Launch School

In August 2016, I had been exploring web development for 6 months but without any clarity. I knew I wanted to become a software developer but I did not know how. That is when I found Launch School and the answer became clear. While the pricing and pace drew me in, the mastery-based learning philosophy is why I excelled.

From first glance, it was apparent that Launch School had been founded by industry veterans. I have never encountered a curriculum more in-depth and rigorous. While other programs are teaching frameworks that last a year, Launch School is teaching the principles and skills that last a lifetime.

"Trust the process" is an inside joke among Launch School students, but it is a sentiment that perfectly captures the essence of the program. Over the span of a year, I invested well over a thousand hours into my studying. That dedication does not come without a fair share of impatience and self-doubt.

Many students encounter a "mid-life crisis" halfway through the curriculum. They have learned enough to get a job and are tempted to take the money and run. I learned that from experience and immediately regretted it.

While any half-decent developer can get a "job", Launch School is teaching its students how to build their careers. By the time someone finishes the Core Curriculum, they will be in the 90th percentile of job candidates. The Capstone program will take them the rest of the way.

Launch School's Capstone Program is fast-paced and demanding, but with a solid understanding of the fundamentals, I excelled. I worked with two other developers to build Conclave: a decentralized, collaborative editor. Very few engineers can say they have worked on decentralized systems to the degree that I have, and those engineers are Ph.D. candidates.

Any possible doubt I might have had about Launch School was erased during the job search. My comprehension of core principles combined with the Capstone Project made me a top contender. In 8 weeks time, I received 7 offers. Not only did I accept an offer from my #1 choice company, DigitalOcean, but I also qualified as a Software Engineer II -- skipping the entry-level position.

Choosing the join Launch School was the wisest decision I have ever made and it will continue to pay dividends for the rest of my life. Read less

Dissatisfied with my previous non-technical career, I started looking for online programs to learn web development and programming, and after several months trying out several programs, decided Launch School was the best fit for me.

For someone who is a life-long learner and is curious about understanding concepts at a foundational level, Launch School is the perfect curriculum. It does not promise quick, easy wins or make grandiose claims about transforming your life in 3 months. Instead it give you the direction and material you need to learn programming, while providing feedback and motivation along the way through assessments and TA support.

Over the course of the core curriculum and the Capstone program, I logged several thousand hours. It allows you to learn at your own pace. You have to bring your own discipline and effort, and at times the depth of the curriculum will challenge your patience. However, 2 years later, previously knowing very little about the fundamentals of programming, I just accepted a competitive software engineering job that is everything I could have hoped for in a new role and more. I can honestly say that Launch School has transformed my career and the trajectory of the rest of my life.

The core curriculum provides a solid platform and jumping off point to go learn almost anything you could want to in programming. The Capstone program is what really prepares you for the job market. It gives you hands on experience owning a highly technical project from the ground up, and working collaboratively with other intelligent, motivated engineers. The guidance we received throughout from experienced industry veterans was invaluable - I can’t imagine ending up where I am today without their support.

I would highly recommend Launch School and the Capstone program to anyone who is prepared to be dedicated and serious about transitioning into this exciting field. Their results so far speak for themselves! Read less

I got laid off from a startup that was on a sharp downward trajectory in early 2017. After looking in the market for jobs doing what I had been doing and coming up dissatisfied all around, my wife realized it was time for me to take a look at the bigger picture. We sat down and brainstormed a list of ideas of things I wanted to try doing, learning about software making the top of the list. It quickly became the only item on that list after getting a taste from an Intro to Computer Science MOOC I took that summer. Armed with a desire to learn more, I went online to see what options were out there for turning my curiosity into a new career.

I don't know if it was the overly-positive, almost saccharine marketing that turned me off of most bootcamps, or the utterly realistic "we're here for the long game" marketing of Launch School, but once I read through Launch School's novellas on mastery-based learning and their pedagogy (after learning what pedagogy meant), I was hooked.

It took me just under two years to work my way through the Core curriculum and Capstone. Just a few weeks after finishing Capstone, I accepted a job as a backend software engineer at Science 37, a medical technology company.

I'm constantly surprised at how what I've learned at Launch School is helpful and relevant at my job. My first assignment at work was to take over development of a partially-built feature and complete it. The problem was that the existing code is written in Go, a language I have no experience in.

