42 had no designated classrooms in its campus. Instead, it had a large computer lab with thousands of iMacs lined up, and was open 24 hours, seven days a week. Admissions to the institute were based on merit and 42 welcomed students between the ages of 18 and 30 years. Prospective students needed to complete an online test. Once a person cleared the test, he / she had to face a four-week challenge on coding and logical reasoning, or what was popularly known as the ‘Piscine’. The ‘Piscine’ phase referred to the ability of the student to “sink or swim” in the murky waters of coding. At the Piscine, students learnt C programming from scratch. If these students did well..

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CHALLENGES

While Xavier was very popular in France, he did not have sufficient clout in Silicon Valley. In an interview with Bloomberg, he said that a major challenge in the US had been the dissemination of free teaching. He opined, “When it’s free they think there’s something behind it; there’s a trick.” This statement reflected the admissions data. In 2013, when 42 opened in France, 70,000 students between the ages of 18 and 30 had applied; in 2016 in the US, the students were only a few thousand. ..

THE ROAD AHEAD

Some analysts felt that 42 had revolutionized the way learning was viewed by the ‘Millennials’. Some students who had limited options with their very restricted resources, felt 42 was their Mecca: a springboard to their dream programming / coding Career. As co-founder Kwame said, “The ability to solve problems that will have a practical impact on how students navigate the world after graduating. Studying alone in the library won’t help anyone, but finding solutions in groups will.” .

EXHIBITS

Exhibit I: New Computing Jobs vs. Computer Science Graduates
Exhibit II: Institutes where Coding is taught without any Tuition Fee
Exhibit III: Computer and Information Technology Occupations by Selected Characteristics, 2014 Annual Averages