or another)

- Exams force you to revise: every two weeks there is an exam. It's great to be forced to go through all the stuff you've learned from the two previous weeks, because if else you just forget immediately.

- Final project to deep dive: the final project allows you to focus on one topic, and if you really like what you're creating it helps tremendously in communicating your enthusiasm in job interviews.

Other remarks:

- I was really skeptical that anyone would hire me after just 3 months of a coding bootcamp, but I never had such an easy jobhunt (this is in Amsterdam, it took me 3 weeks). I only started applying once the bootcamp was done because I wanted to send along my portfolio projects with my applications. It's clear that there is a shortage of developers in the market, and if you give everything during these 3 months then it's pretty much guaranteed that you will be able to find a job.

- The bootcamp was really hard work. During the 12 weeks, I studied 7 days per week, for 9-10 hours per day (in the weekend it was 7-8 hours per day). I took max 3 Sundays off in 3 months. During the day from 9 to 5, you learn a lot of new concepts and do some exercises. However, the evenings are there to really digest what you’ve learned in class and apply it yourself. You won’t be able to make it until the end if you don’t study in the evenings. It was really intense, but looking at the outcome, very worth it.

- When picking a bootcamp, think about the group size that suits you. During my research I was looking at large bootcamps (40 students) because I thought it would be such a great team vibe. However, I chose for Coding Bootcamp Praha which only takes 16 students max. My batch had only 11 students, and I was really happy with the small size, as you get more attention. Also, it’s sometimes stressful when doing an assignment to see that others are already finished while you’re still stuck, so with less people you should be less stressed ;-).

Are there any negatives?

One of the reasons why I chose Coding Bootcamp Praha was its duration, 12 weeks instead of 9/10 weeks. The downside of this extended period is that it does get tiresome after around week 9. However, if you make sure that you pick a final project that really excites you, you will be able to keep yourself motivated until demo day!

All in all, Coding Bootcamp Praha is the best value for money bootcamp you can get: get taught full stack web development by great teachers, learn in-demand languages, and get more than enough exposure to all sorts of different programming challenges. And all of this for the fraction of the price of what you would pay for any other bootcamp. Don’t hesitate, just apply, you will not regret this!

I applied for the bootcamp because I want to combine my finance background with tech and develop a new solution. I had only a little experience with HTML and CSS and when I searched the online options I felt overwhelmed - what is important? Where to start and what to spend time on? I learnt bits and pieces here and there but I needed more - I enjoy being around people and that's why I applied for the coding bootcamp. I was happy to find out that there is a high-ranked coding bootcamp right in my own city.

How was my experience? The curriculum is ambitious but if you follow the advice and are fully commited it is very much doable. All the new concepts start falling together like puzzle pieces. I found it great working with people from many different countries and doing the daily exercises or creating projects at the regular hackathons. Learning these concepts on my own would have taken me number of years or maybe forever because you simply hit a wall sooner than later if you don't learn from others who are more experienced. I loved the instructors who were really helpful anytime I needed guidance.

Already when I applied I knew that I want to develop my own startup project and it was awesome that I managed to find two other people who we worked with on it as a part of our final project. I pitched the result of our final project to an investor one week after the bootcamp and I got my first financing. 

I most certainly recommend this bootcamp to anyone who wants to learn programming!

Dear future bootcampers, here is a summary of my experience at the Coding Bootcamp Praha.

A bit about me:
I have applied for the bootcamp after working in a corporate environment in marketing for a number of years and increasingly feeling stuck in that role. I always felt that I would like to automate many tasks / set up integrations for the work I have been doing/ simply make things more efficient. The thing was that every time I volunteered for such innovation to take place, I was congratulated but then the task got moved to the IT department, got chewed and then a version of it appeared. I found this frustrating that I cannot really create it myself or at least clearly explain what the feature should do and be able to discuss with the programming team. So I started learning on my own here and there and finally I decided to go for a fast-track education, a coding bootcamp.

About the bootcamp:
Simply impressive. Everything from before the bootcamp, throughout the bootcamp and also after the bootcamp was perfectly organised and efficient. I have never learnt so much in such a short period of time! I loved how the things started falling into places in my brain, how I could start developing on my own, how I understood how projects are developed… I enjoyed the hackathons,  the team work and getting mentored by experienced and friendly mentors. The tech stack that they teach is the hot on the market, I received several job offers and got contacted by many HR recruiters since my graduation. I moved to the US after the bootcamp and started working in web development 35 days after my bootcamp graduation.

