LaunchSchool: An online school for Software Engineers

The Slow Path for Studious Learners to a Career in Software Development

Structured Curriculum from First Principles

Our program is about slowly building up mastery of fundamentals, so you understand how higher level abstractions truly work from the bottom up. Our goal isn't to teach you how to use React or Rails, but to show you how to construct accurate mental representations of first principles in order to tackle fundamental engineering problems. Our goal isn't to help you find a job, but help you launch a career. Our goal isn't to teach you to code, but to teach you how to deconstruct and problem solve like an engineer.

By Software Engineers for Future Software Engineers

Launch School was founded by experienced software engineers. We know what it takes to not only break into software, but to build and grow a career as an engineer in the software industry. Our objective is to increase your lifetime earnings by millions of dollars. This is what makes Launch School unique and why we focus on the long-term results of a career. Our curriculum was created by software engineers for future software engineers — you.

I studied using a few online self-study programs on my own before beginning Launch School, and the understanding I have of what I am doing is night-and-day levels above where I would have been otherwise.

Andrew Jones

Shortly after finishing the backend portion of the core curriculum, I received an interview for a developer position. Surprisingly, a huge chunk of related questions came up in my interview and I received an offer about a week later.

Justin Zeng

Overall, I thought the Core program was great! My confidence has gone up a lot since starting Core. I remember trying to read the documentation for Python and a few libraries and frameworks prior to Core and getting completely overwhelmed, but now I look at documentation and it's significantly more manageable.

Adam Trotta

In school, I frequently benefit from the logical thought process required for programming, which helps me to break large problems into digestible pieces. Before starting the Launch School curriculum, being faced with a problem would usually result in my head spinning as I tried to load a problem into my head, but I now am able to use an iteration of the PEDAC process to work it out more efficiently.

Tyler

I used to record Excel macros on the side at work, just to make my job a bit easier. After learning the fundamentals, I was able to really dig into how VBA code works and optimize my code. I built several other tools in use by other peers at my company, which eventually got me a promotion to a Specialist role.

Juan Juy

Launch School has given me a whole new way to look at learning and mastery that goes far beyond code. My day job is working as a marketer and I learned everything I know through books, podcasts, blogs, and courses. Going back I would have done everything differently, asking questions like "What are the things that won't change?" and "What are the fundamental skills of a marketer that go across roles?".

Shane Rostad

"We're one of the oldest and largest coding schools in the world."

Our Learning Goals

The key to unlocking higher level understanding and skills that last a career is focusing on fundamentals. We designed our curriculum with the following learning goals.

Fundamentals first, fundamentals throughout
A focus on learning things that don't change
Learn slowly and deliberately

Learn to be proficient, not just build awareness
Learn to understand problems, not solutions
Learn in a circular fashion

Our students love us, and if you are committed to building a career in software development, you will too

Sienna Wood

Denver

Software Engineer

Experts always return to fundamentals because they are the foundation on which everything else is built. Launch School’s core program embodies this principle by emphasizing mastery of fundamentals through purposeful individual study.

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Steve Kolock

New York

Front-end Developer

I got a different role making significantly more than twice what I had been making as a 'web specialist', putting me firmly in six-figure

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Letladi Sebesho

Johannesburg, South Africa

Full Stack Developer at Co-Foundy

This programme opened possibilities for me that would have taken me years to reach

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Sunny Beatteay

New York City

Software Engineer

From the 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

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A Serious Training Curriculum That's Designed to Launch a Career

Core Curriculum

Mastery of Fundamentals

Capstone

Launch Your Career

Complete the Core Curriculum courses and pass their assessments, and you'll have mastered the fundamentals. Participate in our Capstone Program, and you'll launch a career.