Education · 1 of 5

The path

A degree plus proof you can actually build things. Both halves are required.

1. 1

   High school

   Grades 9 to 12

   Take the hardest math available and start writing code, ideally Python. Everything after this assumes you already enjoy both.

2. 2

   Bachelor's degree

   4 years

   Computer science, mathematics, statistics or a related engineering field. Community college for two years then transferring to a public university is the cheapest version of the same degree.

3. 3

   Build and ship things

   Throughout

   Personal projects, open source contributions, competition entries. A working project someone else uses beats a course certificate every time.

4. 4

   Internships

   Summers

   Apply from your second year. This is how most people get their first full-time offer, and many companies hire almost exclusively from their own interns.

5. 5

   First job, then decide on a master's

   0 to 2 more years

   Engineering roles rarely need one. Research roles usually want a master's or a doctorate. Working first tells you which you actually want.