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Hack Reactor by Galvanize is an educator for rapid career transformation, offering software engineering bootcamps designed so that anyone with motivation can succeed, regardless of education, experience, or background. Hack Reactor by Galvanize bootcamps are challenging and designed to fit a student’s schedule and skill level. Bootcamps include a 19-Week Software Engineering Immersive with JavaScript and Python, designed for beginners, as well as a 12-Week Software Engineering Immersive.
Applicants to the 12-week Software Engineering Immersive need to pass a Technical Admissions Assessment (TAA), which tests for intermediate coding competency. There is a free, self-paced bootcamp prep course that can be accessed to learn the fundamentals of JavaScript. Those applying for the 19-week program do not need to pass the TAA or take any prep courses. Applicants to all programs need to pass an aptitude test, a brief typing test, and an admissions interview.
In addition to its software engineering programs, Hack Reactor provides a large network of professional peers, 1:1 coaching, mock interviews, job training, and more. All students graduate as autonomous, full-stack software engineers, fully capable of tackling unique problems and building complex applications on the job. Hack Reactor alumni join a diverse, engaged network of fellow students, instructors, staff, and alumni, including 14,000+ graduates at 2,500 companies.
I’d like to share my experience in Fulcrum as preparation for the Hack Reactor Onsite interview. I just passed the new interview format today after about a year of trying. I want to encourage other prospective students to keep pushing through even after big setbacks, and I do want to address some concerns that another Fulcrum student posted earlier about their bad experience.
I have a non-technical background as a graphic designer. It takes me a lot of time and preparation as a c...
I’d like to share my experience in Fulcrum as preparation for the Hack Reactor Onsite interview. I just passed the new interview format today after about a year of trying. I want to encourage other prospective students to keep pushing through even after big setbacks, and I do want to address some concerns that another Fulcrum student posted earlier about their bad experience.
I have a non-technical background as a graphic designer. It takes me a lot of time and preparation as a complete beginner to understand some of the more complex things about JavaScript, especially solving problems with higher-order functions. I tried to read and solve the problems of Eloquent JavaScript’s chapters 1-5. I found the ramping of knowledge way too high after chapter 3 and really feel the book is for experienced programmers from other languages and not for complete beginners.
I continued to struggle through Eloquent JavaScript and Codecademy exercises and applied to HR last year. I actually interviewed 3 times last year but didn’t pass. Looking back, I see that my weakness was thinking that being able to define forEach, map, reduce, filter, and reject was enough. That’s basically just the ground floor! You need to be able to solve UNKNOWN toy problems, under a time pressure, and be able to easily recall functional higher-order combinations — all while verbalizing your thoughts, which is very aggravating!
After Fulcrum came out in late 2015, I joined the program early this year while working part-time. The Fulcrum material is a lot more rigorous than what I encountered in my prior months of self-study. It’s a much higher challenge than all those freebie lessons that litter the Internet. Codecademy and Code School give you a really false sense that you’re ready to go at bootcamps when you absolutely still just have basic understanding. (There’s too much structure and the end-of-unit problems are very easy. Can you remember what you did on those website a few days later? However, I have heard that Codecademy’s Github track is very good, and I do really like Code School’s approach to making programming more accessible.)
The best thing I found in Fulcrum is the help of the mentors. You can schedule “office hours” with them in 15 minute blocks, and you have to pass their check-ins after key points in the curriculum. (They’re modeled after the tech interview experience, and that kind of accountability to a person who is judging your understanding is something that I don’t think you can experience through just solo studying.)
The mentors guided me in understanding things in functional programming that weren’t apparent when I studied on my own last year, like how you cannot break out of a forEach function. It took me several tries to pass some of the check-ins. Knowing that they’re all HR graduates, it was striking how the mentors all demonstrated their extremely high aptitude in JavaScript problem solving techniques. They know what your code is going to produce without running the code in a console! They can immediately find the errors in your thinking and gently help you to reason your way to a solution.