Whereas other engineers might jump straight into coding, my time at Launch School taught me to first comprehend, then code. I spent a majority of my time reading and understanding the existing code line-by-line to find out what had already been accomplished and how. Being that this was a language that I've never coded in before, I leaned heavily on official documentation to understand the nuances of the language and understand exactly what it was doing, something Launch School also taught me to do (and appreciate).

Once I had a good mental model of the feature as it was written so far, I could use the PEDAC process to surgically add or edit code as needed, changing only what needed to be changed rather than mindlessly hacking and slashing in an attempt to stumble into a workable solution. Invariably I ran into problems both with the code as well as the underlying architecture that the code would use. Thanks to the Capstone program, when I bumped into holes in my knowledge, I knew enough to take a step back and flesh out my mental model of what should be happening and why.

Launch School provided me with the skillset to systematically work through what would otherwise be an extremely daunting first assignment. I would not hesitate to say that Launch School was the most well-structured and effective learning experience I've ever had the pleasure of participating in. I would recommended it without a second thought to anyone wanting a career in software engineering.

Read less

There are shorter and easier paths to getting a job in tech, but there are good reasons why I stuck on the slow path at Launch School. I didn’t just want a job, I wanted a rewarding career where I could meaningfully contribute and grow for years to come. With the baseline knowledge and habits established in the core curriculum and the intensity of the Capstone program, I feel well prepared to stay relevant across an ever-changing industry for decades to come.

When I started Launch School’s mastery-based core curriculum, I had no software development experience. I had just entered my thirties and was looking to make a 180° career change. It took me 21 months of full-time study (including time in the Capstone program) before I even started my job search. I live in Toronto, Canada, where salaries are lower than in the US for software developers, but I’m still in a position of almost tripling my previous best salary and doubling my vacation days.

Embracing a mastery based learning path is more difficult than it sounds. It’s been transformational for me, but it’s also not for everyone. You really need to trust in the process to succeed. Looking back on my time at Launch School, the instructors all have high expectations, but also genuinely want you to succeed and are amazing at providing useful feedback and pushing you to the limits of your ability and beyond.

The community is very active on Slack and supportive about responding to questions in a really well thought out way. The teaching materials are great at getting you to dig deeper into problems and force you to really understand and be able to communicate why a snippet of code does one thing or another.

While I was in my job search, I felt well prepared for the types of questions I was asked and wasn’t really surprised by anything about the process. I don’t recommend LS to everyone because it only works if you’re willing to put in the time and effort and commit to embracing the methodology -- but to the people who are capable of undertaking that kind of commitment, it really does work.

In my job I feel very well prepared to learn the things I don't know yet on the job, and most importantly to ask the right questions. LS drilled it into my head to take a procedural approach that focuses on understanding the problem before writing any code. That training is really paying off for me while solving problems in production code. 

One of the great things about LS is that the free prep materials are in-depth and a good taste of what the curriculum is like, so if you get through those, I think you’ll know that the program is right for you before paying anything.

Read less

I knew I wanted to be a software engineer, but before Launch School I never had a path to get there. I had tried various online courses but would inevitably hit a wall. I researched boot camps but I never felt like they could give me the depth I needed for the kind of engineering jobs I wanted.

Choosing Launch School was easy: the pedagogy of a slow path to mastery followed by the promise of in depth coaching through the Capstone program matched with what I thought it might take to make the transition to the career I wanted. Unlike other solutions out there, it felt like a sober approach to becoming a professional engineer.

I finished the Core Curriculum in roughly 2 years. Launch School’s focus on learning fundamentals enabled me to slowly build and integrate increasingly advanced software engineering concepts. In addition to this, the emphasis that Launch School placed not only on what I learned, but also on how I learned, enabled me to find a joy and practice in problem solving that I'll have for life. 

After finishing the Core Curriculum I chose to participate in the Capstone program. I believe that the Capstone program gave me the rare opportunity to get serious mentorship and team experience that would have taken years to receive on the job. The results of the Capstone program speak for themselves: after graduating I found the job of my dreams. Not only do I get to work with a great team solving interesting problems everyday, but I'm also making a salary that is twice the amount of the ceiling of my former profession. I'll always remember the pride that I had when the interviewer for my current position told me that the reason I made it through the first screening of the interview process was because I did "the best job at solving the problem" that the interviewer had seen. The skill I displayed during that interview was the result of my hard work. But that hard work would not have been possible without the combination of a solid curriculum, intentional mentorship, and dedicated study guided by serious engineers. I don't think you can get that combination anywhere other than Launch School.

