Two weeks ago, Flatiron School launched the #BacktoCode Challenge – a 21-day learning challenge, featuring weekly code challenges, prizes, and lectures, and a motivated community of aspiring programmers pushing each other toward their coding goals. We’ve been blown away by how challengers have embodied the spirit of #BacktoCode so far.Below you’ll find our second weekly check-in on how the challenge has been going and what’s coming for the next week.
#BacktoCode Stats
3,943 challengers so far
17,543+ total lessons completed in our free online courses
The most active student completed 223 lessons so far
“#BacktoCode” used over 662 times on Twitter
768 members of the Facebook group
Last Week: Get Unstuck
Last week, we challenged #BacktoCode students to a) get stuck – that means taking on enough lessons to get to a point where they hit a problem that totally confused them – and b) get unstuck – not giving up; pushing ahead and reaching an “aha moment.” It's been heartwarming to see members of the community helping each other overcome hurdles via the Facebook group and our Ask A Question feature – and sharing their successes with the #BacktoCode hashtag!
Weekly Prizes:
For our second Weekend Warrior Challenge, we asked challengers to solve their hardest programming problem yet through Rubber Duck Debugging – a method of debugging in which you explain your code to a rubber duck, or other inanimate object – and to share their experience in our Facebook group. Jessica B. shared how she got unstuck talking to her 3D-printed skull pencil holder and won a 1:1 chat with Flatiron School Dean Avi Flombaum to talk about her coding and career goals.
Emma K., Katherine G., and Kathia C. and each won a Flatiron School swag pack for participating in the Rubber Duck Challenge.
Community: The Challenge Facebook group was packed with people sharing how they got unstuck and reached their aha moments. See a few of the diverse “rubber ducks” our challengers utilized below!
Events:
Avi shared his personal tips for getting unstuck in a live lecture
Later in the week, he continued livestreaming his own journey learning how to code in Elixir
This Week: Get Social
With just a few days left of the #BacktoCode challenge, it’s time for our challengers to sprint to the finish line and hit their challenge goals. Our theme this week is to Get Social – to leverage the power of learning with a community and to learn about the industry practice of pair programming.
Challenge: We’re asking Challengers to share what they’re working on and then connect with other challengers to either work through a lab together or workshop a recent coding challenge – creating or attending a Study Group on Learn.co is recommended!
Prize: One challenger who creates or attends a study group or participates in a pair programming session will win a lifetime subscription to our Community-Powered Bootcamp program(usually $149/month).
Events:
Join Avi for a live lecture this Wednesday at 12:00 PM EST to learn how to effectively code with others and thrive on a team.
On Friday at 4pm EST, Avi will do one last livestream of his own progress learning Elixir.
Near NYC? RSVP for our on campus beginner study session on Wednesday, September 20th at 6:30 PM. Check our blog later this week for more resources on collaborative coding ahead of our final week of the #BacktoCode Challenge!
