App Academy Coding Bootcamp Prep Curriculum: What You’ll Learn Week-by-Week

App Academy’s Bootcamp Prep Online has placed nearly 100 percent of graduates at the best coding bootcamps in the country because of its award-winning curriculum. But what do students actually learn throughout the Bootcamp Prep program? We’ve covered each day of the curriculum for you below.
The schedule below is specific to App Academy’s in-person Bootcamp Prep course. Bootcamp Prep Online covers the same material but is self-paced.

Week 1: Introduction to Web Development Fundamentals + JavaScript

The first week of Bootcamp Prep teaches introductory programming with JavaScript. Four days of study are rounded off by a review session and the first assessment on the fifth day.

Students learn all about the Command Line and running JavaScript. They gain familiarity with writing commands, using files and Read-Evaluate-Print Loops (Repl) to run JavaScript. Then, they are introduced to variables and conditionals.

MondayTuesdayDay Two builds off the skills of Day One, with students learning about functions. They learn how to use functions in practical ways by exploring parameters and return statements.WednesdayLooping is introduced on Day Three. This material combines basic logic with computer programming. Students learn how to use “For” and “While” Loops. To complete their understanding of manipulating loops, students learn “Break” and “Continue” statements. The concept of Infinite Loops (loops that never end) is also introduced.ThursdayDay Four is dedicated to learning all about Arrays. Arrays are a concept used to store multiple values and help programmers stay organized in their code. Students learn various Array methods, including iteration.Friday: Assessment #1Bootcamp Prep’s assessments always consist of technical interview-style programming problems. That means students must write code to solve the problem. At this point, material from week one is reviewed and tested on Friday and the following Monday. “Students make their biggest gains after studying over the weekend, since many work jobs during the week,” says Alvin Zablan, App Academy’s Bootcamp Prep Manager.Monday: Assessment #2

Week 2: Introduction to JavaScript + Bootcamp-style problems

The second week of Bootcamp Prep builds off the skills learned in the previous week. Fresh from a weekend break, students complete a second review and assessment on day one. During the week, they learn about style, debugging, abstraction, and more.

TuesdayStudents increase the scope of their programming abilities in Day Two. They learn about objects and how to manipulate them using object methods. Objects are a staple feature of the JavaScript language. Students learn how to write elegant code using decomposition and abstraction strategies.WednesdayDay Three reintroduces Loops and Arrays on the agenda. At this point, students learn how to use Nested Loops and create Multidimensional Arrays.ThursdayTechnology journalist Steven Levy once said: “There has never been an unexpectedly short debugging period in the history of computers.” Students dedicate an entire day to hunting and squashing bugs, a.k.a. debugging.Friday: Assessment #3Monday: Assessment #4

Week 3: Intermediate JavaScript and more Bootcamp Practice Problems

As usual, students complete a fourth assessment on Monday covering the previous week’s material. Then they move on to more complex functions and concepts related to JavaScript, such as scope and data modeling.

TuesdayWhen defining variables, a developer has to keep in mind the scope of the definition. Should the variable be defined on in this function? Or globally in the application? Day Two of Week 3 explores this concept in depth.WednesdayDay Three introduces callbacks. A main feature of JavaScript, callbacks offer a new way to utilize functions. Students are also exposed to the math object, allowing the use of specialized mathematical functions in code. This feature is especially useful in bootcamp interviews.ThursdayAn important part of becoming a software developer is applying one’s coding skills in the real world. Data modeling teaches students how to navigate complex data structure and solve problems around them.Friday: Assessment #5Monday: Assessment #6Instead of reviewing past concepts, students are given a session on Non-Technical Interview Preparation. Skills learned here also transfer over to the technical interview. Students prepare for the technical interview by learning the course content and pair programming.

Week 4: Advanced JavaScript + interview techniques

Students are very busy in their final week of App Academy’s Bootcamp Prep. Not only are they learning more technical skills but they are also learning about interview preparation and studying to pass the final evaluation. Instructors and TAs also help students prepare their bootcamp applications.

TuesdayPair programming is introduced. Bootcamp Prep Manager Alvin Zablan says the goal of the technique is to “improve how students explain what they are trying to accomplish and improve how students respond to feedback from others. One student is the ‘driver’ and the other the ‘navigator.’”The ‘driver’ has his or her hands on the keyboard, translating what the navigator says in English into code. The ‘navigator’ is responsible for choosing the direction of the project and deciding on what strategy to take. This forces students to communicate as they problem solve, which is a key skill for technical interviews.WednesdayStudents learn how to solve complex problems using recursion. Recursion allows programmers to solve larger problems by breaking them down into smaller versions of the same problem. This results in very clean and elegant code.Thursday: Assessment #7Instead of reviewing, students are given additional practice problems they can use after graduation.Friday: Final Evaluation and Graduation 🎉

What’s Next?

Start your software development journey. Learn programming fundamentals with App Academy’s Bootcamp Prep Online!