Launch School promises and delivers on a well thought out curriculum that consistently delivers on producing quality engineers. Ultimately, Launch School proved to be everything I hoped it would be.



Read less

Hello there. My name is Chian Yee and completed the course at Launch School from 2016 to 2018. Recently I went for 5 programming interviews and got 5 job offers, even one from IBM Hong Kong. I even got admitted into the University of Pennsylvania Master in Computer and Information Technology program. I really want to thank Launch School for the life-changing experience and education they gave me.

A Unique Approach

LS has a unique approach to teaching software engineering. You don’t just learn Ruby on Rails here. You learn fundamentals of programming like object-oriented programming, abstraction, encapsulation, polymorphism etc. These concepts are easily transferable to other programming languages. One of the core skills emphasized by LS is problem-solving. The whole course is peppered with plenty of programming exercises. Students are encouraged to find answers on their own first, guidance will come later. Even today, when I go for technical interviews, concepts learn from LS comes to me naturally because it is imbued in my mind after so many exercises.

LS used a mastery-based approach to learning. They make sure that students understand the basics before going to more advanced topics. This is so important because it prevents confusion and frustration later down the road. It also means that there is no time-limit (I personally took 1 year and 8 months to finish LS) and instructors/TA take the time to assess you. At the end of each subject, TAs/instructors will assess and interview you and if you pass the assessment, it means you really understand the subject.

A Place with Heart

Although it is an online learning environment, LS is placed filled with care and friendliness. I remember the first day I join the course, Chris, the instructor and co-founder personally greeted me to welcome me to the course. A special thanks to him also for writing me a letter of recommendation to the University of Pennsylvania.

TA are very friendly and helpful to me throughout my journey. They genuinely wanted to help you with your learning. Never had I had to wait for longer than a day to get a reply in the forum from them. Specifically, I want to thank Victor Paolo Reyes, Brandon Conway, Pete Hanson and Naveed Fida for all the help you extended me throughout the course.

Conclusion

There is an understanding that you don’t stop learning after you leave LS. LS provides a solid foundation for serious learners to learn on their own in the future. So if you are a serious learner and are willing to put in the effort and time to learn software engineering, LS can change your life!

Read less

Mastery Based learning is a concept that is easy to understand, accept and even embrace but I think it is only after experiencing its true power can you learn to fully trust it.   When I began my Launch school journey I read all the MBL related literature that Launch School throw your way. I accepted it at face value. I understood the logic and was ready to apply it. And i did... to an exent. I remember working through the back end and still having a slight feeling of anxiety that the target day I had in the back of my mind was slipping further and further away. It was only when I reached the half way point that I was able to look back at what I had learned and know that this approach to learning really was different. From this point on I slowed down, really taking the time to soak up the material.   Launch school seems like one of the best kept secrets in the software education sector. I stumbled across it by accident one day listening to a podcast. Other students have similar stories. Even after the podcast I wasted another four months trying to learn on my own before signing up to the program. When I signed up and tried the prep course I realised the full extent of the quality of the material.   You might have read some of Chris Lee's medium articles on his philosophies around education and MBL but what you probably haven't heard him talk about is the sheer quality of the materials that have been put together by Launch School team. They have done an outstanding job of engineering an effective, cohesive and interesting curriculum. The attention to detail is second to none and this attention to detail inevitably gets imparted on students.   The team of Launch school TAs and instructors are an extremely helpful and friendly bunch. They seem to be available no matter what time of the day or night you need help. Between code reviews, forum discussions and chat room inquiries they are always willing to go the extra mile and give you more time than you could have hoped for.   After completing the core curriculum I feel like Launch School will always be part of me. I genuinely believe I could not have gotten to where I am now without it. Launch School has given me the ability to see problems that can be solved with software and see how these problems can be broken down and managed. Overall it has given me the belief that I can accomplish anything that I put my mind to, perhaps the most valuable lesson of all. Read less

