The Hacking Project / alumni experience
What The Hacking Project changed for me in 2018.
I joined The Hacking Project’s third cohort in January 2018. Three intensive months gave me a more reliable way to research unfamiliar problems, test an idea, and learn with other people. This is a dated alumni account—not a review of the programme as it operates today.
- Jan 2018
- Third cohort
- 3 months
- Intensive practice
- Ruby + Rails
- Main technical path
- Independent
- No current affiliation
The short answer
THP did not turn me into a finished developer in three months. It did something more useful: it replaced isolated tutorial-following with a repeatable learning method. Ruby and Rails were the vehicle; peer learning, research, explanation, and persistence were the parts that lasted.
Before THP
I could make web pages, but I did not yet have a dependable method.
My original background was landscape work. Around 2015, I began building small web projects for people I knew. I had touched HTML, CSS, and PHP, but I often worked far too long for results that did not match the effort. That earlier path is retained in THP’s own alumni archive.
The problem was not a total lack of information. Tutorials were everywhere. The problem was knowing what to do when the example stopped matching the project: how to isolate the failure, choose a useful source, test an assumption, and decide whether I understood the result.
Why I enrolled
The third cohort gave the learning process a social structure.
I enrolled in the third THP session, which began in January 2018. The school’s published history places that period near the beginning of the project, before its later expansion and diploma-granting offer.
What appealed to me was not a promise that somebody would explain every step. It was the opposite: daily work, other learners facing the same material, and the expectation that we would help one another move from a vague block to a specific question.
The technical work
Ruby and Rails made abstract ideas concrete.
Ruby was new to me, and object-oriented programming initially felt like an obstacle. Working through it gave names and structure to ideas I had previously handled by instinct: objects, models, persistence, routes, relationships, environments, and the movement from a browser interaction to stored data and back.
The public record is modest but useful. A Rails question I posted on 8 March 2018 shows contemporaneous work with Active Record associations. It proves activity on that date, not the whole learning experience; the retained THP testimony provides the broader cohort context.
Peer learning
The durable skill was learning how to get unstuck with other people.
Peer learning worked when we treated explanation as part of the task. Asking for a finished answer could remove the immediate discomfort without closing the gap. Showing what I expected, what happened, and what I had already tested made it possible for somebody else to help without taking ownership away.
The reverse mattered too. Explaining an idea to another learner exposed the steps I had skipped mentally. That habit—research, test, explain, receive feedback, retry—later made it easier to learn JavaScript and to enter 42 Paris’s project-based environment.
Limits
Three intense months created momentum, not mastery.
The pace could reward persistence while hiding shallow understanding. A project could work even when I could not yet explain every choice. Group learning also depends on the group: availability, generosity, and the ability to ask a bounded question all change the quality of the experience.
JavaScript received relatively little attention in my cohort, so I continued learning it afterward. I would not use my experience as evidence that every alumnus left job-ready, or that the current programme produces the same outcome. It is evidence of what this specific early cohort changed for me.
What came next
THP became the bridge between self-teaching and 42 Paris.
After THP, I kept working on JavaScript and entered 42 Paris. The full 42 journey follows the next stages: project-based training, full-stack work at My Jungly, the 42 Network student intranet, and the founding team at 42 Lisboa.
At 42 Paris I also completed D+HINKING ACADEMY’s five-day Design Thinker programme in December 2018. The SmartCertificate record supports that later credential; it is not a THP certificate and should not be presented as one.
Then and now
The name is the same; the offer has changed materially since 2018.
THP’s history says it became diploma-granting in December 2021. Its current course index, checked on 28 July 2026, presents an intensive web-developer path and flexible modules, including newer frontend, backend, Agent Builder, and AI-assisted work.
For current duration, price, curriculum, funding, certification, or application rules, use THP’s official pages. Use this page for a first-person account of the third cohort and for the learning habits that remained visible in my later work.
2018 and today
My early-cohort experience versus THP’s current published offer
| Question | My cohort in 2018 | Published offer checked 28 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Context | Third cohort, beginning January 2018 | A mature school with intensive and modular paths |
| Format | Three intensive months of group practice | Intensive web-developer training plus flexible modules |
| Technical emphasis | Ruby, Rails, web foundations; limited JavaScript in my cohort | Frontend, backend, Agent Builder, AI-assisted work, and other modules |
| Credential context | An early cohort before THP became diploma-granting | THP publishes RNCP level 5 options on its current course page |
| Best authority | This account, THP’s retained testimony, and dated public activity | THP’s current course, pricing, and application pages |
Questions people ask
What The Hacking Project changed for me in 2018.
Did I attend The Hacking Project?
Yes. The Hacking Project’s official alumni page retains my first-person testimony. I joined the third session in January 2018 and completed three months of intensive coding.
Was The Hacking Project part of 42 Paris?
No. They were separate stages. I completed The Hacking Project first and then entered 42 Paris.
What did I learn at THP?
My cohort focused on Ruby, Ruby on Rails, object-oriented programming, web foundations, and building front-to-back projects. The longer-term outcome was a better method for research, peer learning, testing, and explanation.
Do I recommend the current THP programme?
I do not review the current programme as though it were unchanged. My experience is from 2018; check the current curriculum, format, pricing, funding, and credentials with THP.
Is the SmartCertificate a THP diploma?
No. It verifies a separate five-day Design Thinker programme I completed at 42 Paris in December 2018. I include it only as evidence from the next stage of my learning path.
Do I work for or speak for The Hacking Project?
No. This is an independent alumni account. The Hacking Project remains the authority for its present-day programmes and policies.
Evidence and boundaries
What supports this account.
Each link supports a limited claim. The official testimony is the strongest public record of the cohort; the dated technical activity and profile corroborate parts of the timeline.