I never thought that it is possible to change a life and go for a completely different career path when you have already worked for a number of years. I am very happy that I was wrong about that :-) If you are thinking of going for a coding bootcamp, I recommend Coding Bootcamp Praha.

Hi everyone, I have graduated from the Coding Bootcamp Praha in 2017. My background is in law & finance and I was searching for a bootcamp because I wanted develop a startup idea I had in my mind for quite a while. I came across the coding bootcamp concept when I was at a startup conference in the US and got really excited. I have researched a number of bootcamps but unfortunately most of them were not affordable for me as a beginning entrepreneur. I got really happy when I finally came across a coding bootcamp (in my own country :-D ), which provided me with an excellent education at a reasonable price. So that’s a little background to how I got accepted to the Coding Bootcamp Praha and now about my experience there! 

The staff at the bootcamp is friendly and dedicated to helping students before, during and also after the programme. The instructors emphasize that their goal is not teaching syntax but making you think like a software engineer. I did not understand this at first but really appreciate this now - once you get the programming way of thinking under you skin, only then you can really start developing. I am now working on my own website app and keep going back to the bootcamp materials almost every day. The staff at the bootcamp is a mix of experienced programmers who teach you during the bootcamp hours and the managers who help you with getting a job and teaching you how to present yourself. There were many career workshops during my batch and I had the opportunity to meet a number of interesting companies. Many of my former colleagues are now working at one of these, however, myself I wanted to give it a shot and develop my product right after my graduation. I keep in touch with the founders who have provided me with a lot of startup advice, so I got an unexpected extra bonus out of the programme :-D

What would I recommend to anyone who thinks of applying? Stay focused, buy a lot of coffee and enjoy the best 12 weeks ever!

Coding Bootcamp Praha is a 12-week fullstack web development programme, based in Prague, Czech Republic. I'm going to review my experience there in several sections, to describe my experience there for anyone interested in attending the bootcamp. I got contacted by many prospective students on LinkedIn that asked about my experience, so I decided to summarise it all here:

Why did I choose to study at a bootcamp?

I have worked as a business analyst for a number of years, which helped me build a solid foundation for understanding business development and the industry trends. I have always enjoyed continuing my studies in various areas using platforms such as Udemy. What I had realized in my job and through my studies is that rather sooner than later my skillset would become obsolete. The analytical tasks that I had been doing would become automated in a near future and because I have a finance background only, I started worrying about my employability. This was the trigger for me to start looking for ways of how to broaden my tech skills.

Secondly, I realized that what I missed most in my job was the ability to see a real result behind my work - to see any real improvement that I contributed to.

I took several online courses and started learning HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript and I truly enjoyed the feeling that I created something through solving problems step by step. After several months of self-study I felt that my progress is not so steep anymore and that I have not learnt enough to be actually able to build a web app on my own because I missed too many linkages. This was the time when I started looking for a coding bootcamp and found the Coding Bootcamp Praha.

Why did I go for the Coding Bootcamp Praha specifically?​

- The syllabus teaches fullstack, their learning is designed around project work and hackathons, which I felt would suit my way of learning.

- The class size of 16 people is smaller in comparison with most bootcamps, so I hoped for a lot of personal attention

- The bootcamp is run by a NGO, which enables the price to be kept at a very friendly level. As I financed the bootcamp myself, this was an important factor for me.

- I got in touch with a number of alumni on LinkedIn and they all got a job right after the programme and felt very happy with the bootcamp experience.

- I had a professional experience whenever I contacted the bootcamp and I liked the fact that I am in touch directly with the management team who could answer any technical questions - regarding the syllabus - that I had. I contacted several other bootcamps in the past and this was never the case.

What was my experience with the team?​

The bootcamp syllabus has been designed by a number of senior programmers and I have learnt so much from their experience. They are great at what they do and very friendly at the same time. I got help whenever I needed and I have become so much better at thinking about programming as a mindset rather than a skill only.

