Why 42?

I never managed to sit through traditional classes. In pastry, I started at 14 years old — the hands-on format suited me. But the idea of going back to a traditional school system for a career switch didn't fit me at all.

42 is free, with no teachers, no lectures, no degree required to enroll. You learn through projects, you evaluate others, and others evaluate you. You work at your own pace, however you want, whenever you want. That's what convinced me. I like to understand why before doing — and at 42, that's the principle: everyone helps each other, you cross-reference information, test on your projects, and verify for yourself.

The only condition to get in: pass the piscine, the entrance exam.

A Little Preparation

I didn't arrive completely empty-handed. Before the piscine, I practiced on Zeste de Savoir and OpenClassrooms — the basics of C, Linux commands and Git. Nothing advanced, just enough to not be completely lost on day one.

The piscine starts from scratch, that's true. But having touched a terminal, knowing how to compile a program and understanding what a commit is removes a layer of stress when everything else is already intense.

The Piscine — One Month to Prove Everything

26 days of total immersion in C programming. Over nine hours a day, every day, no break. On top of that, 60 hours of commuting over the month in my case. And for me, it was the only plan. No backup education, no alternative.

The format: exercise modules to work through, each focused on a specific concept. You code, you submit, and it's evaluated two ways — automated testing, and peer evaluation. Other candidates read your code, ask you questions, and verify that you understood what you wrote.

Friday evenings, four-hour exams. Weekends, "rushes" — 48-hour group projects with randomly assigned teams. You learn to collaborate with people you didn't choose, under pressure, with a tight deadline.

The first days, you don't understand anything. That's normal. But despite the pressure, the atmosphere is actually good. Everyone struggles, everyone asks questions, and there's real mutual help. I enjoyed learning and discovering, even when it was hard. There's something motivating about unlocking a concept at 11pm after being stuck on it all day.

What 42 looks for: not the best coders, but people who progress, who don't give up, who help others even when they're struggling themselves.

Progression between exams matters more than the absolute score.

After the final exam — eight hours straight — then a month of waiting, the result came in. I was in.

The Core Curriculum — Project by Project

The core curriculum is the real program. The fastest students complete it in five or six months. On average, it takes eighteen months. The limit is set at three years. No classes, no imposed schedule — projects to validate in order, each one a step above the last.

It starts with the foundations: libft — recoding the standard C library functions that you'll reuse in every future project. Then ft_printf, get_next_line: functions you take for granted when coding, but that you rebuild from scratch to understand what's under the hood.

Then it ramps up: Born2beRoot for system administration on Debian, push_swap for sorting algorithms, pipex for process management, so_long for a first graphical approach in 2D.

Then minishell — recreating a command interpreter. Pipes, redirections, environment variables. One of the toughest projects, done in pairs. That's when I injured my knee. Torn anterior cruciate ligament. We pushed hard with my partner to finish before the surgery. Project validated, then two months at home doing nothing.

When I came back, I was behind. But 42 allows you to resume at your own pace. I caught up gradually.

After minishell, the projects continue: cub3D for ray-casting, the C++ piscine to discover a new language, Inception for Docker and infrastructure, IRC to code a server in C++. The curriculum ends with Transcendence — a complete multiplayer web application that validates the core curriculum and opens the door to internships and specialization.

What 42 Taught Me

Beyond code, 42 teaches you how to learn. No answer key to copy, no official solution. You have to search, test, fail, ask, and start again. It's frustrating at first, but that's exactly how the job works afterwards.

Peer evaluation forces you to truly understand what you write — not just make it run.

If you can't explain your code to someone else, you haven't understood it.

And above all: you learn to help each other. At 42, helping someone isn't cheating. It's how things work.

For Those Considering 42

A few things I wish I had known before:

  • A little preparation helps. The piscine starts from scratch, but arriving with the basics of Git, Linux and C removes unnecessary stress. OpenClassrooms, Zeste de Savoir, or any free resource is enough.
  • The pace is a marathon. Those who pull all-nighters the first week often crash by the third. Regular days are better than fifteen-hour sessions followed by empty days.
  • Talking to others is mandatory. Not to get the answers — to understand.
  • Progression matters more than level. Someone who goes from 0 to 40% interests 42 more than someone stuck at 60%.
  • Unexpected things happen. I had to stop for two months mid-curriculum. The format at 42 allows you to resume. It's tough psychologically, but it's possible.