Viking Code School  
Full Stack Web Development 
Course Syllabus 
 

Foreword 
 
The Viking Code School has everything you need to go from complete beginner to professional 
web developer. Our content covers everything from what a developer is to negotiating the 
starting salary for your new job as a software engineer. 
 
Though this curriculum covers the full breadth and depth of materials that you will need in order 
to call yourself a “Full Stack Web Developer”, it is not designed to be a one-size- ts-all approach. 
Unlike other programs which hold your hand or trim away the hard stu , we dive head rst into 
the inner workings of software engineering. That means you will have to build more than 80 
projects completely from scratch and wrestle with tricky concepts. That takes dedication and grit 
but the reward is well worth it. 
 
Luckily, you aren’t alone in this journey. The curriculum is really just the path -- your teammates, 
instructors and mentors provide the support you need to nd your way over (or around) obstacles 
and to get you back on track when you get lost. We’ve designed our two programs -- the 
Immersive Program and the Flex Program -- to allow you to dial in exactly the level of support you 
need to t this material into your life and your budget. 
 
This curriculum has been forged by the experiences of thousands of students like yourself and 
the only thing that is certain is that it will continue to change in order to keep pace with the skills 
that will land you the rst job of your new career. 
 
The following sections detail what is covered in our curriculum. Information on joining our 
programs is available at the very end so you can take the plunge as soon as you’re ready. 
 
 
   

 
 

 
 

Knowledge Path 
 
Your journey begins with the most comprehensive Prep Work available from any school in the 
world. In our Basic Prep, you will learn everything you need in order to begin your journey as an 
engineer. Our Advanced Prep dives deeply into the fundamentals of Markup (HTML, CSS, SASS 
and Bootstrap), Coding with JavaScript and how to lay groundwork for getting-hired. Best of all, 
it's completely free!  
 
Our Core Curriculum covers everything you need to complete your journey to a job. Regardless 
of whether you take our Flex Program or Immersive Program, you will have access to the same 
high-quality path and support. The Core Curriculum covers the fundamentals of Data, Back End 
Engineering, Front End Engineering, and Getting Hired.   
 

 
   

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Full Curriculum Map 

 
A full curriculum map is provided below. Subsequent pages describe each section in detail. 

   

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Prep Courses 
 
The Prep Work is available completely free to anyone who would like to try it. Viking has the 
most comprehensive prep work in the world so it is NOT trivial! This work is required before you 
begin our core curriculum (regardless of whether you’re doing so via the Immersive Program or 
the Flex Program), so it’s an invaluable resource both for getting your feet wet as a new 
developer and for preparing to enter one of the rigorous Viking programs. 
 
 

Basic Prep Work 

 
Our Basic Prep starts with the very basics and covers a number of topics which are important for 
you to be a well-rounded engineer.   
 

Web Development Basics 

 
● Web Fundamentals 
● The Command Line 
● Using Git to Collaborate 
 

Web Design Basics 

 
● The Design Process 
● Introduction to Product Design 
● Introduction to User Experience (UX) 
● Elements of Visual Design 
● Building and Using Mockups 
 

Software Engineering Basics 

 
● Principles of Software Engineering 
● Agile Web Development 
● Pseudocoding 
● SOLID Design Principles 

 
   

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Advanced Prep Work 

 
Our Advanced Prep gives you a comprehensive understanding of Markup (with HTML, CSS, 
SASS and Bootstrap), JavaScript and what you must do immediately to support your job search. 
This advanced work operates just like our core curriculum -- you will build real projects from 
scratch and solve real problems with code. 
 

Markup and Styling 

 
● HTML5 
● CSS3 
● Developer Tools 
● Debugging Markup 
● SASS preprocessing 
● Twitter Bootstrap 
 

JavaScript Programming Fundamentals 

 
● The Fundamentals of Code 
● Data Types, Flow Control, Looping 
● Intermediate JavaScript 
● Object-Oriented Programming 
● Functional Programming 
● `This`, Scope and Closures 
● Objects and Prototypes 
● jQuery Events and E ects 
● The Module Pattern 
● Error Handling 
● Refactoring and Debugging 
● Namespacing 
 

Getting Hired I: Knowledge is Power 

 
● The Viking Method for Getting Hired 
● What Companies Want 
● Planning Your Strategy 
● Creating Your Vapor Trail 
● Building a Personal Website 
● Reaching Out to Developers   

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Core Curriculum 
 
Our core curriculum is designed to take you from “advanced beginner” to employable full-stack 
engineer. That means we have a LOT of ground to cover (roughly 1200 hours of it!). 
 
The course is broken into the 4 key sections shown below: Databases, Back End, Front End and 
Hiring. To be truly full-stack, we expect that you will be employable as either a front-end 
developer or a back-end developer and we prepare you accordingly. This why our program 
covers more ground than any other. 
 
 

Databases 
 
Data is the core of every major web application and you have to be uent in its modeling, storage 
and retrieval in order to be an e ective engineer. During the Databases portion of the course, 
you will learn everything you need in order to break down a website into its core data model and 
then implement that model yourself.   
 