The syllabus is divided into three phases - Coder (the basics setup, frontend etc), Programmer (backend, frameworks, libraries) and Developer (developing a fullstack web app as a team project) and it was great to see how much has my knowledge grown day by day. At the beginning of the bootcamp I could never imagine that I would have developed a final project of such complexity that we have done in our team. The backend of our project was in Laravel and we combined it with React, so right after graduation I could showcase two of the top technologies to the employers and be reasonably competent in these.

I also had a lot of fun developing the smaller projects during the one day hackathons that are part of the programme as it just pushes you to create something real within one day only.

What was the career support?

I used to be a guy who believed that LinkedIn is not really necessary and in CV it is enough to include few titles in any order :) Ok, I might be exaggerating a little but I owe a big thanks to both Jana and Honza for all the help and advice. The founders organise a number of extra workshops to help you market yourself - career workshops, CV/LinkedIn checks, job application case studies, meetings with recruiters etc. The team was always there for me, even at a short notice. You could see that they really know how to advise people who are switching careers or those who wanted to set up startup projects. I do have a startup idea in mind that I would like to develop longterm (hopefully!) and I enjoyed discussing it with the founders who have worked in the startup environment for a long time.

What did I know before applying?

As for my coding experience, I did online courses - codeacademy, coursera, udemy and freecodecamp but always only the frontend. I learned a bit of JavaScript through that and that helped me a lot. I did some of this before applying and then after I got accepted I got the structured suggestions from the bootcamp regarding what I should study before joining the bootcamp. I spent about 80 hours on the pre-bootcamp preparation.

Can you get a job immediately after graduation?

Yes, I am the example of that. I work mostly using JavaScript and React and I am very happy so far. I have kept in touch with most of my class and all have found jobs quickly, many of them stayed in Prague. I find it pretty cool that the bootcamp offers career assistance also after you graduate, so you do not need to stress yourself with job application and just focus on your studies.

Should you go for it?

I do not think that anyone can answer this question for you. Think about why you are applying. Is it because you really want to learn web dev and are ready to give it your 100%? Then, definitely go for it!

The teaching method is great, you spend about 20% time absorbing new concepts and 80% programming. Whatever new materials you learn, you are expected to put these into practice right away - through in-class daily exercises, weekly challenges, project work or hackathons. There were five hackathons in my batch, a full day coding events where we created a small project from scratch into a working product. It put together approximately the previous two weeks of new materials and it was great fun working on a project within constrained time limit in a team. In general, I appreciated all the team work because it helped learn how Git works and I am so grateful for that in my current job (JavaScript programmer).

The atmosphere in the bootcamp has been very motivating and that’s what I believe got me through the “valley of despair” (just google it if you haven’t heard this before ;) ). The bootcamp is small, it only accepted 16 students to each batch, which results in an almost family feeling. We studied together with the other students, we hanged out together, we helped each other out when we could. The founders of the bootcamp are present every day and take care of the HR side of the bootcamp intensely. You will go through a number of HR workshops and one-to-one sessions to smooth your career transition and land a job. I appreciated that the help does not end with the bootcamp but you can ask them anytime after the bootcamp too. That was great for me because I preferred to focus on my studies during the bootcamp and only searched for a job after I graduated.

I really enjoyed being taught by the bootcamp instructors. They are all senior programmers who dedicate part of their week to teach. I think it is important that they do not lose track of the current development and they can bring fresh examples and insights from their real world projects. All of them very helpful, they were happy to stay after the teaching hours when I needed extra help and I always felt that I can ask any question anytime.

The bootcamp has been running for 1.5 years now and the local market seems to be very hungry for new employees, which results in a great placement rate of the bootcamp graduates. None of the people who worked hard during the bootcamp had issues finding a relevant job afterwards. Here might be the caveat for some - do not think that programming is easy, do not come to the bootcamp thinking that you will study during the bootcamp hours only, do not underestimate the workload. But if you keep a positive attitude and work hard, you will make it and it will be a very rewarding feeling.

Before signing up I read the reviews and asked a number of questions to the admission team. I also contacted few alumni on LinkedIn. I got a really positive impression from all of these. Once I arrived in Prague I was surprised to see how many alumni still keep in close touch with the bootcamp - they show up for the Welcome Party, for drinks during the bootcamp, some mentored us as an extra practice in their free time... There was an Alumni Party and I found it very helpful to see the paths that the alumni took after their graduations. I guess this was one of the most important moments - that Im not just kidding myself but that I can actually become a programmer upon completing the bootcamp!