I learned a little programming while in school but I thought I was too far along in physics to make the switch to computer science. After getting my doctorate in physics, I still had an itch to learn programming so I started looking for a way to learn. After six months of researching my options: more school, boot camp, books & tutorials; I stumbled upon Launch School. While listening to the podcast Learn to Code with Me, by Laurence Bradford, she was interviewing a founder of Launch School. Their approach to learning by focusing on the fundamentals was the key strategy I was looking for to ensure I would be left without gaps in my education.   Launch School's perfect blend of one-on-one attention and self-paced learning allowed me to learn while working full-time. Their flexible teaching style allowed me to seek guidance when I needed it and buckle down with my headphones on when I was going strong. I spent the first six months in the program studying the fundamentals of programming before touching advanced topics. This ingrained the core concepts of programming in me so that when it was time to learn advanced topics I didn't have to keep looking back to remember the basics. This kept my focus sharp and progress steady. At this point I couldn't show anyone the programs I built because there weren't any. Launch School isn't about building a portfolio, it's about building a career. The second six months were spent on advanced topics, building complex applications, and gradually taking control of each project from start to finish. Launch School gave me more freedom, i.e. responsibility, as courses progressed; by doing so I became a self-sufficient programmer capable of making meaningful contributions to real-world applications. Thanks to Launch School I landed a full-stack developer position at a fast-growing start-up in DC.   Launch School uses mainly Ruby and JavaScript to teach but the most beneficial lessons were not about the languages. They taught me how to progress through a problem, from origination to completion, in a controlled yet flexible way. And this is exactly what I was tested on in the interview for my job. My employer cared about my ability to think through a problem more so than my knowledge of any language. Learning the language is a must, of course, but it is not the true skill of a programmer.   Every day on the job I use the skills I learned in Launch School. My job consists of at least a little bit of everything I learned in Launch School. Because I was prepared so well for the tasks they had in mind for me, I was able to take on additional responsibilities, become proficient with Vue.js (which I had no experience using prior), and even become a valuable resource for other new developers. Three days into the job my boss said, "I have never seen a new hire contribute valuable work to a production application so quickly." Suffice to say, I'm excelling at my job and it's all thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work, dedication, and Launch School. Read less

Soon after starting Launch School, I dropped out of college to study full-time with Launch School. I was a senior and close to graduation when I dropped out. Many people I knew called me crazy and doubt was thrown at me left and right. Despite this, I knew it was the right decision and I knew that if I persevered through Launch School's rigorous curriculum, I could prove to everyone else it was the right decision, too. Today, my life is proof that I made the right decision to trust Launch School. Launch School did nothing short of radically transforming my life and jump-starting my career.

I began Launch School with no programming experience beyond writing simple programs that would print silly messages to the standard output of the terminal. Over the course of about a year and a half, I progressed through the curriculum, logging in total thousands of hours in study and practice time. I embraced the rigor of Launch School and took the concept of "Mastery" as far as I could. Launch School caters to the highly motivated person who cannot accept sub-par performance or understanding. I knew this was the place for me because my own personal standards were high and Launch School was able to hold me to them in times of struggle, fatigue, and motivational lulls.

I received job offers for developer positions in my area before I had even finished the core curriculum. I was tempted to take them, but turned them down in order to participate in the Capstone Program and aim for the absolute best job I could get.

Capstone changed my life. Launch School poured resources into my success and they made sure I had money to live so that financial stress didn't derail my focus. After finishing Capstone, they helped me move to New York City, where I presented my project at speaking events, resulting in referrals from other engineers who were impressed with my work. Within two weeks of sending out my first application, I was getting contacted so often that I had to start turning away opportunities for interviews. I had the freedom to choose where I would work and I ended up accepting an incredible offer for a Software Engineer II position from a tech startup in Manhattan (I didn't apply for any entry level positions). It came with a signing bonus, a well over 100K starting salary, the flexibility to work in the office or remotely, and the opportunity to work closely - and be mentored by - very talented veterans in the field.

It's the best decision of my life and I wholeheartedly recommend Launch School for the serious-minded and motivated student who want to learn things well and are not ok with just surface-level awareness.

Read less

I came into Launch School previously as a "dabbler" & finally decided to get serious about learning web development & programming. I did a ton of research before choosing Launch School, and I'm so glad I found them. You can just take my word for it: if you want to learn programming or web development, there really is no better way! I believe it's because of their core philosophy that mastery-based learning & fundamentals are the foundation to a successful technical career, and I couldn't agree more. Their program is thorough & well-supported by TAs, and the online community is great. 

Also, the world of programming is so deep that it's often difficult or overwhelming when trying to figure out a where to begin & what to study. They've distilled the core knowledge down in a logical progression of studies that will make you a well-rounded programmer when you're finished. I even believe I've learned how to learn better, and I've become a better problem-solver in general throughout the coursework. I personally wasn't looking to change careers, but I have highly recommended this course & their Capstone program to others that showed interest in that path. I've even met some new friends that were in the program locally & we still stay in touch. Overall the experience has been very rewarding.

Read less

I started Launch School with zero coding experience, and I am now gainfully employed as a programmer. I finished the core curriculum in just under a year. The transformation is long and certainly hard, but I don’t know of any curriculum – other than Launch School’s – that can teach web development fundamentals so well. Launch School is in a league of its own. I highly recommend it.

Read less

I studied with Launch School for a year and a half (10/2016 to 4/2018) and completed the Core Curriculum. I chose LS largely for the convenience of being able to work at my own pace and on my own schedule, but I gradually came to appreciate this program even more for its content, depth, and community. I'm glad I'll be able to start my career with confidence in the strong foundation LS has given me.

One of the first things I learned at Launch School is that programming is much more than learning a language. There are many concepts that are absolutely vital to understanding how any programming language works (variable scoping, referencing values in memory, etc). Equally important is having strategies for problem solving and debugging. Clear explanations and well-designed exercises throughout the program provide a ton of practice with all of the above (and develop language fluency at the same time).

Another benefit of Launch School is the support provided by TA’s, instructors, and other students. I regularly used the discussion forums for asking lesson-specific questions, and the Slack workspace for coordinating study groups with other students. The dozen or so assessments, spaced throughout the program, were very helpful interactions. We are asked to provide succinct but accurate explanations of various concepts in our own words, or to demonstrate concepts with examples. The feedback I received from this process deepened my understanding significantly.

It is clear that the Launch School team really cares about offering the best program they can. Their use of mastery based learning is an innovation that they believe in strongly, and they are continuously working to improve and update their materials.

While the Core Curriculum stops short of covering any of the various frameworks developers typically use today, I can attest that knowing the fundamentals well makes learning new frameworks relatively simple. I wholeheartedly recommend the program to anyone who is serious about learning real web developing and is willing to put in the time and effort to learn.

Read less

At the beginning of 2017, I started with the course. I had many doubts because there were several other programs on the Internet, but I was lucky to choose this one and I want to help other people who may be going through this situation.

If you are looking for a course where they teach you the fundamentals on which to build your career, this is the course for you. But if you're looking for shortcuts or something quick, then this is not your best option.

After having finished the course in 1 year and 4 months, I can say that today I feel with super powers because I have all the necessary knowledge to look for a job as a programmer or even start my own startup.

I have a HUGE happiness because it was a dream come true and the possibilities that I add to my career are spectacular.

If you sincerely want to be a professional programmer then I recommend what I did, spend a year and a few months of your life studying at Launch School, it will undoubtedly be your best decision.

Read less

I decided to start learning programming when I was 27. I tried many different resources on the Internet, either paid or free tutorials, but none of them really worked out. I mean, those are really great resources, however, I never felt I was able to achieve anything or build my own project after finishing the lessons. Then I came across Launch School.

I was looking for lessons that are systematic and intense. After browsing the syllabus of Launch School, I found it offers plentiful contents, not to mention great preparatory lessons and quality digital books. At Launch School, it's not about languages themselves. It's all about fundamentals and concepts. One of the instructors of Launch School used to tell me that any languages and frameworks can be out of date, and only if you have the solid understanding of the concepts of programming, you would be able to adapt yourself to the web development world.

After a few months learning at Launch School, I felt that I have a better command of Ruby and JavaScript, and I can start my own projects from scratch. At the moment, I had a chance to apply for an internship as a Rails developer, so I used the projects I built during I was at Launch School (some of them are assignments) as my portfolio. Guess what? I got the offer! I nailed every question I was asked during the interview, and I felt extremely confident. It's all because I have been practicing interview skills during the assessment at Launch School.

I have been working as a Rails developer for almost 2 years. I might not be able to make this if I didn't choose Launch School. It's definitely one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

Read less

I’ve been with Launch School for over one year, and am happy to share that thanks to Launch School, I landed a Software Engineering Team Lead position at a multinational tech consultancy. Aside from being a good resource for beginners, Launch School has proven transformational to me as a prior startup founder with a few years of programming experiences and a MS in Software Engineering.

My intention with this testimonial is simple: no matter what cool things one has done, knowing things from the ground up is THE way to go in the long run. I’m currently half way through the Launch School curriculum, so I’ll focus on how the methodology sets me apart even when I’m not through with the curriculum.

