Maybe a naive question: might it be possible for OP to do a bootcamp and then start building a portfolio and experience by selling himself cheaply through online freelancing websites? If he lives in a country with a lower cost of living, it seems like this may be a viable alternative to more traditional employment, and without needing to uproot his family and move outside the country. Just a thought...

Well, the ideal scenario would look like this:

good online bootcamp -> if confident apply for jobs, else one web app project that I want to do -> apply for jobs with relocation to Canada/UK, maybe US -> work 1-3 years -> start a startup / switch to a more managerial role (this is where my core skills and passion are)

If I'm unable to find a job abroad, I might consider looking here in Latvia but it's unlikely that I can find a job that pays even 1/3 of what I'm getting grinding.

So than the plan will be to grind and do my own programming projects/freelance rest of the time. At least this is how I had it outlined in my head.

Anyways, this "career switch" is on halt. I got ****ed by Winamax/my government and have my BR frozen, which effectively makes me lose money by not working. So I'll have to do some intense grinding after this and previous downswing at 400+...

Meanwhile will try to dabble in programming on my own. Would like to be sure that it's my thing.
After code academies ruby course I think I like it (love it?), but damn it's so frustrating to go on codewars/coderbyte and realize these two things:

1. That I barelly scratched the surface and still don't know a thing.
2. I'm ages ahead in poker if we compare levels of proficiency. I can still get more out of it.


P.S. This is starting to look more and more like a blog, lol.

I feel like the code challenge sites are typically harder for people without solid algorithm knowledge. There's so much "do this thing, but make sure it only executes x amount of times or in y amount of time".

Maybe check out an e-version of The Algorithm Design Manual. I feel like it's pretty dry reading, but it may help with that stuff.

Code academy is good for little else besides familiarizing you with a language's syntax. The jump from there to real coding is pretty big and can be frustrating. The best way to get good at these coding challenges and any other coding is to keep practicing and writing more code. Try these steps:

1. Make sure you understand exactly what the challenge is looking for in an answer. Read it a few times to make sure.
2. Go through how you would solve this manually, step by step. Write it down on paper. Anything you can automate with a computer, you could also do yourself(it might take a million years, but that's why we built computers to do it).
3. Write the solution in pseudocode.
4. Translate pseudocode to real code.
5. See if there is anything you can think of that would make the solution more efficient. Are all the steps you took necessary? Can you eliminate certain elements from your data set so the computer doesn't have to check as many to find a solution?

So I've had an interview with Codaisseur (mentioned in OP) and I'm accepted to start in October.

At 750eur, even the worst possible outcome isn't that bad. This is my plan:

In the coming months I will try my best to master as much as possible of their curriculum on my own, in order to be solidly, if not absolutely top of my class.

I've talked to former students and while they don't all have a job yet, everybody was still pleased with C and those who haven't found anything yet are still getting interviews through them.

The two I found who don't work yet started with way less (like no) prior programming experience than I have even now, too.

The 750 don't cover the costs for Codaisseur at all, either - they only start making money once I have a job.

If there are even five cool-ish jobs to be had, class size is like 20 and completion rate 75pct, there is no way I won't be a top third candidate with 3 months still left to prepare before even a starting.

Sounds reasonable?

This is well said.

Also, a top tier bootcamp will have forged strong relationships with local employers and the community as a whole. This gives the prospect a ton more credibility.

https://teamtreehouse.com/techdegree

University of Toronto has an excellent faculty of Arts and Sciences with majors and minors in Computer Science. I enjoyed very much. It allows you to branch off in to some very interesting professions/specializations such as artificial intelligence, mobile app developer and human computer interaction to name a few but not sure about bootcamps

totally forgot that michael hartl's online book for rails has a ton of possible resources if you scroll down a little bit here:

https://www.railstutorial.org/book/b...-prerequisites

lot of online bootcamps listed there, including some that've been discussed itt