SYLLABUS

Software
t
Engineering
Immersive

Last Updated 06/06/2019

Table of Contents

3 Overview
4 The Power of Learning Ruby and JavaScript
5 Curriculum Overview
6 Full Stack Web Development
7 The Full Stack Journey: An In-Depth Look
9 What Makes a Software Engineer?
10 How We Learn
11 Contact Us

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Overview

FLATIRON SCHOOL’S SOFTWARE ENGINEERING IMMERSIVE

Being a software engineer requires more than knowing how to code or build a web app. Over 15 challenging
weeks on Flatiron School’s campus, students learn to think, and build, like software engineers. In each
three-week curriculum module, students develop key skills through interactive labs, lectures, and close
collaboration, showcasing progress through Portfolio Projects. While the bulk of the material covered occurs
within the Ruby and JavaScript ecosystems, we carefully design our curriculum to prepare students to launch
software engineering careers, independent of any specific language or technology.

By undertaking this rigorous but rewarding program, students:

● develop a foundation in programming fundamentals
● conquer the concepts of Object-Oriented Programming
● work with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)
● become proficient in database modeling and ORM (Object Relational Mapping)
● understand MVC (Model-View-Controller), a pattern used by frameworks like Rails to build large-scale
applications
● execute application deployment

By the completion of the program, students have done much more than simply build technical skills: they have
maintained technical blogs to show they can credibly talk tech; they have become a part of the tech community;
and they have established a portfolio of personally-relevant, functional web applications to show employers as
they enter the job-search phase with the support of our Career Services team.

Proven Results
Flatiron School has helped over 1,500 students get jobs as software engineers;
we back up our 97% employment rate with an independently-verified Job
Outcomes Report.

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The power of learning
Ruby and JavaScript
WHY DO WE TEACH THESE LANGUAGES TO ASPIRING DEVELOPERS?

Readability Open Source

Programming is about abstractions and Both Ruby and JavaScript have nurtured vibrant,
expressions: the mechanics of code are universal supportive open source communities—there are
and exist in all modern languages. Much of the over 900 Ruby groups on Meetup.com, totaling over
initial difficulty in learning programming stems from 500,000 members worldwide; JavaScript has over
the learning curve necessary to gain comfort with a 4,000 groups on Meetup.com with over two million
language’s syntax. members. Ruby also has a huge and useful
ecosystem of over 60,000 libraries. This will allow
Ruby was specifically designed for readability. Ruby you to leverage free, publicly-available tools to build
reads remarkably like English, allowing new applications with complexity and real-world use
programmers to focus immediately on the beyond what you could approach otherwise.
fundamental concepts and logic, rather than
confusing syntax. As such, even beginners can
start building right away. We find Ruby to be
extremely effective at helping students learn how to Career Flexibility
think like programmers: break problems down,
express themselves technically, abstract ideas, and Learning to code and evolving as a programmer is a
work together with other programmers. lifelong endeavor. No matter what language one
learns first, all programmers have to learn other
JavaScript is the language of web browsers: languages throughout their career in order to keep
everyone browsing the web can have their pace with changing technology. Starting off your
experience changed and defined by a developer coding education by learning both Ruby and
who knows JavaScript. Recently, JavaScript has JavaScript not only makes you a more
begun to have an even larger presence outside of versatile—and employable—programmer
the browser thanks to NodeJS. It’s fast becoming immediately; it prepares you for the essential task
“everyone’s second language”. of continuing to learn throughout your career as
new languages, frameworks, and technologies
Both Ruby and JavaScript have the advantage of appear.
being interpreted languages versus compiled like
C++ and Java. The added overhead of compilation
makes seeing fast feedback harder. Ruby and
JavaScript let you see your results fast—making it
simple to start building and learning.
Curriculum Overview
GETTING STARTED
Before starting our Software Engineering Immersive, students must complete an initial technical assessment
focused on their choice of JavaScript or Ruby—this will require some prior programming experience. In order to
prepare, we recommend beginning to work on our free Introduction to JavaScript, Introduction to Ruby, or
Coding Bootcamp Prep courses, which can be accessed at FlatironSchool.com. If accepted into the program,
students must complete a 100-hour Introductory Programming course before the first day of class. This
pre-work ensures students come in prepared and are able to keep pace with the class.

