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Ask HN: Bootcamp for self-taught developers?

47 points by sudofail ↗ HN
I'm a self-taught web developer with about 3 years experience, and I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the tools I need for my day-to-day job. But I never attended university and would like to get a deeper understanding of computer science. I've done a few moocs, and they are definitely very useful, but I'm wondering if there are any accelerated "bootcamps" that teach either computer science fundamentals, or maybe more advanced programming topics. The bootcamps I'm aware of focus on beginners.

Does anyone know if something like that exists?

18 comments

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kjksf
Lambda school. 6 month, full time, covers both basics and advanced stuff.
sudofail
I hadn't heard of Lambda school, but this looks like a great option. The fact that it's available online, and available after work hours is really appealing. Do you have experience with Lambda school?
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rmason
If you're looking for a good shortcut get the Imposters Handbook:

https://bigmachine.io/products/the-imposters-handbook/

The author, Rob Connery, has got a number of online courses out. I've attended a few and he's an exceptional instructor. Least this self taught developer understands him:>). Good luck!

sudofail
Thank you for linking this. I've gone ahead and purchased the ebook and will start working through this. If nothing else, it looks like it will cover a lot of the topics I was hoping to learn in a course setting, so should be a good prep at least.
drakonka
Thank you for the recommendation, this looks very interesting.
hackermailman
Interviewbit has a programming track https://www.interviewbit.com/courses/programming/ and interview problem sets you can practice with to build your algorithm skills https://www.interviewbit.com/amazon-interview-questions/

Or find a suitable advanced pile of material and pick out of it what you want to learn https://functionalcs.github.io/curriculum/

Or your next vacation, go to Raleigh, NC and pay this ex-CMU Professor to personally teach you whatever topics you want https://calculem.us/classes/ he's now a freelance compsci instructor

ibeckermayer
I attend Holberton school which begins with bash/C, build your own printf from system calls, build your own shell, etc. I come from a background in physics/hardware eng and have gotten lots of value out of it.
Adam89
You should checkout https://bradfieldcs.com/
sudofail
Wow, this looks like a great resource. I'm not currently in the bay area, but this looks perfect otherwise. I'm going to look into this a bit more, thanks!
dc10
Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but check out the Recurse Center, https://www.recurse.com

Not a boot camp, it encourages "self-taught". If you go, you'll be pursuing those more advanced topics at your own pace. But you're sure to meet like-minded folks and learn from them as well.

I learned about RC through Hacker News posts, so its fitting I pass along the recommendation this way.

arenaninja
I'm a RC alum (Fall 2012), and I strongly recommend it if you have that kind of time. I am also self-taught, but the time spent in the Recurse Center was definitely time well spent. I do wish I could take a sabbatical from work to do a second run, I have a much better idea of what I would like to focus on during my time there.
adamkaz
I'm part of a team creating content at Codecademy to fill exactly this need. It is currently part of our Pro feature.

The courses cover computer science data structures but we will be adding algorithms in the near future.

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/paths/computer-science/

If you are already familiar with Python, you probably want to skip to the 7th unit.

Feedback is appreciated!

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gt_
It’s too bad my “browser isn’t supported”.
duxup
I finished a boot camp this past spring, full time, 3 months. I really wished it was full time 6 or 9 months with some CS light stuff.

I'm sure they wouldn't get a lot of customers, but I would have loved it.