Coding Dojo bases its success on three pillars:
Student potentialThe Coding Dojo curriculumLifetime support
Coding Dojo looks for traits like curiosity, resilience, and dedication for the first pillar, student potential. The company claims these traits are more important than coding experience. For this reason, Coding Dojo’s bootcamps are open to applicants without any prior experience. Coding Dojo states thousands of hours of research on pedagogy, the labor force, and learning science went into building its curriculum – the second pillar. The company aims to make its programs the only coding bootcamp students will need to attend. The third pillar is a lifetime of support. Coding Dojo’s career services team provides ongoing support to graduates, including application guidance and contract negotiation help. This Coding Dojo review provides an overview of each of the bootcamp provider’s career paths. It looks at Coding Dojo’s employment outcomes, and answers frequently asked questions. It also offers a few alternatives if you decide that Coding Dojo is not right for you.
What career paths does Coding Dojo offer?
Coding Dojo offers courses in cybersecurity, data science, and software development. Formats available for the software development bootcamp include full-time in-person or online formats and a variety of part-time online options. The cybersecurity and data science bootcamps are offered online and part-time only.
Who is Coding Dojo for?
Coding Dojo is for people who possess the dedication to stick with an intensive bootcamp program, including beginners with no prior coding experience. It is especially suited to individuals who want to quickly get into a new career without committing to a four-year degree. Coding Dojo’s software development bootcamp teaches full-stack web development using a three-stack curriculum. The bootcamp provider claims to cover more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack coding bootcamp. Students start by taking an assessment on programming basics before the official start date. High-scoring students can bypass pre-bootcamp lessons on the subject. The first two weeks of the full-time bootcamp cover web fundamentals such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Students cover Stack One in weeks three to six, Stack Two in weeks seven to 10, and Stack Three in weeks 11-14. Stack One focuses on web development using Python. Students learn object-oriented programming in Python, SQL and relational databases, and Python MVC frameworks. Python can be used to create small-scale eCommerce websites and web scrapers. Stack Two focuses on MERN, a JavaScript framework that is used to build dynamic websites and applications. Students learn how to use custom JavaScript libraries, do object-oriented programming in JavaScript, and design databases in NoSQL. MERN can be used to create small social media sites, mini online marketplaces, and online chat apps. Stack Three teaches students how to do object-oriented programming in C#. Students learn how to do SQL queries and use the C# MVC framework and design patterns. C# can be used to build a mini-event planning app or a small online marketplace. At Coding Dojo, cybersecurity students start with no professional experience and finish with two certifications: CompTIA Security+ and CySA+. This gives graduates an edge over students completing bootcamps where they earn just one certification. Before the bootcamp starts, students must complete two weeks of pre-work. This includes exploring cybersecurity resources and reading assignments to familiarize students with cybersecurity basics. Coding Dojo divides the bootcamp into three eight-week tracks: Core, intermediate, and professional. Track one covers hardware and software, network architecture, and some basic principles to help students identify risks and vulnerabilities. Students learn how to configure multiple operating systems and install virtual machines. They gain hands-on experience in packet sniffing, password cracking utilities, and intrusion detection systems. By the end of track two, students will be able to demonstrate basic security skills. They will be able to perform threat analysis and come up with appropriate mitigation techniques. During this track, students learn Windows Powershell and Wireshark. They get hands-on experience managing incident response and identifying application attacks. During track three, students learn SIEM principles, honeypots, and string search. They gain hands-on experience following an incident response process, analyzing and configuring share permissions, and analyzing application and host IoCs. Coding Dojo’s data science and machine learning in Python bootcamp gives students a complete understanding of the data science process from start to finish. Students learn how to apply machine learning algorithms to a variety of tasks. They build portfolios demonstrating their data science skills. Students start by learning the foundations of programming in Python during week one. Then they move on to manipulating and understanding data, data modeling, and an introduction to machine learning. Next up is statistical inference. In week five, students focus on machine learning, including how to format data for an algorithm: weeks six and seven cover decision trees, random forests, logistic regression, and regularization. By the end of week eight, students complete a machine learning project that shows off what they have learned. During the last four weeks of the program, students learn how to use dimensionality reduction and gradient boosting algorithms. They get started with Kaggle competitions and learn to use SQL to work with databases in Python. The last week focuses on deep learning frameworks. Coding Dojo is also a good choice for those who cannot afford a college education. Coding Dojo prices its paid bootcamps from $1,950-$16,495, which is much cheaper than the average cost of a four-year college degree. The average cost of in-state tuition is $9,580 per year, which comes to $38,320 for four years.