MASTERY-BASED PROGRESS
Our program is broken into five three-week curriculum modules. Each module concludes with a comprehensive
project meant to bring together students’ competencies and demonstrate them in their portfolios. Students
work in teams and directly with instructors to ensure they’ve mastered key concepts before progressing. If
students need additional support, they receive additional direct mentorship, and, if necessary, they’ll have the
opportunity to repeat a module at no extra cost.

LIFELONG LEARNING
Graduates join an active network of successful software engineers. For Flatiron alumni, engaging with our
community doesn’t stop at graduation—and nor do opportunities to learn. Students enjoy lifetime access to our
Career Services team and extensive employer network as they approach future career changes.

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CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

Full Stack Web Development

We designed our Full Stack Web Development Curriculum to give students
the necessary expertise in both back-end and front-end programming
technologies to become full-stack developers. It's a more extensive course
of study than the average school offers – but then we expect more of our
students.

Module 1: Programming Fundamentals (weeks 1-3)

After diving into the fundamentals of programming, students get comfortable with object-oriented programming and storing
databases using SQL and Object Relational Mappers.

Module 2: Web Frameworks (weeks 4-6)

Students learn two key Ruby frameworks, first mastering the fundamentals of web programming with Sinatra before
experiencing how quickly they can build incredible apps with Rails.

Module 3: JavaScript (weeks 7-9)

Students gain a thorough understanding of Javascript – crucial for front-end developers.

Module 4: Front-end Frameworks (weeks 10-12)

Students learn to build productive, scalable front-ends with React and Redux, creating slick, functional, reactive code with
Redux as a state manager and Rails as the back-end JSON API.

Solo Projects (weeks 13-15)

After completing four curriculum modules focused on group projects, students work with instructors to come up with solo
project concepts and spend three full weeks building truly sophisticated applications on their own. Students receive plenty
of instructor feedback along the way while diving deep into various advanced technologies needed to bring their concepts
to life.

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CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

The Full Stack Journey: An In-Depth Look

Flatiron School’s Full Stack Web Development Curriculum, covered in the first
12 weeks of the program, is at the heart of our Software Engineering Immersive.
Below, we take a closer look at the exact languages students learn in modules 1-4.

Ruby Git
Students learn fundamental concepts in programming
Students begin exploring version control using git
including repls, methods, loops, variables, variable
commands including with cloning, branching, merging,
scope, conditionals, blocks and iterators, case
rolling back commits, forking, and submitting pull
statements, arrays, scope, hashes, regular expressions,
requests.
iterators, enumerables, data structures, nesting, and
more. Topics build in complexity and provide the
foundation for the rest of the course.
Object Relational Mapping & SQL
ORM (Object Relational Mapping) allows programmers
We help students embrace error messages as clues
to query and manipulate data from a database using an
and gain a fundamental appreciation for failure as the
object-oriented paradigm. Students learn to write and
only way to learn and progress. Students gain
manipulate data using the Ruby language.
experience in debugging with various gems and tools
designed to track down issues in code.
They gain an appreciation for the structure of a
database, how to map out tables, and the difference
between the various table relationships. Students learn
HTML & CSS how to wireframe database structures, as well as how
Students master the basic building blocks of how the to link their applications to a database. They also cover
web is rendered and become fluent in the language that SQL, domain modeling, relational database theory,
makes the web beautiful. They additionally learn how to schema architecture, and the Object Relational Model,
conceive of and build UIs for web apps by writing including the ActiveRecord pattern.
well-structured HTML and CSS , as well as using SASS
to create efficient and organized front-ends.

Rack
This unit is designed to give students an understanding
of HTTP and how the Internet works, as implemented
Object Orientation through the Ruby web interface of Rack. Students build
Students gain experience with Object-Oriented their own HTTP servers and learn how the request /
Programming and understand how it allows response model of the web works. Their servers listen
programmers to bundle code and create reusable to HTTP requests and respond with well-formed HTML
objects and methods, which allows for increasing responses. Students learn to understand the web with
complexity in software. the few abstractions provided by the tool set.

