They do include "Section" videos and "Shorts", both of which go into much greater detail about the topics covered in lecture. It is my understanding that these ultimately replicate the TA-led classes that Harvard students would attend.

I think that a more problematic "gap" is that people taking this class as a MOOC do not have TAs to directly answer their questions, nor do they have fellow students to slog through the problem sets. The CS50 stackexchange can only go so far in making up for this.

All that said, the course is still excellent. It is taking a lot of time and effort for me to get through, but I'm learning way more than I did through any of the more gamified, hand-holdy/tutorial options available for learning programming online.

I think I actually disagree. Plain C is a simple language with a relatively low number of reserved words. It's syntax is fairly plain. I think the biggest problem with it is that it's not very "expressive"

But this is a plus for teaching programming. In python or perl or ruby or what have you, your "primitives" are actually objects with fairly complex behaviors and a person who is new to computers and programming is not going to understand what's going on.

It's pretty possible to understand almost everything that's happening at the machine level when writing C, to a degree.

If you restrict yourself to not using a big swath of a language like python you can do some of the same exercises. But at that point your code will look an awful lot like C anyway.

When I learned how to run properly for track and field, I didn't first need to learn the way ligaments and muscles worked in tandem with my bones and joints

Learning C as your first language seems to me like learning anatomy as a prerequisite for learning how to do a sport

I am curious what deep down crud you think you need to know, to write simple programs in C?

ETA: aren't you the one working on some web-based class, where you are having to learn the basics of half a dozen software paradigms to turn out a single assignment? That seems like the opposite of what a newcomer to programming should be doing.

I have administered a few hundred typing tests. Never once seen a hunt-and-peck typist crack 30wpm, and I'm being generous with that high number.

In fact, few people can crack 40wpm with any appreciable accuracy, and that is with touch typing. From my observation, there is a gap between 40 and 50wpm that few people ever test at. People either type >50 or <40, but not many people type 4x.

Got over 50-65 all three tries, but I have a very weird typing style because I do not use my pinkies... so dont think I could keep it up.

submitted app acad code challenge. Made sure I got all of them right, and in less than half the time they give you. Wasn't terribly hard, but I know if I actually went back and looked over the notes i've taken on ruby I could have done solutions a bit more elegantly.

like each_with_index would have been a good one to use. Stuck a bunch of for loops in, don't feel great about that. Just kind of panicked.

Good luck. Mention this community and talking to App Academy people on here (blackize and myself) if you get further. They seem to be bigger on well-roundedness now as opposed to strictly coding performance. Obv PM me with questions if you want (not sure if I'll see right away though, idk how the app works).

You're another AA graduate?

"It's cool, I know Baltimore Jones "

I've read they don't really even talk to you much until the last round of interviewing stuff. That maybe some older blogs I've read?

There may be more talking earlier in the process now, but either way, if and when you get asked about your interest, it's probably a positive to talk about an online programming community where you've interacted with grads. They also tend to like poker players, one of their key staff members is a Googleable ex pro and there have been a bunch of students that were.


Yes.

Oh and I notice the irony of me saying I don't know how this app works for PM'ing.

1st skype interview achieved

definitely going to give myself time to brush up on ruby and use some more rubyist choices instead of ugly ass for loops

Also apped to hack reactor, mostly for funsies. Their application process was pretty ingenious. Highly recommend to anyone who likes cute, quirky web apps.

Just curious what is your background? Also, did you try to get a job without AA first? Do you portfolio yet?

Is there a big difference on the job market between a university software engineer and self taugh/bootcamp ?

From what I understand, large corps might care, but that might be the only door you can't get a foot in. About to find out how true that is. Everyone around here says if you can program you can get a job. Well, I'm not planning on a bachelors so I'll see.

Unrelated non-stem bachelors, about to finish an associate's in CS. IT work for years but none programming. Have applied to several places for internships with no luck.

The most responsiveness I've got so far was simply being a little attentive and interested and not being afraid to speak up. There's a couple places that have expressed interest, but I'm not sure I would like the culture.

No portfolio. The companies around here don't expect much from entry-level devs. From what I understand, most don't even ask technical questions during interviews. They just want to see a little passion for programming.

Still would likely prefer a local job than moving to SFO, so AA and HR are last resorts imo

Where are you located?

Amurica

I think even in these times recruiters are still too focused on university degrees.

where at? I forget, CO?

Graduated from a bootcamp where maybe 1/3 have comp science degrees. Those that have them have a much higher response rate for job applications, would guess 5x as high at least. If you have work experience in mechanical engineering this is probably as good as a comp science degree. I think no degree would matter less after some work experience.

How you know I have experience in mechanical engineering?

So have you gotten a job penguin? Do you have a portfolio of what you learned and built in the camp?

I'm pretty sure this has to be something of a scam or fake or marketing nonsense, but I got an email from app academy that said:

The first and last lines are so complimentary that I'm instantly suspicious, but I can't find anything on google about an app academy jump start offer thing.

Thoughts?