Frequently Asked Questions

How does this compare to PTC?

• This is more intense that Personal Tech Coaching, and in the future, will likely replace that program.

Do we interview immediately after completing the cram course?

• The goal is for this program to lead you directly into an interview. Thus, you will be practicing things that are specifically geared towards helping you in your interview.

How big are Hack Reactor classes?

• Class range in size depending upon the location one will be attending. Regardless of class size, the pair programming format, and our meticulous attention to aiding students, means that help and assistance are never far away. The group project phase also eliminates most of the “lost in a sea of faces” feeling, as you will be working with 3-4 other students during this time.

What sort of feedback loop can we expect?

• You will be assigned problems to complete, after which, staff will assess your progress quite regularly and inform you if you are falling behind or eventually, ready to re-interview with one of our locations.

How do we choose between MKS vs HR (locations)?

• While there are differences between the campuses, most of these are superficial and not closely related to instruction or outcomes. Discussing this with an Admissions Representative can help you understand how to best choose a campus.

Are there more resources set to be given out after week 1?

• The main goal of this program is not to accumulate resources, but rather to effectively use resources at any point in your career. More resources for study will always been given to students who ask, but you should think of yourself as moving towards a place where you can find your own resources when needed.

What kind of different programming languages to we have to learn/be familiar with?

• The main programming language used in both this prep program, and at Hack Reactor is Javascript. With that in mind, we will focus almost exclusively on it. Using terminal commands, especially for git and Github, as well as HTML and CSS are useful in the immersive program, but are not necessarily vital to the interview itself. An aspiring Hack Reactor engineer's time is best served by focusing on Javascript.

Do we get to sleep?

• No, sleep is for the weak. We recommend something called rapid-iteration random eye movement, or RI-REM sleep. A quality engineer can get by with about 15 minutes of this, twice a day. You may develop a faint ringing in your ears, but have no fear, as this is quite common. Those who complain that engineers never listen are unknowingly alluding to this rather common effect.

Is there any focus on TDD?

• The immersive course itself does feature a large amount of focus on TDD, but not in the purest sense. TDD in actuality, involves writing tests before one actually begins to program. This is not practical for the scope of these intense practice sessions, however, assertion tests are built into the editor/interpreter upon which you will be programming your answers. This will allow you, upon incorrect submission, to analyze what the test is asking for specifically, and additionally, to compare what your incorrect code is delivering. This is an invaluable skill that is very useful to develop.

Is this prep course designed to see how we would do in the actual program?

• In some sense, yes. During this course you will be asked to do things, with which you may not be entirely comfortable; as well as push yourself intellectually. This is very similar to the tenor of the immersive program. It should be noted that the overall goal of this specific cram course is intended to be preparation for the technical admissions interview.

Is there anything, other than higher order functions, which will be important to the interview, like recursion?

• Recursion is an important CS concept, and should be approached rigorously. That said, the interview does not focus on this idea, and successful applicants are not necessarily well versed in recursion before passing the interview.

We will be covering on algorithms or CS stuff?

• There is not a primary focus on any specific algorithms in this course. We take the approach of how to think about algorithms in order to get your mind going in the right direction. Practice of this sort will make subsequent, more advanced algorithms easier to digest and utilize.

What is your advice on how to get the most out of this week?

• Approach it fearlessly and aggressively.