As an example of the higher difficulty of toy problem you’re expected to solve, the mentors guided me to using combinations of higher order functions to iterate through an unknown amount of arrays to eliminate elements in the first array that are listed in the subsequent arrays. Very tricky stuff, and you need to know how to handle the arguments object with call() and apply().
These kinds of “combine several concepts” programming challenges are all at a high bar in Fulcrum. They have a “MakerSquare Challenge” collection of toy problems that are pretty challenging, but I was able to solve more and more of them as the weeks went on as I tried to apply the Underbar functions that I wrote. You also get to join a Slack group that has students from all over the world, so I made some friends that were up late at night with me and early in the morning, trying to tease out a clear understanding of the concepts together. Having a community of learners that share your struggle and challenge your progress is extremely motivating!
So, what about the criticisms of the curriculum? Yes, there are a crapload of slides. If Codecademy is at a middle school level of effort, Fulcrum is like a college level. How do you transfer the deep knowledge of fundamental concepts to brand-new students? Unfortunately, it’s going to take many, many slides to explain things at a comprehensive level. For example, there’s not much articles about execution contexts on the web, but they are explained in the Fulcrum slides as a way to grasp function scopes and why they work the way they do.
I do feel bad that the other Fulcrum student had a disappointing experience. I would encourage them and other prospective students to keep upping their game and go through a very high amount of practice. Being able to write every() is a “meet the minimum bar” kind of challenge. It’s part of the Underbar functions that you are required to write from scratch in Fulcrum. You can actually use reduce() to write it, but as I learned from the Fulcrum challenges, you need to combine some(), every(), contains() — and more — to gain mastery in solving unseen and challenging toy problems that prepare you for the interview.
And no — just because the Underscore library (which Underbar is based on) is available for free on the Internet does not mean that you can understand and use those functions with ease.
Fulcrum is based on the pre-course work that is required for accepted students who pass the technical interview. If you don’t challenge yourself to completely master the material, then you won’t be ready for the even more difficult and crazy challenges in the immersion program. Keep bulking up your programming muscles so you can feel great about being ready for the intensity! I’d definitely recommend the ReactX functional programming lesson (but that's only the beginning!) and doing at least 50 toy problems on Codewars.com (you should be able to solve some 6 kyu problems!). Some students definitely have a knack for programming and can get away with less. Not me, it took a ton of practice!
I was past the halfway point in Fulcrum and was given the OK to do another interview. Hack Reactor Onsite changed their interview format recently to something that requires even more concepts to synthesize. I interviewed there a few weeks ago and was extremely discouraged that I didn’t pass. Even after going halfway through Fulcrum and studying for over a year, it wasn’t enough to pass the interview? #JustFeelsBadMang
When I shared my experience with the Fulcrum director, he said I was really close and should keep trying. I was already satisfied with passing the MakerSquare interview a few days earlier, so I wasn’t going to try yet another interview at HR. But after the boost of encouragement, I studied for 2 more weeks and got word today that I passed the HR interview after 5 tries, even with the new, more difficult format!
Yes, Fulcrum is a serious commitment of time and money, but it really pushed me beyond what I could achieve on my own. I personally do need actual people (like mentors and other students) to help me master a curriculum. I encourage all prospective students to practice a giant pile of toy problems and to not give up! Thanks for taking the time to read this, and keep on coding and breaking those keyboards!
How much does Hack Reactor cost?
Hack Reactor costs around $19,480.
What courses does Hack Reactor teach?
Hack Reactor offers courses like 12-Week Software Engineering Online Immersive, 19-Week Software Engineering Immersive with JavaScript & Python.
Where does Hack Reactor have campuses?
Hack Reactor teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Hack Reactor worth it?
Hack Reactor hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 334 Hack Reactor alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hack Reactor on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Hack Reactor legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 334 Hack Reactor alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hack Reactor and rate their overall experience a 4.59 out of 5.
Does Hack Reactor offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Hack Reactor offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Hack Reactor reviews?
You can read 334 reviews of Hack Reactor on Course Report! Hack Reactor alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hack Reactor and rate their overall experience a 4.59 out of 5.
Is Hack Reactor accredited?
Read details here: https://www.galvanize.com/regulatory-information
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