Hack Reactor was founded in 2012 by Anthony Phillips, Shawn Drost, Marcus Phillips, and Douglas Calhoun. Their coding bootcamp offers 12-week Full-Time and 9-month Part-Time formats. The onsite program and the Full-Time Remote Program take up to 13 weeks to complete, while the part-time Remote Program also takes up to 13 weeks to complete, although getting employed in a tech company might take up to 180 days after completion of the course. Let us dive into the Hack Reactor Review.
Hack Reactor’s admission standards are highly selective in accepting only 3 to 7% of its applicants. Most applicants go through their prep courses, and many who fail their interviews can prepare and retake the test. Let’s breakdown what Hack Reactor has to offer.
Hack Reactor Overview
Hack Reactor’s online coding bootcamp is well known for its requirement of a fundamental skill set beyond a beginner. The applicants usually wait for 2 to 4 months to complete the admission process. They start by enrolling in Hack Reactor’s free or paid prep programs to learn the basics of JavaScript and prepare for the technical interview that lies ahead. The technical interview covers fundamental coding problems in JavaScript related to the prep course curriculum.
Once the applicant passes the technical interview, they begin with Hack Reactor’s 80-hour precourse. The well-integrated Job Preparation guidance helps students build an online presence, resume, and LinkedIn profile by graduation. Hack Reactor’s alumni get jobs in mid-to-senior levels at Tech companies such as Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft, with an average $105k salary.
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Hack Reactor Cost and ISA
The cost of Hack Reactor’s Onsite Course and Remote Program is $17,980. Students can either pay the entire fee upfront, opt for an ISA, apply for a scholarship, or get their course financed by Skillfund or Climb. An Income Share Agreement depends on the income a student receives after he/she gets placed in a company under a qualified job.
As per the Hack Reactor’s ISA plan, a student must earn a minimum of $60,000 per year to be eligible to start paying back. The student will pay anywhere between $0 to $22,372 in 48 months as per the agreement. Once the student reaches the payment cap of $22,372 or completes 48 months of repayment, the ISA terminates automatically.
Hack Reactor Locations
Due to the COVID situation, Hack Reactor has moved all its in-person classes to online classes from March 2020. The school facilitates social distancing by reducing the number of people and interactions in their campuses.
All their programs still deliver excellent tutoring by their world-class instructional staff and fully engage with their classmates. Though the classes have shifted to online platforms, their physical locations remain active with minimum staffing.
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Locations of Hack Reactor
- Austin, TX
- Boulder, CO
- Dallas, TX
- Denver, CO
- Los Angeles, CA
- New York City, NY
- Phoenix, AZ
- San Francisco, CA
- San Jose, CA
- Seattle, WA
Hack Reactor Reviews
The highly acclaimed school has got an excellent reception in the review sections of all noteworthy critic platforms. In Trustpilot, the school scores 4.7 stars with 47 reviews in total. In Yelp, Hack Reactor sets a new benchmark for all coding bootcamps with a score of 5 stars out of 5. There is a review article in Medium that testifies Hack Reactor’s credibility with a score of 11/10.
We were happy to find so many positive reviews surrounding the Hack Reactor school. But, we found some unhappy reviewers who remain skeptical about the pass percentage, average pay scale, and the number of students placed.
Overall, alumni and the public find Hack Reactor as one of the best coding schools for students to start their coding journey.
Visit Hack Reactor Website.
Hack Reactor Job Placements
The Hack Reactor school’s website claims to have placed 79.44% of students six months after completing their course, be it in-person or online class. The average compensation rate stands $91,000 that was concurrently reported by 86% of their graduates.
Their student alumni population stands over 5,600 since 2012. Their website also claims that they have placed more grads at top companies than any other coding bootcamp. Despite their claims, many students and reviewers think it is impossible to place as many candidates as Hack Reactor claims.
Hack Reactor Curriculum
As per our research, we have gathered appropriate information on the curriculum of the Hack Reactor Curriculum. The coding school has one curriculum that is applicable for both the in-person and online courses. Here’s the breakdown of the Hack Reactor Curriculum.
Precourse
Students will be required to complete the Precourse curriculum remotely before starting their immersive program. The Software Engineering Immersive Precourse curriculum takes 90-120 hours to complete.
Hack Reactor expects students to walk away with a strong foundation in Javascript, HTML, CSS, and more, which will prepare the students for an incredibly intense learning experience.
Week 1: Fundamental Concepts
In the first week, students will immerse themselves in learning the fundamental concepts and strategies considered best practices in the software engineering industry.
Basic and advanced data structures
Using JS instantiation patterns
Week 2 – 6: Full Stack JavaScript
In weeks 2 – 6, Students learn Full Stack JavaScript in 4 weeks in working on realistic code bases.
Mastering JavaScript essentials
Client & Server Side concepts
Database & Deployment technologies
Week 7: Solo Week
This week, students rest and work on an individual project. There are no scheduled lectures during Solo Week.
Week 8- 13: Application Design & Development & Job Search
Students work in teams that resemble industry standards to develop functional applications. They also get a chance to work with new technologies and put their bug testing to fair use.
In the last week, Students will prepare for the job search by doing practice interviews, learning negotiation tactics, and tuning their resume and online presence.
Building an application from scratch
Using new languages & technologies
Learning advanced team dynamics such as agile workflow and iterative development
Optional: Blockchain
Students learn about Blockchain technology that revolves around a distributed ledger technology famous for its use in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the optional week of study. The technology is now revolutionizing the web and can potentially disrupt countless industries, including e-commerce, banking, security, supply chain, healthcare, publishing, and more.
Students have the option to dive deep into programming with Blockchain, a rapidly growing skill. Students will learn core concepts, including hashing and transaction processing, using Hyperledger through an optional self-paced module.
The Hack Reactor coding school has covered JavaScript topics in-depth. But, many experts feel that Hack Reactor should have an updated curriculum covering multiple areas of Web Development along with JavaScript.
Final Note
Beyond doubt, Hack Reactor stands apart from most of the coding bootcamps in the country. Located at several places throughout the US, Hack Reactor is one of the coding schools to have had the best in-person courses before COVID. After shifting to online classes, Hack Reactor still maintains its standards and delivers results as it claims. Yet, we urge students to do their research and get a fair idea about what they are about to get into.
Invariably, we do not endorse or support any coding school. Our reviews are unbiased and honest opinions about that organization based on the information gathered from industry-related resources.