I got curious about the programme when I was scrolling through meetups happening in Prague and I came across the open class that Coding Bootcamp Praha regularly organises. We tried several languages at the workshop and I got so excited that I decided to attend the next full-time bootcamp. I prefer to learn in an environment where I enjoy the people around me and that’s exactly what I got for the 12 weeks. 

I enjoyed learning a variety of technologies and decided to focus on the Javascript / React development. This is what I appreciated a lot that the instructors showed us a variety of languages, frameworks and libraries but we had certain space to specialise in whatever we preferred. For example, I know now how to connect React with Laravel, a php framework, but within my team project I focused on the React side. I believe however that knowing both frontend and backend development will be a great asset for my future career. 

I would like to thank all the instructors for dedicating their time and for patiently solving any problem I had (even when I made the same mistake several times :-) ) They are wonderful bunch of people, all very experienced and always willing to help. I also would like to thank the managers for all the help with my CV, LinkedIn, and tips how to do my job search and build a network. They went out of their way anytime I needed them and I enjoyed all the extra career workshops they organised for us with other companies.

I am now working part-time on a React project and part-time I am developing my own idea that I started already during the bootcamp. Good luck to everyone who is thinking on going on this path!

Hi everyone, I am Francis and I graduated this year from the Coding Bootcamp Praha. I would consider myself an advanced beginner before the programme, by which I mean that I took several on-line classes and attended an HTML/CSS intro workshop.

The reasons why I chose Coding Bootcamp Praha was based on:

- It's truly full-stack (unlike many programmes that focus much more on the front end or I found them too simplified / not providing the entire picture).

- It teaches PHP, which is the language of the web, and which provides a great pool of job opportunities (unlike a sexy but minor Ruby). Since the majority of web apps is built using php, this gives much more chance to juniors who at the beginning of their career are more of code-adjusters as opposed to code-writers (I was told this by a friend of mine who is a programmer and I would like to pass it on to others as I profited from it myself.)

- I found the staff very helpful and they tried their best to answer all the questions I had.

- The bootcamp helps to find accommodation. I did not want to stay in a shared flat (the bootcamp accommodation) so they helped me to find a studio nearby.

- It is based in Prague and I always wanted to spend some time there. Now it has actually become my home for some time!

GOALS

My goal was to get a junior web dev job. Or, bit more modestly I was hoping to learn as much as I could so that I can keep on learning and getting a job in the field was like a distant dream.

Originally, I thought I could never get a job in Prague but a completely new world of opportunities opened up for me while I was there. I am now working as a php developer for a mid-size agency here in Prague and I love every minute of it. But if you expect that once you graduate from the bootcamp that you are an expert in everything, then consider other career options. I keep working super hard each day but because I truly like to keep learning, it does not feel like "a job" - definitely not in the sense of the word as when I worked in a law firm in the past. The bootcamp is the stepping stone but at the end of the day it's all about you - you have to want it & do everything you can to make it happen!

INSTRUCTORS

The most helpful people ever. I appreciated how each of them were there always for us, each thinking in their own unique way, which has provided me with various perspectives and approaches to tackling new challenges. They often stayed hours after the classes, figuring out our projects. It was the students who in the end called it a day as several of the instructors looked like they would keep coding with us all night :-)

FELLOW STUDENTS

The programme is open to what they call motivated beginners, which was fantastic for me and I made the best progress I believe I could. However, that also meant that few other students realized that programming is too difficult for them / they cannot be bothered to study so much (I literally studied all evenings and weekends for 12 weeks and I also did several weeks of pre-bootcamp preparation). Thus, unfortunately there were three students (friends who knew other before) who failed the exams and blamed everything on the instructors / staff / even other students (!), tried to harass people outside of the class, and you can also see them posting crazy-style totally madeup multiple reviews here. They verbally attacked several of us who posted our certificates on Linkedin. So that would be the only negative experience for me but I guess that programming simply is not for everyone. On the bright side, I made several good friends whom we keep in touch and share both career tips as well drinks together.