Data Modeling 
 
● Data Relationships 
● Designing a Data Model 
● Relational Databases 
● Alternative Databases 
● Data Normalization 
● Entity Relationship Modeling (ERM) 
 

SQL 
 
● Working with Database Schemas 
● Create-Read-Update-Destroy (CRUD) 
● Joins 
● Aggregate Functions and Groups 
● Sub Queries 
 

NoSQL 
 
● Serialization 
● Modeling NoSQL data 

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● Document Databases (MongoDB) 
● NoSQL Best Practices 
 
 
 

Back End Engineering with JavaScript/Node 

 
The Back End Engineering portion of our curriculum uses JavaScript as your window into the 
underlying structure of programming and the systems of the web. You learn how to interact with 
everything from les to web requests while also developing an appreciation for the strategy of 
developing robust web frameworks. 

NodeJS 
 
● Server-Side JavaScript 
● NPM 
● JavaScript Build Processes 
● Event Loop and Emitters 
● File System Interaction 
● Modules 
 

Express + APIs 
 
● HTTP in Depth 
● Calling APIs 
● Reading API documentation 
● Basic API Authentication 
● OAuth 2.0 
● API-Based Sign-In with SDKs 
● API-Based Sign-In with Omniauth 
● Uploading to Amazon S3 
● ExpressJS 
● Cookie and Session Persistence 
● Deploying JavaScript Applications 
 

Authentication and Security 

 
● Intro to Security and Authentication 
● Basic and Digest Authentication 
● Session-Based Authentication 

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● Cookie-Based Authentication 
● JSON Web Tokens 
● Hacking Attack Vectors 

Testing 
 
● Overview of Software Testing 
● Unit Testing 
● Integration Testing 
● Factories 
● JavaScript Testing Frameworks 

 
 
Front End Engineering 
 
The Front End Engineering portion of the course uses the JavaScript language to carry you 
through designing modern dynamic web applications. You will learn everything from how to 
retrieve data using lightweight AJAX requests to constructing production-scale single-page apps 
using the ReactJS framework. 
 
The JavaScript Programming Fundamentals prep course is a prerequisite for this section. 
 

React + Redux 
 
● AJAX 
● Overview of Frontend Frameworks 
● Frontend Data Modeling 
● Templating Frameworks 
● JSX 
● The React Environment 
● Components and State 
● Props 
● Routing 
● Redux 
● Webpack 
 

Frontend Design 
 

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● Frontend Data Modeling 
● Best Practices 
● Build Tools and Work ows 
 

Frontend Testing 
 
● Jest 
● Snapshot Testing 
● DOM Testing 
 
 
 

Getting Hired 
 
Getting yourself job-ready begins long before you’ve covered the full curriculum and that's why 
you began the journey in the Prep Work phase. Our core Hiring materials pick up where the prep 
work left o , preparing you for the active portion of the job search process. That means turning 
your vapor trail into real human connections, breaking through the phone screen, nailing the 
technical interview, and negotiating your job o ers.   
 
Part of your preparation to be a strong engineer and a strong technical interviewer is an in-depth 
coverage of data structures and algorithms. In this section, you will gain an in-depth 
understanding of these crucial topics as well as get access to our library of take-home 
challenges, interview scripts, and actual challenge questions received by Viking alumni. 
 
The most important part of your portfolio is your Final Project. This is a full end-to-end 
engineering project that you will build from idea to mockup to deployed app with a team of other 
students (regardless of which program you enroll with). This gives you a chance to practice a full 
engineering work ow with our expert support along the way. 
 
 

Data Structures and Algorithms 

 
● Basic Data structures 
● Hash Tables 
● Graphs and Trees 
● Algorithmic Problem Solving 
● Recursion 
● Sorting Algorithms 
● Search Algorithms (BFS, DFS) 
 

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Final Projects 
 
● Applied Agile Development 
● Working on a Real Engineering Team 
● Choosing a Great Final Project 
● Planning an Agile Sprint 
● Live Demo to the Viking Community 
 

Getting Hired: Application to O er 

 
● Locating the Best Jobs 
● Networking the Non-Annoying Way 
● Getting on the Radar of Companies 
● Interviewing Preparation 
● Technical Interviewing Practice 
● Whiteboarding 
● Mock Interviews 
● Fielding Job O ers 
● Salary Negotiation 
● Continuous Learning and Career Advancements 
● Open Source Contribution 

 
 

 
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Getting Started with Viking 

 
Viking is a challenging program and real commitment but it’s also a gateway to a career doing 
what you love. To learn more about our programs, check out our website at 
https://www.vikingcodeschool.com.  
 
The best place to start your journey is our free Prep Work, which covers an exceptional amount 
of breadth and depth. While it’s not identical to our core curriculum, it should give you a good 
sense of how we tend to present materials and whether the course “feels” right for you. 
 
Once you’re ready to get started with the core course, you’ll need to choose a program. In our 
Immersive Program, you join a small cohort of other students (beginning at regular intervals 
through the year) for several intense months after passing a rigorous application process. Our 
go-at-your-own-pace Flex Program allows you to begin as soon as you’re ready and with the 
1-on-1 support of professional mentors along the way. 
 
If you have questions about anything, you can nd most answers on the respective program FAQ 
pages or you can feel free to reach out to [email protected]. You can stay up to date 
by joining our mailing list, which allows you to receive our weekly Code Review (a compilation of 
the week's best development articles, music and random geekery). 
 
 
We hope you’ll join us for your upcoming journey but, either way, we wish you the very best of 
luck! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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