I do always think about this: what does ALX gain by training people for free?
Especially software engineering that's very expensive.

They have a contract with Mastercard and some other organizations to train African youths in the field of IT. So they are being sponsored.

ALX is not free, training fees were waivered for 2022/2023 after a sponsorship deal with Mastercard and co.

ALX are training copy and paste programmers.

techliteup:
ALX are training copy and paste programmers.

Share your experience as an ALX student/product.

Did you do copy and paste as a student in ALX?

or

it looks like ALX just train people to copy and paste codes?

techliteup:
ALX are training copy and paste programmers.

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or serious

Draei:


Very much true funny enough.

Only very few with some background knowledge on programming b4 enrolling tend to scale through.

Their program is not beginners friendly, that I can boldly say.

Why do you say so?

techliteup:
ALX are training copy and paste programmers.

Lol! You do know that even elite programmers copy and paste code. You have to be good to know where to edit in copy pasta

ALX is not training copy-and-paste programmers, it can also be beginner friendly.


Although given the short span of the program, learning DevOps, git & GitHub, C, python, JavaScript, and many more, all in a space of 1 year, tasks <= 24 hours deadline. Students might resort to copying and pasting. But if you own your learning, and are not score driven you can ace the program.

Students tend to be more score driven instead of learning. I was a victim of ctrl + v myself. I had to quit, even though my scores were way above average, my learning pace didnt tally with my scores. As such, I felt like I was cheating and deceiving myself.

There are some improvements to the program currently. This means you can now defer every month, then restart with the next cohort. Cut-off marks have been slashed from 80 to 70.

And as not being beginner friendly, we were all beginners at certain things. We only became experts by continually learning and doing or using those things. You can't move from the beginner phase if you dont learn.

The most important requirements for ALX are (1)To be not score-driven. Don't feel pressured when others have completed their tasks. And you are yet to read the materials let alone attempt the task (2) Time, and I mean lots, lots, and lots of it.

90% of people learning through alx are specialist in copy and paste, ALX is just a case where you are been given sticks and broom to kill a Lion.

Tenshades:


Share your experience as an ALX student/product.

Did you do copy and paste as a student in ALX?

or

it looks like ALX just train people to copy and paste codes?

You must have basic knowledge on programming before you can scale through on the ALX, if not you will be copying codes that even you yourself don't understand.

Landowner101:
90% of people learning through alx are specialist in copy and paste, ALX is just a case where you are been given sticks and broom to kill a Lion.

And what’s wrong with copy pasting? When I started out coding, I literally copied code from a book. As in manually typed it out word for word as I saw it. Then began making changes to the code. If it was 4+3 on the code I would try out 18-4 or something along those lines.

When I started Bash scripting, it was the same thing. Infact until this day, I do not know the exact sequence of characters that make up a SHEBANG. I regularly copy it from Google. So what’s wrong with being “Specialist in copy and pasting”?

Current ALX student here and yes, I've done my fair share of copy-paste.

ALX is beginners-friendly and also challenging as well, even for those claiming to be pros.

To give you an idea, here's what ALX idea of beginners friendly, which many would balk and resort to copy-paste looks like...
You can write in Python?
Cool. Write this purely with OOP, with documentation here and there or you will not pass the edge cases set up.
Write test cases too, even if it's a small program that sums up 2 values.

The challenging part
You know DSA??
Great. Write this insertion sort algorithm in C, using a doubly linked list for the sort, use Harore partition scheme, and do not modify the linked list in any way.
Modify the list to make it bearable, test cases will not pass.

Most of the tasks can be done, but, ALX way of teaching will have you look for the solutions, sometimes practice them on your local machine (there's a reason they suggested everyone Install a VM, but many don't use it as intended) before submitting them.
Most of us here got this mentality that higher score = smarts and if it's take too long to find an answer, it's not worth it. There are books and some obscure blog that go in-depth but how many likes to read?


All in all, my take is ALX is doable. If you copied your way and cannot defend what you copied at the end of the year during presentation, hell even during manual reviews from sprint 2, you wasted your time.

ALX program is not for the faint of hearts. But it's worth it.

airsaylongcome:


And what’s wrong with copy pasting? When I started out coding, I literally copied code from a book. As in manually typed it out word for word as I saw it. Then began making changes to the code. If it was 4+3 on the code I would try out 18-4 or something along those lines.

When I started Bash scripting, it was the same thing. Infact until this day, I do not know the exact sequence of characters that make up a SHEBANG. I regularly copy it from Google. So what’s wrong with being “Specialist in copy and pasting”?

I respect you here bro, as someone that inspired me into this tech of a thing (through some of your posts here), I'm currently a student of alx cohort 11, if not for the experience I have in python programming (through self learning for six months), I would have dropped a long time ago, even with the little knowledge I have I still copy and paste just too meet up my cut off score. The most painful aspect is that you aren't giving enough time to learn anything, just multiple task that the resources you are been giving to learn through ALX would just teach you the basics.

I just fill they are guiding people to be software engineers, not actually teaching.

techliteup:
ALX are training copy and paste programmers.

I'll advise people to take CS50X and CS50W on Edx.