In 2014, Quincy Larson a 31-year-old school director with no programming background decided to learn to code. He spent over a year navigating a maze of online courses, tutorials, and bootcamps. The experience was so fragmented and frustrating that he built something better.
That something became freeCodeCamp.
Today, freeCodeCamp is one of the largest learning platforms in the world. Over 40,000 graduates have landed developer jobs at companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Spotify. The platform has delivered more than 2 billion minutes of instruction. And it’s completely free.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
- Free, open-source curriculum covering HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, data science, machine learning, and more
- Thousands of hours of interactive coding challenges
- Verified certifications recognized by employers worldwide
- A massive community — one of the largest developer communities on Earth
No admissions committee. No tuition. No debt.
What freeCodeCamp Proved
freeCodeCamp didn’t just build a learning platform. It proved a thesis: you don’t need a $200,000 degree to become a software engineer.
The traditional path, four years, a mountain of debt, and a piece of paper is just one path. And for a growing number of people, it’s not even the best one.
freeCodeCamp showed that when you remove financial barriers and let people learn by building real projects, something remarkable happens. People learn faster, retain more, and actually ship things.
But There’s a Gap
freeCodeCamp is incredible for learning technical skills. But coding is only half the equation.
Knowing how to build a product doesn’t mean you know how to:
- Find customers who will pay for it
- Price it correctly
- Market it effectively
- Scale revenue beyond your first few users
The missing piece isn’t more tutorials. It’s the business side. Learning to code is table stakes. Learning to turn code into revenue is what separates a developer from a founder.
Where CSE Comes In
At CSE, we take what freeCodeCamp started and push it further. We don’t just teach you to code — we teach you to build, ship, sell, and scale a real product.
Our curriculum starts where most free platforms end: at the point where you have technical skills and need to turn them into something people will pay for.
freeCodeCamp proved education can be open. We’re proving it can also be outcome-driven.
Traditional education is dead. The proof is already out there — millions of self-taught developers are building the future. The question isn’t whether you can learn without a traditional degree. It’s whether you can build something people want.
That’s the only test that matters.