Practicum Bootcamp

One of the best things about Practicum by Yandex (an online training program where great people can pick up new skills in programming, data analysis, and other modern professions) is the live community. Why is that so important to me? 1. The feeling of not being alone. Sure, they aren’t teaching you rocket science, at least not at the very beginning, although the topics can sometimes still be pretty challenging. Realizing that you aren’t the only person dealing with them helps you keep thinking—I’m not stupid; this chapter is just a tough one. 2. Teaching each other. Sometimes you’re the one who understood a new topic, while a coursemate didn’t. Explaining the matter helps you have a better understanding so that you’re not just spewing nonsense.

I’m 26 years old, and I have degrees in physics, economics, and translation. I have also owned a bakery for six years in addition to being a confectioner and chocolatier. When I started this course, I knew absolutely nothing about programming or analysis. I didn’t even know that the second profession was an actual thing, but was able to master it quickly. This course is great for people who enjoy order, aren’t afraid of numbers, and who are prepared to spend a great deal of time thinking and processing new information. It’s a fantastic course, and it only takes about two hours a day, which is great for combining with other training you’re going through. The information is easy to understand and can be immediately applied to tasks and projects. The conferences with mentors (practicing analysts) are amazing and really help with both the projects as well as understanding what to expect on the job in the future. I especially enjoyed the little jokes and excitement in the interactive platform. :) It wouldn’t work for anyone who’s lazy or thinks everyone owes them something. The course gives you a good base and the tools you need, but nobody’s going to do the learning for you. The chat support is fantastic. It’s great for getting help, asking for advice, or just feeling better about the fact that you're not the only one making stupid mistakes. :) There are issues, of course, but they’re minor, they'll inform you about them at the very beginning, and the course is always being improved. I haven’t seen anything like Practicum by Yandex at this quality level or value.

Before the course on front-end development, I had never gone through any coding or online training. I checked out the free portion to see what it was like, wrote a few lines of code in the interactive platform, and was thrilled to see that it worked! The examples are fun, the explanations are easy to understand, the Practicum team is friendly and supportive, and it’s fascinating to study and at the same time watch the platform develop right under your feet. Of course, mastering JavaScript in the beginning isn’t like a pleasant walk in the park. You have to spend a lot of your personal time to really wrap your brain around it. The learning process feels like a regular workday thanks to the sprints, tight deadlines, strict code reviewers, and coworkers available on Slack. Then there are the tough tasks you think are impossible … until you find a solution.

I've passed the introductory course so far and my experience with Yandex is great! I know the company Yandex itself as good and trustful company.
I was looking for boot camps for a while and found Yandex as a good choice for me. I found their interactive platform good for me. I don't like a long lasting boring lectures and practicing is perfect for me. The platform is really good for learning and seems like they made a huge job to create it as it's now. 
The community and tutors need extra mentioning. Community is very good and friendly. Tutors and Community manager are really funny and helpful guys and respond to your messages in a minutes! 
Also the price is lower than in other platform, which is good and, honestly, too cheap for this product, especially with guaranteed job assistance!

I really liked my first experience with Yandex Practicum so far and will probably add a review in the end of the course!

So far I have only done the intro course. The following is a summary of my feedback

Liked:

• Cheatsheets
• Course & Lesson progression is done well
• Conceptual graphics
• Lesson Overviews(before) and Summaries/Review(after)

Disliked:

• The “Next” button -> Please~! separate the “Check” and “Next” button OR hide the next task(s) until the user clicks on the “Next” button!!!
  • I have had to start over multiple times after losing a lot of solutions to the next task because of this
• Lesson content (not structure) 
  • Although I felt that some lessons had too much information in them, I was still able to complete the tasks. My suggestion is one that I feel 50/50 about. That is to separate lessons - one lesson for new concepts,  another for the application of that concept using data.

Extra:

• Virtual flashcards with concepts on cheatsheet and other things that would be useful to quiz yourself
• Pomodoro to set focused study time and breaks in intervals