Hack Reactor

I moved to Austin just to attend Hack Reactor (HR) and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Before HR I had few job prospects, little money, and no college degree; now I'm doing work that a truly enjoy, making much more money than I need, and... still don't have a college degree. 😜

The program is hectic and difficult, especially when you're so poor that you have to live in the cheapest part of town, cook almost all your own food, and take the bus everyday. But the leadership there and the other students were fantastic; it was amazing being surrounded by so many smart, dedicated, and encouraging people. Although almost all my time was spent there those 3 months, it all flew by way too fast.

Although the program itself was difficult, the hardest part was the job search. Don...

I came into Hack Reactor SSP with 0 experience in computer science or coding of any sort and have learned a great deal about the subject in such a short amount of time. There is a great support system and structure to SSP and I enjoyed being apart of it.

I just completed SSP37 and would absolutely recommend this course to anyone willing to put in the time and effort. Hack Reactor's SSP program provides all of the exercises necessary to be fully prepared for their technical interview, as well as a "helpdesk" that provides help if you get stuck on any of the exercises. I definitely took advantage of the helpdesk throughout the course, but just know that while this support is there, the mentors will not give you any easy answers or quick fixes - they will help point you in the right direction and encourage new ways of looking at the exercises, but you need to do the work of researching, trying different strategies, etc. If you're a driven student that is motivated to succeed, this is the program for you! Shout out to Kevin, Heather, Ma...

I benefited greatly from taking this structured prep course. Jacob and the TA's were expert at reviewing and teaching the fundamental concepts in javascript programming. As result I'm much more prepared for the technical interview.

Coach John did a fantastic job. He was always enthusiastic and willing lend and ear and a helping hand.

Though the SSP isn't a core component of Hack Reactor's immersive program, it does a pretty good job of preparing one for such an endeavor.

There were several times where problems were presented where the technique/technologies weren't covered until later in the course. This frustrated me, my peers, and my TAs on a few occasions. It's clear the creators of this curriculum encourage us to begin to think and behave like developers in the real world. A big component of that is being able to solve problems on our own and research if we haven't been taught how to solve the problem we're working on. As a result, I'm torn between feeling annoyed because we paid to be taught, and understanding that we need to FITFO (Figure it the f*** out). I know from talking with a few of my peers that th...

I've just finished my 4 weeks live online prep course for Hack Reactor SSP39. From what I understand this course uses the same material HR gives you on their site for free to do on your own. If you are good at learning on your own then I would recommend doing that way. The prep course is $250 which will be applied toward your tuition if you get in. You can retake the course if you didn't make it through. You will have 3 assessments along the way but it is not a pass or fails. The next day your course coach will go over the assessment with everyone. There is live support but it is not here to teach you. The support will just give you hints to unstick yourself. I was expected more like what a remote online course would be (i.e. pair programming) but you are pretty much on your ow...

There wasn't any cons that I can think of. I learned so much from this program and built a huge connection in software engineering field. I would recommend this program to anyone who come for suggestion.

The Good:
- Great coverage of JS fundamentals in the beginning. Also does a fairly good job of presenting data structures/algorithms, and although that is a fairly deep subject (I'd actually taken a semester course in the past), I still thought it was a solid practical run through the basics and important concepts
- Content in the junior phase is very thorough and well thought out. You move really quickly from one concept to the next as the curriculum builds from the fundamentals into modern platforms and frameworks. Having the ability to pick up a new technology and do something useful with it in a couple of days is a skill that's really valuable in the real world
- Good coaching from the staff and mentors, who usually had genuinely helpful answers to all of our questions through...

Great staff and curriculum. The community is incredible.
I also learned a lot from my peers - everyone admitted at Hack Reactor is extremely sharp.
For anyone interested in leveling up their web dev / software engineering skills, this program is great.
I highly recommend!

A life changing experience. I not only gained the technical skills I needed to change my career, but I also made great connections with the people I learned with. It's truly an experience different from a traditional higher education experience (in an amazing way). Everything is focused on your growth and being able to apply your learning immediately! It's fast-paced and challenging but definitely an investment I don't regret!

The staff are outstanding. The program is high accountability and high transparency. It's very conducive to people who feel initially out of place trying to cross over into the coding world. If you pay attention and lock into the program, the chances of you making it as a software engineer are very high, I believe. Would definitely recommend!

Awesome program. Great staff. Very friendly and willing to help with anything. Instructors always challenged us to try the latest technology, and did a great job of guiding us to a solution without just telling us. Got hired a few weeks after graduation, and formed some great memories with all my classmates.

Advice: I did the remote advanced software engineering immersive (HRR31 specifically). This is a very fast paced course that is 11 hours a day 6 days a week for 12 weeks. Well worth it, and very demanding. Make sure you can dedicate the time to this course.

Remote: Great if you don't live in a state with a Hack Reactor campus. Same challenging material. You are in a video conference with someone for most of the day (The entire class, or your coding pair). Lots of interactio...

I was a member of the Structured Study Program 35 designed to get Hack Reactor students up to speed before day 1 of class. The course instructor, John Jacob and my TA, Roscoe Coney did a fantastic job. The course pacing was just fast enough to keep you on your toes at all times. I left feeling like a had a solid understanding and practical ability of basic javascript. The course introduced, but didn't heavily focus on HTML, CSS, and jQuery.

Hack Reactor SSP is a well-known study program that help programmers in coding abilities as well as front end development for the 3-month program that is from the Hack Reactor Immersive. They do a wonderful job at giving the information and relaying it. It is a fast pace program but has its benefits of understanding the material quickly. I fully enjoyed it very much.

I heard about SSP back in June but I was skeptical because I always thought that online classes/courses are not beneficial and I had a hard experience in the past with online courses. SSP was not at all like that. It was really good from day 1 and the people that were in the program were so supportive to one another. We all had the same purpose going in the program and I felt a good sense of community. Our teacher, John was super friendly and he responded to our questions right away. I liked how he got to the point in our morning meetings so that we didn’t waste any time just blabbing away. Also for me personally I was not on pace with the curriculum but John was really encouraging and told me that everyone has their own pace and for me to finish my prep course first. Overall I would do...

The pros of this program included the support, attentiveness of the instructors and TAs, community, and the content of the course. The course included a wide variety of material that helped take me further than I was when I was studying on my own. Having the support of fellow classmates and the instructor/TAs was also very helpful in the success of my studying. Being able to sign on and ask for help whenever I needed and receiving a prompt response was a huge plus. A con of this program was the pace. It is deemed as self-paced but the material is discussed rather quickly. For instance, a new topic was discussed almost every other night. However, these lectures were recorded so you were able to review them at your own time/pace.

This course was absolutely instrumental in helping me learn what I needed to in order to get a leg up for the coming immersive. The Lead coach John did an amazing job explaining and teaching. He took the time to answer any and all questions we had. Even if that meant he had to answer the same question several times.

Background: I have taken a python intro course and have tried coding a few times over the years.

NOTE: If you have NO PRIOR coding experience and this will be your first time touching code, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND not taking the 4 week course...take the 10 week course. This will give time to absorb the information. Almost all of SSP is on your own, you may have a 20-40 minute "townhall" every other day that will review a specific topic but just know this is not a course where they will be giving in daily lectures and teaching you the info...you will be given a ton of problems and its up to you to get them to work.

Thoughts: Since I took a python course, a lot of the programming terms were familiar (variables, loops, methods, etc) and I had an idea of how to construct clean code. Wi...

John Jacob is a real good instructor.He knows what is in the course and will give help with all the questions!