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THE FULL STACK JOURNEY: AN IN-DEPTH LOOK | Continued

Sinatra React
Sinatra is a Domain Specific Language (DSL) written in Using plain JavaScript with large web applications
Ruby for building web applications on top of Rack. This quickly becomes unruly. Initially created by Facebook,
framework provides students with exposure to design React is the premier JavaScript framework for building
patterns in web applications. The topics covered in this fast web user interfaces. This unit starts with the
unit include architectural patterns such as REST fundamentals of components. Students learn how to
(Representational State Transfer), MVC build the basics of React before they are taught how to
(Model-View-Controller), HTML Forms, ERB (Embedded use React itself. After building a minimal React,
Ruby) and template rendering, and application students conquer the complexities of React and then
environments. quickly move into learning about state management
with Redux. After completing this unit, your applications
will effortlessly consume APIs, render data quickly, and
Rails scale as application complexity increases.
With a foundation in the Ruby language as well as the
architecture of the World Wide Web, students utilize
Rails to build complex, functional web applications
from the ground up. They learn the file structure of
Rails, how to set up their own databases, how to draw
routes and create Rails forms, gain an understanding of
the asset pipeline, and bring it together by integrating
front-end design skills.

Students also have the ability to take on more

advanced concepts such as authorization, validation,
and callbacks. Once they grasp the basic functionality
of Rails, they spend time building out their own Rails
applications, moving through the entire process from
ideation to execution.

JavaScript
JavaScript powers the user experience of the web.
Students learn the basics of JavaScript syntax, its
functional architecture, and different approaches to the
object model. Students then learn the Document Object
Model (DOM) JavaScript API provided by the browser
to dynamically interact with HTML. Students use native
“vanilla” JavaScript (versus a library). Students then
explore the popular JavaScript frameworks React and
Redux.

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What makes
a Software
Engineer?
While the linear progression of our curriculum is
focused on building technical skills, our aim is to
teach students how to become software
engineers—which is distinct from simply knowing
how to code. Students engage in a number of
activities that hone their communication and
collaboration skills and immerse themselves in the
technical community, helping build the foundation
needed to grow as software engineers in the
future.

PORTFOLIO PROJECTS
At the conclusion of each program module, students build advanced Portfolio Projects to demonstrate both
the technical skills they’ve gained in the module and their creativity. Previous projects have won prestigious
tech awards, become MVPs for startups, and been presented at the White House. Portfolio Projects represent
an opportunity for students to explore specific technologies that interest them while building a portfolio of fully
functional web applications to impress employers.

ACTIVE GITHUB PROFILE

GitHub is the modern software engineer’s resume. Students push every line of code they write at Flatiron
School to GitHub through our proprietary platform, Learn.co, giving them an extensive profile to show
employers and fellow engineers.

ROBUST BLOG
All Flatiron students maintain technical blogs to show they can not only write code, but also communicate how
that code works – an essential skill for software engineers.

TECHNICAL PRESENTATION
Students build their credibility as engineers and immerse themselves in the technical community by attending
– and challenging themselves to present – at technical Meetups and conferences.

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HOW
WE
LEARN.
Open curriculum
All of Flatiron School’s courses are
powered by Learn.co, the world’s most Our industry-tested curriculum has given over
sophisticated platform for teaching and 1,500 Flatiron graduates the skills to become
learning code. software engineers and thrive in their careers. And
because our curriculum is open-source, it stays
more current than any other. Students are
encouraged to suggest changes directly from our
online platform, and receive public credit for doing
so. We continually improve our coursework in
reaction to feedback and real-world changes, and
our edits are supplemented by hundreds of student

Test-driven learning. submissions each month.

Flatiron School has pioneered a new way to learn

that mirrors the ubiquitous practice of Test-Driven
Development (TDD), where code requirements are Use real tools.
defined before a program is written. Flatiron
students complete lessons by writing code that You can’t learn real skills without real tools. We
meets requirements established by our curriculum. don’t believe in contrived environments or multiple
Tests are automated and descriptive, so students choice quizzes. Learn.co users set up a real
can learn by solving real problems and development environment with our fast setup
understanding not only when code is broken, process and use a professional command line and
but why. Git-based workflow. You’ll truly learn by doing.

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Contact Us
For more information, please check out our website at
www.flatironschool.com or contact us at
admissions@flatironschool.com

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