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Comment by ozanonay | Hacker News Reader

Hi! I'm one of the instructors at Bradfield: https://bradfieldcs.com . We teach computer science to strong programmers, typically those who were self taught, attended bootcamps or weren't quite satisfied with their conventional CS experience.

We teach in small classes, strictly in person in SF. I know this sucks for folk (like OP) who are outside SF, but honestly you can't teach this stuff to a high enough standard remotely. We do get plenty of interstate and international students who visit for a course or two.

We also maintain a self-teaching guide https://teachyourselfcs.com for those who don't need the full classroom experience.

Happy to answer any questions in person: oz@bradfieldcs.com

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I did https://bradfieldcs.com after working as a IC for awhile and found it hugely valuable. I didn't have a CS undergrad and worked in Node, so skipped the majority the deeper fundamental studies around databases, networking, and computer architecture since I was abstracted from them in day-to-day work (or at least thought I was...:)).

I took a 10wk leave from work to go full-time through Bradfield and would recommend it to anyone that's spent time working as an engineer and is interested in leveling up generally or refining a specific skill set.

The stuff I learned there has ended up showing up almost daily for me at work and I've since been promoted to technical lead.

>"I took a 10wk leave from work to go full-time through Bradfield and would recommend it to anyone that's spent time working as an engineer and is interested in leveling up generally or refining a specific skill set."

Can you elaborate on the "full-time" part. In looking at the site it looks like the independent course modules are each 4 weeks with two 3 hour sessions a week for $1800 each. Were you somehow able to take multiple modules per week for each of the 10 weeks? If so how many did you do? Thanks,

Yeah i did it last November when the courses were structured to be done as a full-time program. They've restructured to make it compatible with having a full-time job simultaneously. I think they've still had students take all courses concurrently though, even with the new model. Worth sending @oz a note!

Was there any type of discount for taking multiple classes? I looked on the site and didn't see any mention but at $1800 each module it sounds very pricey to take them simultaneously.

The price structure was slightly different then since he was all bought as one package, but still about the same cost overall. It is pricey, but a great ROI from both a base salary standpoint (you can pretty reasonably ask for a raise once you're back) and a deep gratification of being more skilled in your craft than you were 3months ago :)

Current student here - I went through a bootcamp and have been autodidacting ever since. I've gone through coursera, udacity, edx, MIT OCW, Stanford Lagunitas, OSS's computer science program, and finally Bradfield. Bradfield was by far and large the best experience I've had learning advanced material. Oz (commenting above), is the most talented and natural pedagogue I've met.

The best thing about Bradfield though is that it has the feel of a lifestyle business run by people whose call to arms in life is learning and teaching computer science. This isn't an interview skills factory - the focus is on learning and loving an important and fascinating branch of science, mathematics, and thinking. Personally, I think that difference ultimately makes you a better interviewer and engineer in practice, but again, that's not the point.

Still one of the best decisions I've made yet.

Current student who would also highly recommend Bradfield.

If you're a mostly self-taught engineer lacking foundational CS knowledge (I personally have a minor in CS; most of my colleagues at Bradfield went through a bootcamp) you will very quickly discover and confront the gaps in your knowledge.

Regardless of your title at work (maybe level II engineer, tech lead, whatever), you will be made to feel like a beginner in short order when they ask you to write programs that manipulate bytes, that deal with concurrency, or do anything more nitty gritty than manipulate JSON in your high-level language of choice...while disorienting initially, I personally have found Bradfield to be one of the most illuminating and rewarding educational experiences of my career.

I highly recommend teachyourselfcs.com. It is by far the best self-taught cs resource online!

It's probably one of the only useful lists for CS autodidacts looking for resources to build a foundation of (practical programming-oriented) CS knowledge comparable to any decent CS undergrad program.

The suggestions are of high quality and can be worked through by spending a reasonable amount of one's free time.

Know of any good alternatives for people outside of CA?

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