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.

Thinking of solving problems as a process rather than a hack/slash type of activity has been very helpful for me. In the past, I've always been able to come up with a solution to a problem eventually, but trusting the process has made it much more efficient and I think has prepared me to solve more difficult problems in the future.
William Baker
After completing the back-end portion of the core curriculum, I was able to develop such a clear and precise understanding of its topics that I found myself teaching some of these concepts to family and friends who were beginning to feel lost in their own computer science courses.
Rick Mole
I've discovered I'm actually getting better at my current job (not related to programming). Usually when I was assigned a task to do I would just jump right in and start working (and made plenty of mistakes), now I apply a process inspired by PEDAC and then proceed to calmly and slowly work on the task. I'm way better at what I do now.
Radu Adrian Constantin
Overall I am confident in my ability to pick up any new technology as I know how to use Documentation effectively and have mastered the fundamentals. I am confident that with some more hard work and focus, I will be able to find a job. Most of all I am sure that I will be able to be a productive developer rather than constantly having to ask for help about basic things.
Eamon O Callaghan
Before I started the prep course, the only coding experience I had was a community college course in HTML and CSS. I have learned so much. At the end of course 175 I built the beginnings of a web app for my partner's research project to display survey data to workshop participants. I found a gem to embed R code to produce simple data visualizations. Now I can go back and refactor for a database.
Liela Rotschy
I completed an entire bachelors degree in Computer Science, two years of which I was also here at Launch School, and though I enjoyed school and did get a lot out of going to university, it was my efforts here at LS that are the pillars I feel I can build off of as I begin my engineering career.
Sheila Babadi
"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