GRADING

There is a number of exams, projects and challenges. The exams and projects are graded but if you fail you can also submit the challenge instead and / or re-take the exam. The exams are stemming out of the materials and I did not have issues passing these (but that doesnt mean I got 100% :-) ). Some other students found the exams tough but I do not think there was anyone who did not pass a re-take as long as they studied hard enough. Here I would like to make a warning - being in Prague is great but it is also very tricky for many of us who come from countries where beer is not so cheap. Think about it - its just 12 weeks, slow down and simply do not party during that time. You will have all your life afterwards for that...

To sum up - I came with a wish and I left with a job. Take some online classes beforehand to figure out whether you really feel passionate about programming and if you do then I hope you will have as great time at Coding Bootcamp Praha as I did.

A little background and context on this review: I attended CBP, or DATA4YOU, in their April 2017 term. I left about 6 weeks into the course. Before I left, 2 other students had left, and as of writing this, 1 other student has left and during the last bit of class, there were roughly 3-4 students on a regular basis attending class from a class that originally had 16 (from what my classmates tell me). Why? well, we'll get into the bad, and the ugly soon, however, as the title suggests, let's first start with the good.

- Location: Prague is a fantastic city. The city is experiencing a boom in the tech industry because of the low costs of living and low costs of labor (I'll get back to the cost of labor later).

- Students: The people coming here, for the most part, are fascinating and nice people. I've made numerous friends who stayed in the course. I am still a part of their class chat groups, and even when they made a new chat after I was left, I was still added. I believe both the students that left and the students that have remained have a bright future ahead of them.

- Price: The price is incredibly affordable, the majority of the students all picked this course because of the price-point and location. There is a saying though that goes, "you get what you pay for". This course is a perfect example of that.

- Instructors: Of the 4 instructors. One is truly an expert that knows what he is talking about and even takes into consideration feedback from the students and acts upon it. Another is truly a gem and a nice human being, however, he clearly looks like he does not want to be there, is constantly talking down about the students, and has a watch-me-code approach to his teaching. The other two know how to code, and they can work in their fields. Let's leave it at that as I have absolutely nothing against them.

- Low Barrier Of Entry: They said the maximum class size is 15, there were 16 students. One I know for a fact applied after the deadline was still accepted. His coding experience: zero. However, before being accepted, I asked if what the level of knowledge the students would be at, and the founder said that they are looking for people who already have some coding experience since it is an intensive course. So if you have ZERO coding experience, according to them, you shouldn't be getting in, yet, in the course, there were not one, not two, but multiple people who had zero experience with code. Then there were people who have been taking courses on their own for over a year. You can't possibly have a balanced teaching method with people positioned so dramatically different. If you know zero code, then it's not a bad idea to consider here but you can find more established places within a similar price range.

I think the "Low Barrier Of Entry", is a good transition for getting into the bad.

- Daily Structure: The suggested overview of a typical day in class provided on their website is not even 1% close to the actual typical day. The majority of the days consisted of theory and lectures with some small exercises, essentially what you can get from Youtube and Freecodecamp. During the 6 weeks, I was there, there were about 4/5-morning stand-ups, during these morning stand-ups we suggested more coding. One instructor took this into consideration. He gave us a small project: connect the file to a database. This was something we had done previously with another instructor, yet it took roughly 2 hours for the entire class to pull it off (myself included). It was a small piece of code that took literally 5 minutes. However, 99% of the course had no idea what he was asking as, during the other instructor's class, all we did is watch him code. It was the day some people finally felt liberated that they had actually learned something. A learn by doing method is the best approach to teaching, and this style is unfortunately not what you will receive here.

- Housing: On the website, it states that there is housing they will provide you or help you with the search. Firstly, the housing is only for 3 students, so good luck. The housing is also in an apartment run by the parents of the founders. So you are paying the founders for a small room, in a small apartment. Now, if you were not one of the 3 to get housing, the way the founders will "help" you find housing is suggesting Airbnb and other similar websites. A couple minutes spent on these you'll see that housing near theBootcampp will run you roughly $1000USD a month. Some found cheaper, some found more expensive places. The general tone around housing seemed to be, "I was running out of time so I just took whatever I could". The general sentiment from one of the founders seemed to be, "Let's not get dramatic, it all worked out didn't it?"