What are Coding Dojo’s employment outcomes?
Coding Dojo reports 89.1% of its 2019 graduates found a relevant job within 180 days, and 95.3% found suitable employment within one year. Based on employment percentages, Coding Dojo outperformed Codesmith, Flatiron, Fullstack, Hack Reactor, and Thinkful. The bootcamp provider has graduated more than 6,000 students since 2012.
What are alternatives to Coding Dojo?
Many other bootcamp providers offer courses in cybersecurity, data science, or software engineering. Here are a few that you might want to consider.
App Academy
App Academy transforms students with no prior coding experience into software engineers. The bootcamp provider offers in-person and online software engineering bootcamps. Pros:
App Academy’s deferred plan allows students to pay a $3,000 deposit and defer the rest of their tuition until after they are hired.Students learn both JavaScript and Ruby on Rails.
Cons:
App Academy doesn’t offer cybersecurity or data science.The upfront tuition of $17,000 is slightly higher than Coding Dojo’s tuition.Students taking advantage of the deferred payment plan end up paying a total of $28,000 instead of $17,000.
Codesmith
Codesmith offers full-time software engineering bootcamps in Los Angeles and New York City and full-time and part-time software engineering bootcamps online. Pros: Cons:
Codesmith starts at $19,350 for its full-time and part-time software engineering bootcamps – pricier than Coding Dojo.Codesmith does not offer data science or cybersecurity.
Hack Reactor
Hack Reactor offers part-time and full-time software engineering bootcamps. The full-time bootcamp can be taken either online or in person, while the part-time bootcamp is online only. Pros:
Hack Reactor’s income-sharing agreement allows students to pay a $2,000 deposit and defer the rest of their tuition until after they are employed.Hack Reactor offers in-person bootcamps in Austin, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Cons:
Hack Reactor’s tuition of $17,980 is more expensive than Coding Dojo’s tuition.Hack Reactor does not offer data science or cybersecurity.
Launch School
Launch School bills itself as the slow path to a career in software development for academic learners. Its core curriculum takes at least eight months to complete and is followed by a capstone that takes four-plus months. Pros:
Launch School focuses on mastery, requiring students to grasp each fundamental before moving on to the next fully.Launch School offers a deferred payment program for students who want to wait until they are employed to pay their tuition.The $199/month tuition adds up to less than the tuition of most other bootcamps, even for slower-paced students.
Cons:
Launch School’s program takes much longer than the typical bootcamp.Students can become anxious about how long it will take to finish the program since there is no fixed end date.Launch School does not offer cybersecurity or data science.
Thinkful
Thinkful offers bootcamps in software engineering, data science, data analytics, UX/UI design, digital marketing, and technical project management. These bootcamps can help students land high-paying jobs in tech. Pros:
Thinkful offers a larger variety of bootcamps than most other bootcamp providers.Students who don’t land a job in their new field within six months may not have to pay.Thinkful offers one-on-one mentorship every step of the way.
Cons:
Thinkful does not offer cybersecurity.Thinkful’s part-time self-paced software engineering bootcamp costs $9,500 upfront, which is much higher than the $1,950-$3,850 for Coding Dojo’s equivalent bootcamp.
