As I visited the legendary School 42: "pool", seals and the Internet instead of teachers

School 42 is famous for its revolutionary system of education: there are no teachers there, the students themselves test each other's work, there is no need to pay for studies. At the same time, the school manages to prepare the coolest programmers, who are torn off by the leading companies of the world with their hands. I was scared curious to look at these wonders with my own eyes, and as an employee of GeekBrains (after all, our main task is to teach IT-specialists), and as a developer. During a trip to the USA, I had such a chance, and I did not miss it.

They are allowed to go to the school for open days and excursions, and in order to get there at another time, it is advisable to be familiar with one of the students and issue a pass on his behalf. I walked through the security service without a hitch, walked around the campus and talked with several Russian-speaking students - there are quite a few of them. My main guide became an acquaintance named Sergei, who a year ago moved to California from Belarus and was invited to study after successfully passing the “pool” (more on that below). By the time of our meeting, he managed to unlearn 2 months and told a lot of interesting things.

The school was opened in Silicon Valley by French billionaire Xavier Neil, who believes that traditional programming training does not work. He and several other sponsors pay all expenses. The school has two official campuses - in Paris and in Fremont. With the support and assistance of the School, 42 educational institutions with the same teaching model were opened in French Lyon, Romania, Belgium, Ukraine, Finland, Russia and other countries. The Moscow equivalent, founded by Sberbank, is called School 21. The rules there are the same as in Fremont, except that they don’t provide free housing.

The name “42” came from Douglas Adams’s book “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, and the computer’s answer to the main question of life, the universe and all that after seven and a half million years of calculations gave the computer.

How to proceed?

The school in Fremont is taken up to 45 years old, in the Paris branch “young people” study - they take up to 30 years. To enter, you have to go through testing on the site: several tasks for logic, memory and creativity. They are designed to identify how your brain is in principle suitable for solving programming problems.

The level of skills and knowledge in programming does not matter. As the experience of the school showed, talented guys with a lack of experience in the development rather quickly catch up with experienced programmers.

"Pool"

Those who have been well-tested online are invited to campus for 4 weeks and run to the pool, La Piscine. In the “pool”, candidates almost literally drown in difficult tasks - they are all associated with programming in C. It is not possible to combine the “pool” with work or tourism, it is necessary to devote it at least 10-14 hours a day. In this case, it is advisable to get enough sleep and eat to be in shape.

One of the principles of schooling: sharing knowledge with other students. But this is not about the "pool". Other students cannot help beginners - this is strictly prohibited. Something can only tell those who "splashing" next. You can also search for information on the Internet. Few people cope with all tasks, but this, as it turns out, is not the most important thing at all. The main thing - to show obstinacy, performance and progress. They even take into account how much time you sit at the computer. Not everyone is able to go forward, despite the feils: many, faced with a third, fourth failure, just give up and leave.

Those who successfully cope with the tasks of the pool are invited to the “cadets”, this is the name of the first level of training. It is convenient that it is not necessary to start studying right away, you can go home, settle some business. And students are free to choose a place, and can continue their studies not in California, but in Paris.

How much to learn

The training has 21 levels, all of them have poetic sea names: “cadets”, “midshipmen”, “admirals” (cadet, midshipman, admiral), etc. It can be calculated for a period of three to five years. However, as students say, everyone here, as a rule, is interested in the work and development of their start-ups, and do not stay more than a year. As a result, in Freemont level 21, almost no one reaches.

At the fifth level, students receive the right to participate in real serious projects, for example, in FileMaker. At the seventh level, you can go on an internship in one of the companies in Silicon Valley, after it, students can choose: stay to work (if offered, of course) or return for further studies. There is still an opportunity to assemble a team to develop your startup or join the project of another student. The project participants are given a three-month immunity to life in a hostel, allocate resources and a working area. Especially for those who want to quickly get trained and get to work, there is a program 42 Starfleet Academy. This is an intensive program with more work and tighter deadlines.

The school is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no schedule, students come and study at any time convenient for them. Even at night, if at this time they work best.

How and where do students live?

At the School there is a hostel with 600 beds, also completely free. The place is given to visitors, those who will have time to submit an application. You can rent a house, but it will cost a lot: one bedroom apartments - $ 2,000 minimum. However, many students rent apartments together nearby.

According to Sergey, in order to keep a place in the dormitory for himself, the student must be diligently engaged: “The administration records how much time the student spends at the computer (before starting work, everyone enters his personal login). If someone works less than the others, they will quickly be asked to free the bed in favor of the more diligent. ”

You can’t cook in a dormitory, boil a maximum of a kettle, but in a local cafe, The 42 Cantina cooks healthy and tasty food. Lunch or dinner cost 5-6 dollars. Sergey said: “You can eat normally and go on coding. Sleep, eat, code, repeat. Many, by the way, live on "Soilent". He came up with an IT specialist who was tired of wasting time on cooking to the detriment of coding. Sometimes my friend and I drink it for lunch, great stuff and inexpensive. ”

On the school grounds live their seals, raccoons, opossums and squirrels wander. Feed them is prohibited. But to comply with such a ban is very difficult, and the squirrels no-no, yes, they will get nuts.

In the following parts of the post, I will talk about how students study without teachers and grades, what puzzling tasks students have to perform and how they look for work.