- Cost Of Labor + Job Assistance: The average salary of a junior web dev in Czech is ~ 25,000- ~ 35,000CZK. That's ~ $1000 USD - ~ $1500USD per month. As the coding school is new, it still doesn't have enough notoriety within the community in Prague. There are a few worthwhile companies to work for in the area, and three of the top coders in the class (which btw was the most advanced batch they've ever had) applied to one of those companies and just recently got rejected. The type of Job Assistance they provided was bringing a nice man from a startup that lists jobs to tell us to put our resume on his website. 

- The Branding: Is it "Coding Bootcamp Praha", is it "Data 4 You", the lack of UI/UX understanding on the website itself should be enough to deter people. 

Now, onto the ugly.

- The Founders: {redacted due to GDPR claims} This really explains why the structure of the course feels completely out of touch of how to turn people into real coders.

- {redacted due to GDPR claims} Originally the plan was to create a coding Bootcamp for young kids, and it was to be called Data 4 Youth, then I imagine they realized the money wasn't enough there and they changed it to Data 4 You. Overall, all my interactions with {redacted due to GDPR claims} felt very ingenuine and awkward. A sentiment shared amongst many students was that {redacted due to GDPR claims} was extremely passive aggressive and condescending. If you would like specifics you are more than welcome to contact me on LinkedIn. 

- The Way They Treat Students: During standups, when we said we wanted to code more, the founder's response would be, "It doesn't work that way". When we presented our ideas for capstone projects, the founder said things like, "This would never work in the Czech market", and "Why would you do something other people already have?". When one student told the founder, "I know exactly who I want to work with", the founder responded with, "You don't get to work with people you enjoy drinking with". One instructor very aggressively verbally fought with another student in the class. Another instructor sent me messages about how one student has horrible coding skills. The tests received no feedback, nor did the weekly challenges. This lack of attention significantly reduced the classes overall morale and participation. I began to not take any of the assignments seriously since none of the instructors did either.

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I would not recommend this bootcamp to anyone who is above basic zero knowledge. Pay the extra amount, go to another bootcamp. If money is the real issue. Watch youtube or find free courses online. Honestly.

This was probably my biggest lesson and takeaway here: follow your gut instinct. I didn't have a good feeling about this place from the get-go, the branding, the website, the weird interview. But I went because I wanted to be a developer and I loved the price. 

If you are insistent that you want to go, you will meet lovely classmates, and enjoy a beautiful city. However, be prepared to be underwhelmed. If you are not an EU resident or long-term visa holder. Also, take into consideration that you will have to leave the EU right after your course. How to solve this issue: look into what the Czech government requires from your specific country to grant you a long-term visa. Get all of your paperwork ready, and bring it with you. Data 4 You will not tell you this and will not help you out with this. Right now, one student is scrambling to get their papers into check otherwise he will have to leave for three months, then come back and try to apply for jobs. Anywhere you want to work in the EU more likely than not they want an in person interview. Get your papers in check otherwise, you're going to get a headache.

Final word, I don't think Data 4 You/Coding Bootcamp Praha, will last. I can break down and tear apart all of the positive reviews, both here, and on other sources and tell you exactly why it that specific person gave them a positive review (or show you how that review is fake) as I spoke to almost all of the alumni myself. But I won't, and I just hope this review is enough to save someone time, money, and stress. If you want to be a programmer, PAY for a well-established place, OR self-learn for free. Don't pay two people who aren't even programmers and expect them to provide a proper course and structure.

As always, I wish the instructors all the best, I wish the students a bright future (they are honestly a talented bunch), and I wish the founders, some luck.

Participating in the Coding Bootcamp Prague early 2017 was one of the best decisions of my life. It’s like pushing the fast forward button in learning to code. In twelve weeks I managed to master all the necessary skills to code and launch my own web applications and those of others. The curriculum, the study atmosphere, the course structure and the professional staff all contribute to making this bootcamp one of the best coding schools on the planet. The program is incredibly intensive, but for those who struggle there are sufficient opportunities  to receive additional personal support and catch up. I would recommend the Coding Bootcamp Prague to anyone who is looking for an professional, effective and unforgettable experience that will kickstart a new career in software development.