Choosing a coding bootcamp can be challenging. Not only are you weighing significant decisions about your future, but the number of bootcamps options can be overwhelming. “What’s the best coding bootcamp?” is too loaded to ask with so many coding courses at your disposal. Realistically in order to answer that question, you need to weigh the costs, benefits, and what’s the most attractive to you: Job placement, core competencies of the coding bootcamp (data science, web development, etc.), and what eventual jobs the bootcamp will open up for you in Seattle and beyond.

As we begin our analysis for choosing the best coding bootcamp in Seattle, you have to ask some questions that that will put you on the right coding journey for your career:

• What’s driving your interest in coding? What are some of the projects you’ve dreamed of working on that a bootcamp will help you gain the skills to do?
• What’s your current coding proficiency? Coding bootcamps offer programs to people at different levels, and before applying to a program in Seattle you’ll want to answer this question.
• What’s your budget? Depending on the bootcamp you choose, this may become a factor. While the average Seattle bootcamp varies in cost, most offer financing options for students who aren’t prepared to pay the upfront tuition in full.

Consider these questions as you read more about Seattle and plan for a career in the tech industry. There are several benefits to choosing a coding school in the “Birthplace of Grunge” so start a mental checklist and be thoughtful about the coding skills you’ll need for the job you eventually want to land.

The Benefits of Attending Coding Bootcamps in Seattle

The Pacific Northwest is now a major draw for companies that traditionally set up in Silicon Valley, and Seattle’s positioned itself as one of the best hubs for coding talent in the world. Startups looking for immediate talent poach from the likes of Amazon and Microsoft (in nearby Redmond) who’ve set up their corporate headquarters in the area, and it’s an area with opportunity for new coders as well. The demand for talent post-graduation is high, so students do well to both learn and work in Seattle.

Despite the overcast weather, the attraction to Seattle is more than professional. Those who have Seattle on their shortlist for their coding education see commitment of its sports fans, love how much the city embraces its four-legged friends, and respect the type of talent the Emerald City attracts. There are several other reasons why Seattle is an enticing option for the aspiring software engineer:

• Coding professionals are in high demand. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the employment for software developers will grow 21% through 2028. This is four times higher than the average industry. Software developers can earn a six-figure salary in a city where real estate costs are beginning to climb.
  
  According to HackerRank, full-stack developers are among the toughest jobs to find qualified candidates for, so selecting an immersive Seattle bootcamp with a program that specializes in your area of interest can be invaluable in the marketplace.
• Lots of opportunity to build products that can contribute directly to business challenges. After world-famous success stories like Starbucks and Costco, Seattle’s ability to “build something” is undeniably a part of its reputation. The same is true for its bootcamps. The coding bootcamps in downtown Seattle attract personalities of all types that share a distinct personality trait: hyper-focused on addressing big and small challenges in areas like web development, data science, and UX design that unlock potential for enterprising companies in competitive verticals.
  
  Seattle’s coding courses facilitate the type of learning environment where you can contribute, collaborate on, and build projects that prepare you for real-world application. Having demonstrated coding expertise and being able to showcase an active portfolio is a pivotal interview step at both a tech startup and increasingly in competitive software engineering roles within corporations.
  
  Choosing the right bootcamp will help you tee up that type of resume after the completion of your coding class. This helps position you as a respected programmer, instructs you on how to work collaboratively with a team, and hopefully be a catalyst for building solutions that change the world -- one programming language at a time.
• Experience-based learning. One of the biggest challenges aspiring software developers - whether fresh out of coding bootcamps or a standard computer science degree - is getting hands-on experience to apply new skills. Coding bootcamps provide accelerated learning immersions that foster deeper learning with experience-based models.

What makes Seattle a Desirable Place to Attend a Coding Bootcamp?

Seattle’s reputation for tech startups precedes it. In the first quarter of Q1 2021 alone, Seattle hit a new record with $1.6 billion invested. To put that into perspective, Seattle’s startups (a city of 724,000 residents) raised more funding than the startups in Dallas, TX (1.3 million residents) in the two previous quarters.

Inc reports that “the city's population grew by a whopping 25 percent between 2010 and 2020, and last year, personal finance website WalletHub ranked Seattle as the U.S. city with the most economic growth in the past decade.”

With an overflow of capital flooding the city, Seattle is a major recruiting target for companies looking for full stack web developers and other web development roles. Students gravitating more toward careers in data science also have opportunities to network with companies looking for expertise in Python, SQL, and more.

Lifestyle. Seattle’s reputation for both working hard and playing hard is well-documented. Home to tech powerhouses, the Mariners, one of the most recognizable brands in the world, and some of the most iconic sites in America, it would be difficult to find a more fun city in which to learn coding languages. In recent years, Seattle’s infrastructure has been tested by the influx of tech professionals descending onto the city in hopes to fill the surplus of available jobs. Seattle is fully committed to the coding community while also preserving its charm.

As much care is put into the health and safety of the city following the global pandemic. Seattle’s significant vaccination success (58% fully vaccinated at the time of publication) is an advantage to students considering an in-person curriculum in a bootcamp. In a world where remote-first experiences are naturally top of mind, Seattle’s individual success at creating a safe reopening provides more options for students to attend a boot camp in person. If you’re interested in coding (physically) alongside other members of their cohort, make sure you contact your bootcamp for their latest safety policies as news changes.

Bootcamps that fit your style. While we’re seeing some positive indicators following the pandemic, future software engineers and developers naturally have different work styles and levels of comfort getting back into the office. Some would like to learn coding outside a home they’ve been confined to for multiple months. Others are moving into homes that have a second bedroom they’ll use as a dedicated workspace.

