I came to the states five years ago as a refugee from Burundi, my goal was to go to school and start a career however it was hard to find the right program that was also affordable. In December of 2018 thats when I first found out about the Coding Dojo of Boise through the meet up website/app, where they were offering free lessons. After I attended the lessons I found out you can become a three full stack developer in 14 Weeks. I was amazed as that is hard to find anywhere else plus the information was very intriguing. In January of 2019 I officially started the program and graduated the end of April 2019.

In the beginning of the program I was nervous because I had zero experience with working on computers like typing but the instructors were very professional, friendly, and encouraging through out the whole process. I would work long hours everyday and they were always there to answer my questions even if it was late at night. I remember one day I was completely stuck on a problem and was getting very frustrated. I contacted my instructors and immediately they were there to support me and direct me in the right path.

After I graduated, I was impressed how they contacted me right away to help me further my career. I have never seen or heard of a place before that are just as invested in you when you have finished the program. The instructors helped me perfect my resume and portfolio, gave me tips on how to get a job, and go through the interview process. After everything they do for you it’s unbelievable how they line you up with job opportunities.

What amazed me the most is that when you talk to different software developers and companies about your education from the Coding Dojo it is always met with positive feedback and trust. I am so thankful for the experience and longtime friendships I have made through this program. #LivingTheAmericanDream

April 8, 2019

Coding Dojo has been an awesome experience overall. The workload is challenging at first, but if you keep putting in the time and work, you will eventually get out what you want in the end. The faculty here are really nice and caring, and the courses are set up to push you to succeed. The students here are very serious about their work, and I have had the pleasure of collaborating with them. Definitely got a lot out of all of this, and I am grateful for having been here!

April 16, 2019

Came away with what I thought I would get, knowledge of how to develop websites with three stacks.

May 3, 2019

I came into Coding Dojo with zero knowledge of coding other than the pre-bootcamp prep course that I did. Overall the experience was very challenging and rewarding.

As you can find on their website, the bootcamp is structured for 14 weeks with 2 weeks spent on web fundamentals and 1 month spent on the 3 stacks: Python, MEAN, and C#. The web fundamentals was a very good beginning as the pace wasn’t too fast and it introduces you to the fundamentals of HTMl, CSS, and JavaScript. Before going in depth to the different stacks, I’ll first talk about the instructors. All the instructors for each stack have been excellent. I personally had Noelle, Navya, and Prescott teach my cohort. All of the instructors are invested in the students and want to make sure that every one is able to succeed. At any time if you fall behind, the instructors are very flexible and encourage you to talk with them to develop a specialized plan to catch up or do the most important assignments. All of the instructors are very knowledgeable with their stack and have plenty of experience. They are all very realistic about their expectations and advise students where the most difficult concepts may occur, potential errors, and the most important concepts to grasp.

Now onto the different stacks, first web fundamentals was an excellent introductory module structured to give the students background on the basics of web development. The assignments on the learn platform all build on each other so there is a lot of structure there. Also algorithms are introduced here, specifically the Basic 13 algorithms which is a good foundation for students to have by the end of web fundamentals so they can build on those algorithm skills in subsequent stacks.

Since the Python stack was the first full stack experience, it initially has a big learning curve especially for students who don’t have prior experience in web development. Navya was very helpful in breaking down the concepts of OOP language first starting out with the basic syntax of python, building on those skills to add OOP basics, and then slowly adding on the back-end technologies including Flask, Django and integration with SQL database. Each of the sections are built on each other and the end-of-day goals are reasonable. Even if you don’t keep up with the assignments, the schedule is flexible, and as long as you go to the instructor for help, you should be fine.

In the MEAN stack, it was a different gear since MEAN stack is non-relational. Learning MongoDB, Angular, Node.js, Express was all very useful in MEAN stack. The culminating assignments are always full-stack web apps implementing CRUD tasks and RESTful APIs. The MEAN stack content on the learn platform wasn’t as good as python or C# stack. The instructors leading the demos and explaining the concepts on the learn platform didn’t do a very good job. Half of the videos doesn’t have code-alongs or short demos which isn’t useful the students. Most of my cohort had to rely on our instructor’s live demos to help us with assignments.

