Ada Developers Academy teaches full-stack web development, allowing students to choose what specialty of software development they want to pursue in their post-Ada careers. We cover HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Python, Flask and computer science fundamentals. Our complete curriculum is online and open-source.
We focus on teaching skills that are readily transferable from one technology stack to another, making Ada students adaptable and flexible candidates for all types of developer positions. Students have been successfully placed in internships and jobs working in Python, Java, JavaScript, C++, C#, Objective-C and Ruby, among other languages and frameworks.
Major topics of study include:
Writing Software
- Python
- HTML & CSS
- Flask
- Web APIs
- JavaScript
- CS Fundamentals
Being a Developer
- Leadership & Inclusion
- Test-Driven Development
- Pair Programming
- Agile Practices
- Networking
- Career Readiness
Python is a dynamically typed, interpreted, object-oriented language. In addition to serving as a great introduction to programming, Python is the foundation of the Flask framework, and is used for most of our CS Fundamentals curriculum.
Students should be able to:
- Write complex command line programs in Python
- Use object-oriented programming principles to build scalable, maintainable programs
- Read and write files, and process large amounts of data
- Verify code from the outset using test-driven development
HTML and CSS are two of the core technologies on which the web is built, allowing web developers to structure content in a hierarchy and specify how it should be presented to the user. Both are foundational for web developers.
Students should be able to:
- Read and write HTML and CSS
- Utilize semantic tags to provide clear structure to HTML
- Manage the layout of a complex web page using CSS
Flask is a Python micro-framework for building web servers. We use Flask to address a wide range of topics, from HTTP, REST and web standards to database operations. This unit also includes a large team project completed over a week.
Students should be able to:
- Build and deploy a complete web application, from the HTML & CSS on the page to the backing database
- Model complex real-world relations using ActiveRecord
- Use Git, TDD and agile practices to coordinate a large team
APIs allow programs to talk to each other, and have become an important part of the modern web. We focus both on consuming third party APIs and on producing our own APIs, laying the foundation for future front-end development.
Students should be able to:
- Explore and utilize third party APIs
- Design an API to expose their own data
- Write programs that parse and format JSON
As the language of the web, an understanding of JavaScript is essential for any prospective web developer. In addition to core language features, we'll cover some of the excellent libraries that enable modern web apps such as React.
Students should be able to:
- Read, write and test JavaScript
- Manipulate the DOM dynamically
- Build a complete single-page application, using AJAX to integrate with an API
- Organize a web app using a front-end framework
Ada graduates are expected to have an understanding of the basics of computer science. This includes common data structures and algorithms, and notions of space- and time-complexity.
Students should be able to:
- Compare and evaluate different solutions to the same problem
- Select the appropriate data structure to solve a given problem
- Understand and trace recursive functions
- Analyze the efficiency of basic programs, and discuss potential trade-offs and optimizations
Computer Science Fundamentals throughout the classroom and on Thursdays during the internship periods. You can click the previous links to see a through description of the concepts taught.
As a culmination of each student's classroom learning experience, they create a capstone project to showcase what they have learned thus far in the program.
Students should be able to:
- Demonstrate self-direction, time management, and independent learning
- Learn and implement new technologies
- Complete a product lifecycle from conception to delivery
- Utilize agile practices to assist in project completion
| Week | Unit | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Week 01 | Python | Student Orientation, Intro to Python, Functions, Basic Data Structures |
| Week 02 | Python | Intro to Git, TDD, Files, Pair Programming |
| Week 03 | Python | Intro to Classes, Exception Handling, Writing Tests |
| Week 04 | Python | Object-Oriented Programming |
| Week 05 | Python | Object-Oriented Design, More Git |
| Week 06 | BREAK | |
| Week 07 | SQL | Intro to Databases |
| Week 08 | Flask | Intro to Request/Response Cycle, Intro to Flask |
| Week 09 | Flask | Intro to APIs |
| Week 10 | Flask | HTTP & REST |
| Week 11 | Company Presentations | Interlude |
| Week 12 | Company Presentations | Interlude |
| Week 13 | HTML/CSS | Intro to Static websites, HTML, CSS |
| Week 14 | Javascript | Intro to JavaScript |
| Week 15 | JavaScript | JS in the Browser, API requests |
| Week 16 | React | Intro to React |
| Week 17 | React | React Forms and Axios |
| Week 18 | BREAK | |
| Week 19 | Career Prep | Career Prep and Curriculum Wrap-up |
| Week 20 | Interviews | |
| Week 21 | BREAK | |
| Week 22 | Capstone | Capstone Project Details, Reflection, Tutorials |
| Week 23 | Capstone Project | |
| Week 24 | Capstone Project | |
| Week 25 | Capstone Project | Presentations |
| Week 26 | BREAK | |
| Week 27 | Internship Begins |