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 can't overstate how much of a life lesson the concept of "mental models" (MM) is. I don't know how to explain it, but after hearing and thinking in terms of MMs I really never consider something out of reach, just maybe not within my time budget. It makes so many possible life paths feel reachable if you just wanted to spend the time to go down them, if that makes sense. "Mental model" is definitely a term that people around me are going to get used to hearing a lot.

Benjamin Boinay

I began helping on a $50,000 project built in the Symfony PHP framework, and within a month became the lead dev on the project. This was my first time using an MVC, Symfony is quite complex, and PHP is very strange, but I was able to be effective very quickly because I knew what was going on under the hood. My knowledge of fundamentals meant I never felt really lost. From this work, I was given a 20% raise and similar roles in other projects.

Ian Evans

Working through these final exercises has felt more like a victory parade than work. To successfully utilize concepts and APIs in minutes or hours, when I could previously spend a week or more with no success, is a wonderful feeling. Thank you!

Timothy Cummings

The professionalism of the community, both in the forums and on Slack, is second to none. I'm amazed how LS has managed to attract so many hardworking, inquisitive, and good-natured people to it's program. I plan on being active in Slack for the foreseeable future (when I'm not buried in Capstone work).

Nick Miller

Learning fundamentals and practicing lots of problem solving has really changed the way I think. Both inside and outside of programming, my thought process is much more structured now.

Stephanie Cunnane

From the perspective of mastery based learning, not only have I learned the fundamentals of a couple of languages quite thoroughly, but I've learned so much about how to learn programming concepts well. In this field that changes as rapidly as it does, this is perhaps the most valuable skill I've been able to hone since enrolling at Launch School.

Luke Carlson

"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.