One of the biggest indicators we see in graduates of our program getting good paying jobs quickly is how well students keep up on lab work and apply themselves to stretch goals. Starting an intensive bootcamp program can be overwhelming, much like traveling to a foreign country where you don’t know the language or culture.
While most students adjust to the pace and intensity over the first week or so, for some the adjustment period can create a habit of incomplete work, struggle, and demoralizing outcomes that takes much longer to break.
This is why we ask all students to take preparation seriously! We are asking you to go through material on your own to develop familiarity and practice using your laptop as a development tool. Focus on putting in the hours and dedication, but don’t worry about comprehension! This may seem counterintuitive, but our instructors will cover the material again, in different ways and adding more practical application. And once you start focusing on delivering labs and projects, you won’t be able to escape the things you need to know!
The pre-work for Bootcamp is mandatory and counts as 5% of your Bootcamp I total course grade. You'll have the opportunity to report your progress on these assignments in our Learning Management System shortly after you've completed the enrollment process.
Start as soon as you can and be sure to allow yourself plenty of time to complete it. Expect to spend, at a minimum, several evenings and a weekend day or two to get everything completed. Allow yourself more time than you think you will need so that you can take breaks and work at a methodical pace without rushing or trying to cut corners. Detailed time estimates are provided in the following overview.
There's no such thing as too much preparation before you begin at Alchemy. We have listed additional tutorials and materials, plus there is a wealth of free information online, so feel free to branch out and practice your search skills.
This class provides a solid foundation from which to begin the bootcamp program. Having a familiarity of the material being covered allows students to keep up with the intensive lab work from Day One of the Bootcamp program and prevent being overwhelmed by the amount of new material.
Bootcamp Prep requires students to complete the prework for Bootcamp One. The prework gives enrolled Bootcamp Prep Students a clear, step-by-step guide of what they need to achieve before they walk into the first night of Bootcamp Prep. Online resources can give students a good first look at the material. We understand that some things will still be confusing and may not make sense.
- Total estimated time for all pre-work steps: 23.5 to 43 hours of working time (not counting breaks)*
- Install programs and set up your computer
- Setup guide for Your OS (multiple downloads are involved; 1-3 hours depending on your network speed)
- Email your instructors & introduce yourself
- Introduce yourself on Slack (15-30 minutes)
- Online Tutorials
- Terminal tutorial and practice (2-3 hours)
- Git tutorial (1-2 hours)
- Codecademy Intro to JavaScript tutorial (15-40 hours)
- Codecademy HTML+CSS tutorial (15-25 hours)
- Purchase textbooks and read preliminary readings
- Purchase required textbooks (15-30 minutes)
- Complete the textbook readings for Day 1 of class (2-3 hours)
Complete the setup guide for your computer's operating system (multiple downloads are involved; 1-3 hours depending on your network speed)
- Computer Setup Instructions
- Following completion of these installations, you should:
- Have a terminal with a Git compatible prompt
- Type
git --versionin your terminal and not receive an error - Be able to open VSCode from the Terminal or Git Bash by typing
code . - Have Slack installed so we can communicate as a class.
- Have a GitHub account on Github.com
- Email your instructors & introduce yourself.
Notes:
-
If the Slack channel for your class has not yet been set up, please be patient! Admissions will contact you once it has been created.
-
Generally you should be invited within 2 weeks of the start date for your class. If you have not been added by that time, please contact admissions.
-
There will be a Slack channel for both the Bootcamp Prep class, and then the Bootcamp One class
- We use Slack to share resources, chat, make announcements, and collaborate.
- You will receive an invitation to our class team.
- Once you have joined our class team, add a nice profile picture of your lovely face. Then say hello in your class team, and introduce yourself.
- We welcome you to list your preferred pronoun next to your name here in Slack (top left drop down bar, select Profile & Account, Choose Edit Profile and then include your pronouns under Display Name (she/her, they/them, etc). As a place that values all people, thank you for joining us in showing your support.
One significant aspect of creating software is interacting directly with text files. One of the most efficient ways to do this is through the Terminal, or Command Line.
If you aren't already, this is a great time to get used to the command line. No matter which operating system you're using, this tutorial can help you feel confident using the command line to navigate your computer:
https://ryanstutorials.net/linuxtutorial
Please work through Sections 1 through 5 of this tutorial. Note: This tutorial is for everyone, even though the word "Linux" is in the title! The same commands work in Windows and MacOS terminals as well.
Also recommended from this tutorial: Section 14, which is a handy cheatsheet of commands. Feel free to explore the more advanced topics if you wish, but those topics are beyond the scope of the Code 201 course!
Using the terminal may feel a little scary at first, but stick with it and give it some practice. This is you, in charge of your computer. :]
A. There is a lot of useful information in the Udemy tutorial, but it is a lot to digest for beginners. Skim through it as you can while striving to acquire terminology and gaining an understanding of the large concepts. Learning about version control is one of the most challenging things in the first week of Code 201. Above all, for now, strive for a conceptual understanding of how version control works, and why we use it in software development. The details are much more easy to grasp once the concepts are in place.
https://blog.udemy.com/git-tutorial-a-comprehensive-guide
B. For a little hands-on practice, complete the first three exercises in the following tutorial:
https://learngitbranching.js.org
- Introduction to Git Commits
- Branching in Git
- Merging in Git
Complete this javascript tutorial prior to the first day of class:
Complete these tutorials prior to the first day of class.
If you haven't already, purchase this textbook set prior to the first day of class:
- Web Design with HTML & CSS; JavaScript & jQuery book set by Jon Duckett
We get started right away on Day 1, so be sure to read the following chapters from the textbooks AND complete the associated discussion assignments in our Learning Management System (which you will have access to once your enrollment process is complete):
- From the HTML & CSS textbook:
- Chapter 1: "Structure"
- Chapter 8: "Extra Markup"
- Chapter 17: "HTML5 Layout"
- Chapter 18: "Process & Design"
- From the JavaScript textbook:
- Chapter 1: "The ABC of Programming"
Plan to spend about 20-30 minutes with each chapter. Do not strive to methodically read and retain every single word, because we cover hundreds of pages of text in the first two weeks of the course. Instead, aim for an understanding of the big topics and orientation to where the details are so that you can find them when you need them. And be sure to read closely enough to come up with questions and observations based on your reading!
If you finish the above and have VS Code installed, try going through these tutorials using the VS Code Editor with the Live Server extension. If you do not have a VS Code environment working you can also use a Javascript Environment hosted on Repl.it:
Likewise, here are some additional resources for you to go over, time permitting:
- Khan Academy: Intro to JavaScript: Drawing and Animation
- Khan Academy (up through and including the Web development tools section): Intro to HTML/CSS: Making webpages
- DOM
- Eloquent Javascript PDF - an excellent resource
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent