All courses in the Preparatory phase are completely free and regardless of your background, this is where you should start. In the first course, we'll cover what software development is, what the job market looks like for developers, and prescribe a learning path for you to reach your goals. The subsequent preparatory courses are pre-requisites for the Back-end and Front-end phases. These preparatory courses will walk you through everything you need to get started. This includes using the command line, working with git and GitHub, HTML/CSS, and an introduction to your first programming language.

The courses in this phase will provide you with a solid foundation in general programming and problem solving with Ruby, and teach you modern web application development from the ground up. After completing this phase, you should have a solid understanding of how to break down problems and express your solution and ideas in code. You'll also be exposed to server-side web application development and be comfortable working with stateless server-side code. Finally, you'll fully understand the protocol underlying web development, HTTP, and how to work with relational databases and SQL.

This phase will focus on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the various tools and practices professional Front-end developers use. By the end of this phase, you'll have a good grasp of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and how professional Front-end developers deal with modern client-side MVC applications. You'll learn JavaScript, jQuery, and how to build your own MVC client-side framework. You'll also be exposed to modern Front-end application development techniques using Backbone. After this phase, you'll have the foundations to fully understand the pros and cons of the myriad of libraries and frameworks out there such as Angular, Ember, React, etc.

Once you have a solid grasp of a programming language and the fundamentals of web development, it's time to level up and learn professional grade software development frameworks, engineering processes, and architectural concerns. We'll take apart popular frameworks, like Ruby on Rails, and use agile processes to prototype, build, grow, and maintain production quality applications and integrate with other services using web APIs. After this phase, your knowledge of building software will be on par with professional developers. You'll have the clarity, confidence, and the mental framework to build complicated web applications.

After completing everything up to this point and passing all assessments, you'll receive a Certificate of Completion. At this point, you should be very competitive for jobs from a technical perspective. In this phase, we have several elective courses that are designed to make you an even stronger candidate. They're not part of our regular sequence because they're not required for all jobs roles. We'll be happy to help you decide which ones you should take, map out a plan for your job hunt process, and help you prepare for real job interviews. We also offer an additional optional program that you may be interested in: our Capstone Mentoring program, designed to make you stand out and maximize your job prospects.