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.

So many times I've gone into a problem overwhelmed and thinking I won't be able to solve it, only to have a viable solution in my head while still working through the PEDAC steps. I still need to improve my PEDAC process, but it has been a game changer.
Adam Mrachek
By having a solid set of fundamental tools, I can now go out and explore, learn new languages, cutting edge frameworks and understand them from the ground up vs just being taught and not really being able to go out on my own.
Nigel Hing
The flexibility of Core is great. I needed to pause several times and it was easy to pick up where I left off without wasting money. I also very much appreciated how it was self-paced and eliminated the struggles of a synchronous format.
Natalie Martos
The back-end curriculum has been a long journey already. It's honestly really confidence-building to reflect on where I was when I started (and restarted) Prep to where I am now capable of building web applications that address challenges I may encounter in daily life.
Christopher Douglas
I built and launched a couple WordPress websites late last year. What I learned from Launch School helped me better grasp what a CMS like WordPress does beneath many layers of abstraction. Understanding fundamentals and how to read documentation also made it possible for me to play with C# and Unity over the Xmas holidays which was a lot of fun and a brand new learning experience.
Sephora Maltais
I tried many times to learn how to program throughout the last 6 years or so. This is the one that worked — I didn't get close with the others. In retrospect, everything was noise until I got here.
Jose Agustin
"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.

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

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.

The Proof is in the Results

The average starting salary for 2024 Capstone graduates is

$115,766

(See Results & Outcomes for more details.)

Our graduates have been hired by industry leading companies and some of the most competitive startups

Start our preparatory courses now for free. When you're ready for the real courses, it's just

$199/month

Continue reading about how our pedagogy works and why we're able to produce such amazing results. This is how we're different. You should really read this.

Our Pedagogy