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 feel that going through the core curriculum has been very transformative for me. One thing I've noticed is that when faced with learning something complicated, new, and difficult, I get this sensation of, "Ah yes, I've been here before.". So many times throughout this journey I've come across something that is at first confusing and opaque, and come out the other side with clarity and understanding. It's given me an overwhelming sense of confidence that I can learn new things even if they seem very difficult and complicated at first.
Duncan Britt
Post a coding Bootcamp that I attended, I found out the hard way that I really didn't know coding as much as I thought I would. Even when the concepts or a coding problem was easy enough to understand theoretically, I had a hard time translating my thoughts into code. After finding Launch School, I found that the 101 lessons and 109 assessments were just what I needed to find my confidence in coding again.
Ainaa Sakinah Azman
My problem solving skills also seem to have gotten increasingly better, both on programming and non-programming matters. Thanks to LS, I have really internalized the concept of looking at problems at a high level first, and then break down the steps to solve them.
Raul Romero Cano
Looking back, I realize Launch School has been the transformative experience I hoped it would. What I didn't realize is that reaching this finish line would teach me so much more about myself than it did about software.
Graham Robertson
After completing the back-end portion of the core curriculum, I spent about 2 months building a camp schedule management system to auto-generate daily schedules for camps. I felt confident in the skills and knowledge I gained from Launch School that when there was a problem to fix or a need for a creative approach to improve the application, the question wasn't whether I could find a solution, but rather how long it would take and whether it is worth it.
Eitan Bar-David
I originally came to LS from a Master's program at a university with a decent reputation in CS, because after a few classes I felt like I hadn't really learned anything. I couldn't problem solve very well, and looking at new code felt like I was trying to translate ancient Egyptian, even though I had "learned" enough to pass the class with flying colors. Thanks to the LS approach, I feel much more equipped solving problems strategically instead of hack-and-slashing my way through
Kyle Ledoux
"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

    READ MORE
  • 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

    READ MORE
  • 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

    READ MORE

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