Mastery-based learning

Even a child can code. But does one know what’s going on under the hood? The zealous attention at Launch School to knowing “What does X mean?” or “What does this line of code do?” or “Why does it do X versus Y?” makes me more of a master than my Master’s degree has made me.

Interviews

Interviewing is a skill in its own right, and it takes practice for one’s interviewing skill to catch up with his or her competence level. The requirement to pass interviews at Launch School motivates me to make this extra layer of coordination into an integral part of my problem solving (a.k.a. thinking out loud), facilitated by the emphasis on correct use of terminology.

Career-focused

One reading assignment in the orientation course makes points about the types of companies there are for a software engineer to launch a career, and also the differentiation between being in a cost center versus a revenue center. This talk is immensely helpful for me to persue companies that are worth moving forward with among the many options out there.

p.s. I gave a rating of n/a for job assitance because techincally they don't provide that in the core curriculum. I cannot speak for the Capstone program but I believe there's a lot more job search support in there.

Read less

LaunchSchool helped me to transform from Software Developer to Full Stack Developer.
  My background is C++/C# in enterprise software, but the city I am living in has more opportunities for Web Developer, after hours investigation and studies, I finally chose LaunchSchool to help me do the transformation, and it has been proven to be the best decision I made in recent years. I have experience in OOP and Web Services, what I miss is cool web stuff, so I directly jump to Front End to learn JS as a dynamic/prototypal language, JS MV* frameworks, Browser, HTML/CSS, etc. I am really into the way of learning by doing and mastery. The 1n1 interviews helped me to set up confidence, learn how to think loudly, express ideas/algorithms, split problems. 
  After 6 months of after work learning (20hrs/wk), I feel confident to work in web development and started my job hunting. I interviewed 2 companies and got 2 offers within a month or so...much better than I thought...never been that popular before. I want to thank Launch School for the wonderful curriculum and the assessments, because I would not have been as prepared if it weren't for that.
  I'd like to share my experience to new LaunchSchoolers, don't doubt, trust LS, follow the syllabus, make your efforts, your decision is 100% correct. Read less

Launch School does a better job describing its curriculum and philosophy than I could, so I'll focus on the results in my life due to their focus on 'mastery-based learning'. Before starting Launch School I had done a small bit of HTML and CSS, I had a digital marketing background, and that's about it regarding my experience of websites. I was in a 'Web Specialist' role at a small, non-tech-savvy organization, that entailed digital marketing and basic frontend work, and I decided to commit to learning web development as a result of becoming more interested in the web development aspects of my job. Launch School seemed the way to go after reading reviews and because I wanted something that was rigorous but would allow me to continue working.   Outcomes - Pay   Since one of the only ways to measure outcomes when comparing bootcamps, curriculums, etc. is via salary, I'll talk about that. Without getting too specific about pay, within 4 months of starting Launch School, I was able to leverage my experience as a 'web specialist' combined with my knowledge gained from Launch School to become a frontend developer, at a salary significantly higher than I had been making. The Frontend curriculum is not the first portion you learn, but I was able to take some of the concepts and overall knowledge and improve my frontend work as well. Before I even finished the whole program (it took me about 2 years, including a few months pause when I started a new role), I got a different role making significantly more than twice what I had been making as a 'web specialist', putting me firmly in six-figures. Money isn't particularly important to me, but having an in-demand skill set, with the ability to really dive in, analyze, and learn new technologies/frameworks/libraries, and deliver quality software, is important. And again, I know it is a common measure of outcomes.   Outcomes - Knowledge / Growth   One of the most significant stimulants for growth that you experience at Launch School is the assessments. These involve quizzes, projects, and mock interviews. I remember for the Frontend Assessment, that, when an instructor explained the project he said, 'this is going to be difficult, but I think you're going to really learn a lot', and he was 100% correct. I look at that project as one of the pivotal moments in my learning at Launch School. It pushed me to really drive beyond the specific tools we had learned to embrace the concepts and incorporate new libraries and APIs. I am avoiding getting too specific, but I definitely believe that is one of the most important factors in how I have grown through Launch School.   To me, that project demonstrated more than anything else the difference between mastery based learning and just learning the hot new thing. I can pick up and learn the hot new framework, but I can also discern when to use it vs when to pass over it in favor of something that is less flashy, but better for the job at hand. Launch School teaches you not only how to engineer and build applications, but also to understand and solve the underlying problems / or make the right trade offs based upon the circumstances. The entire Launch School staff, from instructors to TAs, are excellent teachers who are relentless in their focus on producing knowledgeable programmers, and set high standards for learning. They don't let you take the easy route and it shows in how much you grow. I cannot recommend Launch School enough. I honestly would not be in the career I am today, or as passionate about it as I am today, without all of the hard work and dedication they put into designing the program and continuously improving it. Read less

