OVERVIEW

Next generation of programmers from a new disruptive education system.

THE CURRICULUM - PART ONE

Purpose  In order to have uniform training across all the 42 campuses, this first part of the curriculum is unique for everyone, providing a minimal set of ICT skills (essential technical skills, and soft skills) suitable for early professional experiences, like internships. This also opens doors to possible campus exchanges and cross-campus projects.

Content  In this first part of the curriculum, students will learn the C programming language, and develop simple software using classic algorithms (recursivity, linked lists, sorting, memory management, and string manipulations). The POSIX API allows filesystem access, UNIX process management, network coding, and threads. A simple network and system administration approach is included (IP, subnet, DNS, Docker). Object-oriented programming is introduced, supplemented by a client-server project. This part of the curriculum ends with a complete web project, using a random framework among the classics (Rails, Symfony, Django, etc.).

Blackhole  During this part, students can progress at their own pace. This is designed to allow students with a part-time job to earn money and live, also to allow slower students to fully develop their skills. However, they still have a global deadline called Blackhole. If they aren’t fully committed to their curriculum, they should keep this deadline far away. If students do not put in enough effort into 42, or are lazy and immature, they will get caught at some point by this black hole. It just means they are tourists for us and need to leave their place for someone else. This ends their curriculum with no return possible. Students have a maximum of 1 year and a half to complete this first part.

Freeze  We know that sometimes, things happen. Each student is responsible to deal with their own matters. Students have a unique tool available to freeze their curriculum up to 3 times, for a maximum total of 6 months.

THE CURRICULUM - PART TWO

Classic Topics   this second part of the curriculum is the place for more classical ICT topics. Artificial Intelligence, Security, Graphics, Functional programming, Networking & Cloud Computing, System Administration, Advanced Unix/Posix Programming, Advanced Web Programming, Mobile Application Development, Data Management, Kernel Programming, and Game Development. Each student can choose freely. He can choose to be specialized in 2 or 3 topics or have a more general ICT knowledge. Also included are internships, side projects with companies, entrepreneur programs, partnerships with students in other schools (business schools, art and design schools, and many more). This second part of the curriculum emphasizes on several important aspects: group projects, adaptation to life in companies, technology, and brand neutrality, in order for our students to not be obsolete in the next 5 to 10 years.

 

The launcher   We know from experience that students will slowly slip away into the labor market, especially with internships, some may get part-time jobs and finally stop projects with 42 as their career begins. In such a context, we allow our students to decide when to end their curriculum and become alumni. Similarly, in the case that students do not progress enough in 42, they will automatically become alumni after a lack of activity.

 

Alumni   The alumni network is a set of events, services, connections, that support all 42 alumni in their market life. Each alumnus is defined using an output level and a unique skills profile. All subjects of the curriculum are available to alumni but do not allow progression anymore. Of course, regular polls allow us to monitor the output of the curriculum through companies and labor satisfaction, so we know whether it is necessary to adjust parts of our pedagogy.