In the C# stack, we went back to OOP programming. By the third stack, you pick up the language much quicker. We learned to add .NET Core, Entity, LINQ, and SQL database into our basic web apps. The instructor Prescott, was very helpful in this stack and did so many code alongs and demos for the students that really show us how to write more efficient code and the most common pitfalls when coding an assignment. The C# content on the platform was excellent, the videos were very well done with short demos for each concept presented. There are no complaints here.

A comment on your time spent at Coding Dojo. Successful students that graduate from Coding Dojo generally spend 70+ hours on coding every week. If you’re not prepared to make that commitment depending a variety of circumstances, just take a step back and evaluate your goals. This bootcamp isn’t cheap and you want to invest the necessary time in it to succeed. Make sure that your family situation is relatively stable and you let your friends and family know that you can’t spend as much time with them during the 14 weeks. But I guarantee you that if you put in the time and effort, you will graduate as a self-sufficient programmer who is able to learn new technologies on your own.

A word on the student environment. Students who don’t get a chance to visit the Coding Dojo campus before enrolling. I can speak to the Bellevue campus. Each cohort will get its own section and each student will be given a monitor, the monitors use VGA cords so either make sure you have an adapter or check one out from Coding Dojo. Also there is a parking permit pass that you’ll need to put a $50 deposit on. As for student life, there are food trucks in the Bellefield Office Park at the entrance of the park and one near the Coding Dojo campus. There is normally a lunch-and-learn on Wednesdays where an instructor will cover a relevant topic of choice. On Thursdays at 11 am, there’s activity day where students are encouraged to rest and play boardgames or ping-pong. Occasionally there are lunch events where a potential recruiter from a local company will come by and talk about their company.

A word of advice to prospective students for Coding Dojo. If you do decide to attend, pay attention to the promotional deals going on for tuition. Depending on what month students entered the promotional discount off tuition varies from $500 to up to $4000. I believe Coding Dojo is being unprofessional in this aspect. There were more than a few irritated students in each cohort when we found out about the promotional discounts students received in later cohorts. Also if you do refer a friend to Coding Dojo and they sign up for the bootcamp, make sure to follow up with the $500 discount for your friend and you as there was a little trouble with a few students in my cohort. Other than this promotional discount problem, the rest of Coding Dojo has been amazing.

May 7, 2019

I needed guidance and a good working environment, and that’s exactly what I got as a student at Coding Dojo. It’s not an easy program, but they’re very up-front about how much time you need to put in. The results are mixed, depending on how much work each student puts in, and their amount of previous experience. That is not to say previous experience is required, but it definitely helps make the experience easier. You’ll never be the slowest or the fastest student in your cohort. There’s little hand-holding (relatively little involvement by instructors unless you seek them out), but there are always classmates willing to help you out.

I personally did two months of free online coding self-study before the bootcamp, and while I was happy I did, that self-study barely scratched the surface of the curriculum we went through at Coding Dojo.

May 9, 2019

I came to Coding Dojo with a background in Business Economics and no programming experience. Joining Coding Dojo was one of the toughest, yet most rewarding experiences I’ve been through. I’ve learned so much since Day 1 and the learning doesn’t stop. If you put the time in it and challenge yourself, you will succeed.

How did I decide on Coding Dojo? After exploring a few different Open Houses, I felt like the instructors and staff here genuinely cared for their students. Throughout the program, they made learning programming fun and challenged you to think differently when it came to solving problems. Another reason why I joined Coding Dojo was because they taught 3 full stacks (Python, Java and MEAN). This allowed me to be well-rounded on a few languages and helped me decide what stack I prefer to work with.

Coding Dojo’s career services was helpful so make sure to make use of it every way you can throughout the program and more importantly after graduation. If you’re expecting to rely solely on Career Services to land a job, this isn’t for you. You need to put in your part too. As a recent graduate, I can see how easy it is to relax once the bootcamp is over. After graduating is when the hardest part starts, searching for a job. You need to work on your resume, portfolio, go to networking events, continue coding, etc. It took me about 2.5 months to receive that job offer and that was one of the happiest moments of my life. My hard work is finally getting paid off.