A job reference of mine, speaking to my now employer, told them that one of my biggest weaknesses is a lack of belief in myself (which was revealing to me about the overall level of confidence I exude 😅).
I'd done the traditional college route and was pretty disenchanted by the whole experience. After feeling like I'd payed so much money just to come out feeling lost and uncertain in my skillset, I was looking for something that seemed less focused on what they could make from me and more focused what they could make me. I looked at bootcamps but that seemed like the exact opposite of what I was looking for (even more fast paced in a shorter time span and kind of pricey...). I was about to go back to a brick and mortar institution to get my CS degree, then I stumbled on an article from a former Launch School student talking about their experience. From where they started, to where they were now as high paid Software Engineer. I was immediately sold by their story. The idea of going through a mastery based program and coming out feeling competent in a skill set was exactly what I was looking for and what initially attracted me to Launch School.
This idea of building up mastery and only moving forward once you've proven your competence, with each course building off the last and coming out with a well-rounded education and strong fundamental understanding... this was exactly what I was looking for in an education experience, and a little bit, made me angry that this isn't the the standard approach in all educational institutions.
It's kind of surreal, looking back. That "slow path to mastery" was so jam-packed with learning, it flew by before I knew it (though, in the moment, there were definitely some times where it felt like a slog and I really had to push myself to learn some of the later, advanced concepts).
In the end, I can confidently say, the foundation I got from going through core, combined with the rigor of the assessments, helped me to gain a level of competence and a feeling of "I can figure this out" that I hadn't felt before, in any other field or program. I learned how to take a step back and analyze a problem and then, to map out my approach and come to a solution.
Even in one of my more challenging technical interviews for a company, I was told by my interviewer the problem was intentionally difficult and obscure. But I took my time and mapped out my strategy (which took about 55 minutes) and was able to come to a working solution that I typed up in 5 minutes. I later found out, during the offer phone call, that was one of the things that really impressed them during the interviewing process.
Core helped me gain a much-desired level of proficiency in my base understanding of how programming works; Capstone threw me into a fire and exposed me to scenarios where I had to keep moving forward and focus on the next step, trusting that my teammates and I could figure it out in the process. Read less

After taking a two-year career sabbatical, I found myself as a 30-something year old with a large gap on my resume and unsure of what to do next. I’d tried learning to code before, but it never stuck. It always ended in me giving up. I wasn’t even sure if software engineering was the right path for me. I regained an interest and this time did some serious research to find the best education available. Through this process, I decided to give Launch School’s free material a shot. What did I have to lose?

I fell in love with their approach almost immediately. I was drawn to the emphasis on mastery-based learning and the idea of progressing only when concepts were deeply understood. The “slow path” mindset that Launch School drills into their students resonated deeply for me. It reinforced a fact that remains very near and dear to me—consistency trumps everything. That mindset became foundational.

Six months into my software engineering career, I’m seeing the dividends. The foundation I built at Launch School allows me to deliver high-quality work at the pace of peers with years more experience. Watching Launch School continue to innovate, like building LS Bot, their AI learning assistant, makes me proud to be an alum. And also gives me a little FOMO :)

Read less

I can't say enough about how well Launch School prepared me to work as a professional software engineer. Within my first month of my job, I have been trusted with leading major projects and features at my first company not only because of how strong my understanding and mastery of fundamental concepts are, but also because of my ability to communicate those ideas effectively to my peers. I feel very confident writing high-quality software, and the processes and practices I learned in Capstone allowed me to improve organization and practices for my team. Capstone prepared me for the day to day work of software development, and helped me learn new ways of thinking holistically about problems and approaches to engineering. The Capstone staff are all incredibly kind, helpful, and passionate engineers who are truly devoted to helping their students be prepared for and find incredible jobs that start great careers as software engineers. The structures and supports of both Launch School and the Capstone program focus on the most core, fundamental concepts and understandings that allow students to understand almost any technical problem. I feel extremely prepared for my career as a software engineer including my path forward as I grow. Read less