You’d think that the natural outdoor wonders of Utah wouldn’t lend themselves to being a destination for coding professionals. You’d be wrong. Utah - and Salt Lake City in particular - is slowly becoming a buzzy landing spot for coding bootcamp students making the leap to become a web developer. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising. Salt Lake City’s proximity to nature and culture always made it a destination for people who went a little further to get where they want to be.

It would be difficult to describe the journey of a student pursuing a software engineering journey any better. Though the career prospects for web development professionals continue to look promising over the next 10 years, those students who learned full-stack web development, UX design, data science, or cybersecurity from an immersive bootcamp will tell you it’s both fun and intense. As we look a bit closer at the best coding courses in Salt Lake City, you’ll start to see why many prospective bootcamp grads see Utah the same way.

Preparing for a Coding Bootcamp In Utah

A full-time or part-time coding camp is designed to be immersive, incredibly challenging, and ultimately rewarding. Since you’re committing time and tuition to move into a computer science field that’s highly specialized, you want to spend time strongly considering some of the following:

• What are my personal and professional goals? Will attending a boot camp put me on that track? Even before you get to the budgeting conversation or exploring scholarships, you want to start here. Intensive courses - whether in a hybrid or online coding bootcamp - mean you’ll be focusing on learning more than one programming language and spending your time after class working on coding challenges and coursework. So if you are going to invest in going full throttle over the next 16-20 weeks, it helps to know you’re on the path you want to be. (And if you’re a snowboarder who spends much of their time in Park City during peak season, you also want to strategically start in the warmer months.)
• How am I budgeting for coding bootcamp? We have a full guide on paying for a coding bootcamp, and you need to make sure you and your partner are on the same page about tuition costs and your time investment. Speaking with accountants and financial planners is cost-of-entry for anyone continuing their education. No surprise there. Paying for a coding boot camp requires those same conversations, and the students that put themselves in the best position are the ones who research all available scholarship options, GI Bill benefits (for military and veterans), and student loan / deferred tuition options.
• What type of learner am I? While an overwhelming majority of the country took a crash course in Zoom during the pandemic, you may be more comfortable learning highly complex topics like data science and UX design alongside other students in physical spaces. Most are doing fine remotely.

We have a full guide to preparing for a coding bootcamp, but each of three bullets is worth mentioning.

Why Choose a Coding Bootcamp in Utah

For those of you that live in the Utah area, it’s probably not a shock to learn that there are seven or eight coding bootcamps for Salt Lake City's population of around 200,000 people. To put that into perspective for outsiders, Austin, TX - a city 5x bigger at nearly 1 million people - has about half of the coding bootcamps that Salt Lake City does (and that number includes the coding bootcamps at UT Austin). It seems the Great Salt Lake, the slopes of Park City, and the A-listers landing in Sundance are letting the secret out.

Why wouldn’t they? The city itself is scoring above average on the job market index and the unemployment rate at the onset of the pandemic was half of the national average. Many people in and around the Crossroads of the West started careers in major corporate call centers, government bases, and the LDS, but see the personal and financial upside of a coding career. Part of that upside is that the current market demand is reflective of the job market.

As of the publication of this article, there are nearly 2,000 web development and software engineering jobs at 243 companies in Salt Lake City alone. Popular companies like Motorola, Box, SmartAsset and Sofi are looking to bolster their ranks, though competition for the best talent - particularly with tech and culture hub San Francisco in their backyard - is undoubtedly tough.

Considering the wealth of remote options for coding boot camp attendees, we don’t see an absolute need to relocate to the area. Though as current residents of Salt Lake City can attest you’ll have a hard time leaving once you get here.

The Best Coding Bootcamps in Utah

The state capital and largest city is not-so-coincidentally the prime destination for Utah’s computer science professionals. The common thread through each of these is the layout of the course curriculum, but because Utah bootcamps routinely miss the mark on outcomes data (a major point of emphasis here at Best Coding Bootcamps) we also see some remote options as better than some of the Utah-based schools. As more bootcamps launch in the area, we’d also like to see a competitive cybersecurity bootcamp emerge as an option for students.

All that said, here are some of our choices for the best coding bootcamp in Utah.

• V School. (online coding bootcamp) Located in Salt Lake City but offered fully remote, V School is one of the stronger bootcamps actually founded in the state of Utah. V School offers full and partial scholarships and emphasizes diversifying a field that needs far more perspectives. Women and veterans (including accepting GI Bill funds) are a priority student population for V School. The V School curriculum mostly focuses on web development and UX design. The courses shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve been researching other bootcamps: Web development (including JS, HTML, and CSS) React, Node, and MongoDB and also include capstone projects, full-stack group projects, and attention to your portfolio and resume.
  
  There’s a lot of potential for those who know they want to go into web development. The only area that gave us pause was fluffy graduation outcomes data. There’s no way around it: The V School has more work to do here. We like that they posted median salary numbers and employment rates, but there’s no third-party validation of their numbers, and the employment rate is not indicated to be only “computer science” careers. Go down our checklist of what to ask for coding bootcamps when considering enrollment.
• Devpoint Labs. (Online coding bootcamp) DevPoint Labs was founded by Nhi Doan in early 2013. The DevPoint Labs coding bootcamp has a reputation for difficult coursework that molds students into better web development and software engineering professionals. What impressed us most was the structure of the full-time course curriculum: an 11-week remote immersion that builds foundational knowledge before getting into JS, React, and later into your portfolio.
  
  Unfortunately, DevPoint Labs falls short of the outcomes transparency needed for the aspiring web developer. Crowdsourcing student reviews is a weaker indicator of program success than verified third-party measurements on students who get a job in-field after graduation, the median salary of bootcamp grad following completion, and the length of time it takes to land a job. Still, we remain optimistic that DevPoint Labs’ transparency will match its reputation. Students should ask careful questions to the admissions rep before enrolling.
• General Assembly (online coding bootcamp). While we see the potential of other coding bootcamps in Utah, an NYC-headquartered bootcamp may be a better option for Utah residents than either one. There are a few reasons we like this more. First, since the other programs are Utah-based, they are still remote just like GA. Second, there’s a bit more program diversity. With not only a focus on web development and UX design, but they also have flexible options for data science and analytics as well. While they do an above-average job with outcomes reporting, their data hasn’t been updated since 2019. Be sure to have access to updated outcomes data before committing.

There are other up-and-coming bootcamps in the area, but we’re encouraged by the reputation and instructors these bootcamps have to offer. Keep an eye on Best Coding Bootcamps for updates and more Utah-based bootcamps to be added to our list of programs.

Get Matched to a Coding Bootcamp in Utah

Utah is a fantastic place to live and work. The state that Jewel, Steve Young, and Jerry Buss call home is known for its soaring mountain views, epic winter escapes, and steadily increasing software engineering talent. Offering a surprising number of options for a population its size, Salt Lake City has solid options for those pursuing web development and UX design, but flexible courses for data science & analytics as well.

Want to find the best coding bootcamp in Utah for you? Get matched to your personalized lists of bootcamps that fit your needs.