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 understand the topics that I've learned about much more deeply than I could have hoped, but I think the biggest improvement has been in my ability to quickly understand new material (or theoretical situations, or network problems, etc.) that I haven't encountered before given the strong foundation laid in the courses so far.

Anne Jones

I was given a lead position and a team for a major, logistically complex project our company received, despite not having experience in the domain itself. The first two weeks of the project were me wrangling everyone together for both explicit and implicit PEDAC sessions. Due to the discovery, planning and attitude-setting that came from those sessions our project came in under-time, on-budget, and with great praise from our client (the federal government).

Alexander Drover

There will always be topics in software that I come across that I don't immediately know/understand, but the base foundation I gained from Launch School has given me the confidence to know that I can figure it out. I really appreciated the thoroughness of the curriculum and I know it will serve me well in the future.

Dylan Spyer

Mastering the fundamentals of JavaScript has provided me with opportunities for the future in my pursuit of a career in software development and I cannot thank everyone at Launch School enough. During my time at Launch School I was able to take what I have learned and build a node application for my company that collects actionable agile data from Jira filters and projects and creates a CSV that can be dumped into an existing spreadsheet we have providing our agile coaches with visibility into our teams' performance.

Brendan Vonick

The exercises were a goldmine of challenges that kept me coming back to get the dopamine hit of successfully solving a problem.

Arthur Kauffman

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

"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.