Immediate Accessibility. On-ground boot camp instructors have the ability to provide quick feedback on questions or projects, whether they be inquiries into a coding challenge, specific questions about the curriculum of a coding course, or advice for applying to that dream data science or web development job you’ve been researching.

Reputation & Prestige. Seattle is competitive and its bootcamps are no different. Famously selective and highly desirable bootcamps like The Flatiron School and Coding Dojo are fully immersive, on-ground programs that have well-reviewed regional hubs in Seattle. Fullstack Academy’s acceptance rate is 8%, which makes it even more selective than West Point and Cornell.

Seattle is one of the few cities that doesn’t need a tourism board. No matter where you live, people are keenly aware of the experience, history, art, fashion, technology, and opportunity afforded its residents. The city can add “coding bootcamps” to that list.

Before Attending a Coding Bootcamp in Seattle: Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

Coding bootcamps in Seattle offer several benefits to students. Depending on the chosen programming language, data science immersion, and/or design tracks you choose, curriculums will vary both on content, breadth, and on length. A “typical” bootcamp curriculum will have several paths that require a base knowledge of the concepts. Let’s explore the process an aspiring software engineer, full stack web developer, or data science professional will go through prior to entering the bootcamp.

Before sending in your first tuition check, you’ll need to complete an assessment on your coding ability. Most quality bootcamp curriculums want to make sure you don’t feel “underwater” in a coding class. You’ll need to revisit the fundamentals of coding (e.g. the Python or Javascript logic you may not have used for a while) and some programs like the Flatiron School will offer free tutorials and support for less experienced, aspiring software engineers. allows each student to dive into the basics of coding in some of the most commonly used programming languages: HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Ruby.

One of the benefits of this important step before applying and then enrolling in the boot camp is that it allows you to assess your current skill level, and choose the programming course that best suits your budget and proficiency. Perhaps more importantly, preparing for your boot camp allows you to understand the nuances of coding languages, gets you ready for your boot camp interview, and begins introductory projects with other students. Preparing for the coding bootcamp and the evaluations you’ll complete helps ensure that you receive a better return on investment from the time and money you put toward your coding education.

Cost of Coding Bootcamps in Seattle

The cost of a full stack coding bootcamp in Seattle isn’t that different from the national average. According to Nerd Wallet, the average cost for a bootcamp is close to $14,142, but several different payment options are available should you be exploring different ways to pay for coding school.

If you’re considering paying for a coding bootcamp upfront with a credit card, you may want to consider opening a travel card to meet the minimum benefits of a bonus card while earning miles. However, several other options exist. Many students use third-party financing options like Meritize or Ascent, two popular bootcamp loan options that allow you to study, and feature grace periods for repayment. Regardless of how you plan to pay for a bootcamp education, always consult a financial planner to help calculate your living costs on a software engineer salary once the course is completed.

Considering the high cost of living in Seattle, there’s belt-tightening opportunities for all bootcamp students. Here are three great tricks to funding your coding bootcamp enrollment:

• Apply for every coding scholarship. Several coding bootcamps offer scholarships geared toward increasing the amount of underrepresented coding professionals in the tech sector. Coding Dojo - a bootcamp offering part-time and full-time software development bootcamps in Seattle - offers scholarships incentivizing LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and military veterans to apply and attend the bootcamps. Several need-based scholarships are also popping up across different coding schools across the country.
• Research income-share agreements. Some bootcamp graduates pay for their tuition using income-share agreements (ISAs). An income share agreement is a written agreement between you and a bootcamp provider that says you’ll commit to paying the provider a percentage of your income for an agreed amount of time.
  
  A hidden advantage of ISAs is that they force you to calculate how much you will need to be paid per year in order to be able to live, commute, pay back your tuition, and save. Pay careful attention to the minimum salary you need to make before an ISA kicks in and that you don’t accept a web development job for too low of a salary. If your agreement stipulates that you must pay back the online coding bootcamp if you land a job making above $35,000 to $40,000 per year, that doesn’t leave you much room for living expenses. (The good news: The average salary for even an entry-level programmer is $50,000 per year, but those of you in high cost-of-living cities should be doing the math closely.)
• Project your salary earnings. Carefully evaluate the tech job you can realistically land and the median salary of your desired position. Is that desired position going to be paying you significantly more than your current role? Will it earn you a higher multiple several times over than the cost of the bootcamp itself? For example, if you want to be a full stack developer and or are also seriously considering data science roles, know the market rates for each of those positions.

Remember that the cost of a coding bootcamp is your tuition and your time. Always estimate the cost for both prior to enrolling in class for the next 12-16 weeks.

Cost of Coding Bootcamps in Seattle

There’s no place like Seattle. The city that Kurt Cobain and Paul Allen called home certainly is known for its warm community, proximity to nature, and for the bootcamp grad -- a community of top-tier web developers and tech companies building bleeding edge tech products. Despite the pandemic, major companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce are reinvesting in their office space and continue hiring full stack developers, data scientists, and software engineers at highly competitive market rates. Entrepreneurs aren’t shying away either. The potential for an early stage startup in Seattle is limitless.

If you’ve been thoughtful about what drives your interest in coding, analyzed the benefits of attending a bootcamp in Seattle, properly budgeted for a life during and after becoming a bootcamp grad, and have a strong sense of what you want to pursue, we can match you with the right bootcamp. Click here to find your future bootcamp in Seattle.