One thing I wished Coding Dojo emphasized on more was making projects a requirement to graduate. It would be nice to submit the projects to the instructor and have them give feedback on it. I think this is really important because once you graduate, you need a few solid projects on your portfolio before you apply. After graduating, I spend about 3.5 weeks working on my portfolio before actively applying for jobs.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at Coding Dojo and built so many relationships I will cherish throughout my life. I would not have been able to do this myself. I’m grateful for all the help and support I received from my cohorts, instructors and staffs, so thank you Coding Dojo!

May 16, 2019

Coding Dojo gave me direction when I was absolutely lost. It sounds melodramatic but it really is true. I’ve always struggled with academics. Reading massive textbooks, writing up essay after essay, or finding focus for busy work has never been my strong suit. It’s just not how I learn. So after graduating high school and trying to force college to work for me for about a year, I finally realized I needed to look elsewhere. And I’m really glad Coding Dojo is where I ultimately decided to go. The work is hands-on and no-nonsense.

This bootcamp is fast paced but with all the support from your fellow cohort-mates, instructors, and TAs, It’s very doable if you have the drive. Their online learning platform makes for a very good reference but in my opinion the real magic happens with their instructors. You can tell they’re genuinely passionate about programming and it makes the work so enjoyable. The demos and lectures are very informative and they take little breaks along the way to make sure everyone understands the material and is on the same page. The morning algorithms are also a really great feature of this bootcamp. You get used to thinking about how you can start to tackle a problem, polish it to be more efficient, and code more creatively since after you’ve taken a solid stab at it you get to look at different students’ perspectives. Which are all skills that are definitely helpful for succeeding at an interview. And of course the sheer exposure and repetition of foundational algorithms and data structures doesn’t hurt either!

May 17, 2019

I thoroughly enjoyed my time while at Coding Dojo. I moved up to Tulsa from Austin, and was looking into bootcamps there, but thought the curriculum was actually better here at the Dojo. The fact that you covered three whole stacks in the three months is well worth any of the depth lost in a bootcamp that only covered one stack. In reality over three months you just want to be prepared for a job, and most likely will have to learn more languages/frameworks whenever you find that job anyways, so having a wide breadth of information and coding languages to pull on makes learning that next language even easier.

Past that, the instructors and community around the dojo were superb. Often alumni would come in to play a board game, help with projects, or just do some work from the office. The instructors were readily available, open to suggestions, and helpful throughout the whole process. Really enjoyed getting to work with and learn from all people associated with Coding Dojo here in Tulsa.

My one complaint with the bootcamp would be not taking advantage of some of the advantages inherent to Tulsa specifically. There is a pretty small, but very involved developer community here with monthly meetups in all sorts of languages. I view it as a missed opportunity that more members of these organizations didn’t come in regular to speak to students. Additionally it didn’t feel like Coding Dojo had yet made a big splash in the hiring community here. Most interviews I went on I would have to describe what Coding Dojo was and how it prepared me. Which wouldn’t have been shocking as a one off instance, but it was all but one of the 5 interviews I had in which I had to do it.

Along with being the cheapest option of bootcamp I saw out there (some in Austin were double the price), I could not recommend Coding Dojo highly enough.

May 18, 2019

I came to the bootcamp with a little bit of coding experience, that I got from online courses. I recommend that to anybody who’s going to attend any coding bootcamp.

Time in Dojo was truly amazing. Super professional instructors with experience working in big companies such as Amazon. Awesome peers from different countries and backgrounds. Information is very well structured in the curriculum, so it’s easy to pick up new stuff even for non-native English speakers as myself. The only thing I didn’t like is how MEAN stack was presented on the platform, but instructors helped to fill all the gaps and even more.

Another thing which is super cool about Coding Dojo is that how they teach algorithms and data structures. Every morning you solve different problems and learn new data structures, which are essential things to pass a tech interview. These things are also very useful for people that don’t have a CS degree.

Lastly, job search. Coding Dojo does not place their grads into the jobs, but they provide good career services which improve your resume, LinkedIn and job hunting strategies in general. Also, they host interviews on site with many tech companies, so students and grads have a lot of extra opportunities to get jobs.

Coding bootcamps are not easy. The more you put in, the more you get out of it. If you are focused and dedicated Coding Dojo will definitely help you to land your first job in tech!

Overall Rating

May 27, 2019