Launch School

status: enrolling · checked 2026-10-08

Site live on 2026-10-08: Core Curriculum sold as a $199/month subscription that starts any time; Capstone page states 'Two Capstone cohorts a year: Spring and Fall' (early March and late August starts) and publishes 2025 outcomes. An r/codingbootcamp thread (Aug 12, 2025) reports Capstone cut from three cohorts a year to two. source

Launch School is a slow path: a $199/month self-paced Core that takes most people a year or more, followed by an optional, selective 16-week Capstone paid as 18% of first-year salary or $18,000, whichever is higher. It suits people who can study for a long time before earning and who want the school to publish real numbers, which it does. Before committing to Capstone, read the salaries page and note that only 37 of 60 entrants accepted offers in 2025.

The facts

Category	Software engineering
Website	launchschool.com
Based	Remote
Format	online-self-paced, online-live
Programs	Core Curriculum (self-paced subscription), Capstone (16-week full-time, admissions-based)
Length	16 weeks (Capstone: 16 weeks of coursework at 45-60 hours/week plus a 1-3+ month career search; Core: self-paced, 1,200-1,800 hours (8-16+ months) per Course Report.) verified
Tuition	$199 to $18,000 Core: $199/month, month to month, no refunds (FAQ). Capstone: 'a small down payment' then '18% of your first year salary, or $18k (USD) – whichever is higher', paid after accepting a job; interest-free payment plans up to 24 months. $18,000 is the Capstone minimum, not a cap. verified
Financing	upfront, isa, deferred, installments Core is pay-as-you-go. Capstone fee is an income-share-style deferred payment: 18% of first-year base salary or $18,000, whichever is higher, due after a job is accepted, with interest-free plans up to 24 months. Course Report describes repayment starting once a job pays at least $60,000. FAQ: 'For people who cannot or do not participate in Capstone, we do not have any job placement services.'
Admission	competitive Core: open after free prep courses. Capstone: must complete Core, 'perform well on a majority of the assessments with demonstrated excellence', all assessments within the last 18 months, professional conduct, 45-60 hours/week availability on a US Pacific schedule; US residency preferred.
Stack	Ruby, JavaScript, Python, SQL, HTTP/networking, system design (Capstone), cloud infrastructure (Capstone), AI engineering (Capstone)
Hiring partners (claimed)	Intel, HP, LinkedIn, PayPal, AWS, DigitalOcean, Stripe claimed

Outcomes

self-reported

Placement: 61.7% of 2025 Capstone entrants accepted offers (37 of 60; 54 graduated). Median salary: $115,000 US median base, 2025. Reporting period: 2025 (through the school's salaries page); 2024: 56 of 76 entrants accepted offers (73.7%), median $110,000, 16 weeks to offer; 2025: 10 weeks to offer. Full-time SWE roles only, base salary only.. verified source

Interview-prep depth

our read of the published curriculum

3 / 5

data structures and algorithms1/3

system design2/3

mock interviews1/3

behavioral1/3

Capstone page lists system design, cloud infrastructure, distributed systems and a career-search phase; no public module list for algorithm drills or mock interviews, so those scores rest on the career-search description only.

Job support: structured. Capstone includes a 1-3+ month structured career search after 16 weeks of coursework; Capstone topics listed are system design, cloud infrastructure, AI engineering, distributed systems and a capstone project. Detailed interview-prep syllabus is not public. Core has no job support.

Whatever the program covers, the interview itself is free to prepare for here: coding patterns, system design, practice prompts, company guides.

What a careful reader should know

on the record

Formerly Tealeaf Academy; founding year and company address are not stated on any page fetched (about and team pages return 404). Course Report lists it as fully remote. Outcomes are self-published with a clear methodology (full-time SWE roles only, base salary only) but no third-party audit and no CIRR membership. The Capstone placement ratio has fallen each year on the school's own page: 92.3% (2022), 74.6% (2023), 73.7% (2024), 61.7% (2025). Reddit (r/codingbootcamp and r/launchschool, via Brave search summary 2026-10-08): generally respectful of the fundamentals-first model and of the founder's public outcome posts; a May 2024 thread questions Capstone projects being presented as work experience; an Aug 2025 thread reports the cohort cutback.

Third-party signals: Course Report 4.85 (100 reviews). SwitchUp 5. Reddit sentiment mixed. Graduation-time star ratings are collected by the schools; weigh them accordingly.

Sources (16)

This directory takes no lead fees or placement payments from any program. Where a program runs an affiliate scheme we say so on its page and mark the link. Facts carry a badge: verified means we read it on a primary source on the date shown, reported means a third party said it, unknown means nobody we trust has published it.

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