ironcircle.com on 2026-10-08 carries a notice that HackerUSA Inc., the former operator of IronCircle (previously ThriveDX), executed a General Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors effective June 2, 2026, with assets assigned to HUI Liquidation Services LLC; QuickStart Learning says it is unaffiliated and will review stranded students for placement into its own courses. source
ThriveDX ran the cybersecurity bootcamps sold under dozens of university names, then collapsed under debt, rebranded as IronCircle, was sold, and in June 2026 its US operator assigned its assets to a liquidator. If you were enrolled, claims go to HUI Liquidation Services LLC and QuickStart Learning is offering case-by-case transfers. If a university bootcamp page still carries this branding, treat it as dead.
The facts
| Category | Cybersecurity |
|---|---|
| Website | ironcircle.com |
| Based | Columbia, MD (moved from Coral Gables, FL in 2025) · founded 2018 |
| Format | online-live |
| Programs | University-branded cybersecurity bootcamps (NC State, Purdue, UNLV, University of Miami, UCF, University of Richmond among announced partners), Enterprise security awareness training (Lucy, Cybint) |
| Length | Program pages are offline; length not verifiable. unknown |
| Tuition | Program pages are offline; tuition not verifiable. The News & Observer reported on March 2, 2026 that NC State bootcamp students were left in debt. unknown |
| Admission | open Not applicable; no longer enrolling. |
Outcomes
This program does not publish job-placement or salary outcomes. Treat any number you hear from admissions as unverifiable.
Interview-prep depth
The syllabus is not public in enough detail to score. No longer operating.
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
Timeline: HackerU founded in Israel in the 1990s; HackerUSA opened in Coral Gables, FL in 2018 with University of Miami and UCF bootcamps; rebranded ThriveDX in 2021 and bought Cybint, then Kontra and Lucy Security. HackerUSA took a $75 million loan in June 2022; by March 2025 Calcalist/Ynet reported $146 million of debt, a court-appointed receiver in Tel Aviv, and a settlement handing 50% of HackerUSA's shares and the cyber IP to funds affiliated with Francisco Partners. The company rebranded as IronCircle and moved its headquarters to Columbia, MD in August 2025, announced new university partners (Richmond, October 2025), was acquired by QuickStart Learning on February 19, 2026 (press release), and on June 2, 2026 HackerUSA Inc. assigned its assets for the benefit of creditors. The Hechinger Report (March 2023) covered how universities lend their names to these for-profit programs; the News & Observer (March 2, 2026) reported NC State students in debt and without prospects. Wikipedia's ThriveDX article does not mention any of the 2025-2026 events.
Sources (7)
- ironcircle.com/
- ynetnews.com/business/article/sj2gg0dpke
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThriveDX
- prnewswire.com/news-releases/university-of-richmond-partners-with-ironcircle-to-forge-the-future-of-cybersecurity-talent-302591010.html
- streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/QuickStart+Acquires+IronCircle+to+Expand+AI-Powered+Cybersecurity+Training+and+Workforce+Readiness/26027069.html
- news.google.com/rss/search?q=ThriveDX+lawsuit&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
- purdue.edu/online/purdue-partners-with-thrivedx-to-help-close-a-talent-gap-in-cybersecurity/
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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