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.

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
The pedagogy of this curriculum was fantastic. I learned so much about myself and what it takes for me to learn.
Ian Eustis
I was extremely impressed with Launch School staff during RB101-185. Responses to the forums were prompt and thoughtful and helped me explore more of the problem domain and further my learning. Feedback on assessments was fair and thorough so that I left each course feeling like I had mastered the material. My interviews were all outstanding and my interviewers were professional, friendly, and challenged me to think outside the box with my technical skills as well as practice my non-technical skills.
Madeline
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
Learning the fundamentals has already made me more flexible and adaptable to new situations. I took some time to get up to speed with PHP and then I took a tour of Laravel, and I was able to implement basic authentication and a small feature without much difficulty!
Monte Williams
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
"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