Deciding between hack reactor or another TAA w/ codesmith

I've chatted briefly somewhere around 8 people in the past two to three months and there are a group of people who didn't get OOP at all and got accepted and most chose Codesmith, and another group of people that got OOP, some of whom were accepted and some rejected with somewhat blunt feedback like that. I don't know if the bar is variable depending on your background? I didn't get any kind of complete and useful data here, but just anecdotally people did not all get the same difficulty of questions. And surprisingly the people who didn't get OOP had more "imposter syndrome" about thinking they weren't good enough. And the people that were more like "I studied every last detail and did well on OOP and they rejected me" were more like confident. I've also seen the unofficial places people share all the hard questions and try to study them all before applying. I guess it's not unlike any kind of system, like the SATs, where there is a test to weed out the most determined and smartest people, but I think the above observations are a good sign that Codesmith is looking for more than just raw coding. I dunno, not much useful here to draw conclusions of off but something to think about maybe that you don't need to crush OOP to get in. EDIT: the amount of people that message me about Codesmith is much higher than any other program btw, I don't have nearly as many messages from people not looking at Codesmith. Mostly Codesmith OR X conversations, which I give my 2 cents for which is better based on their personal circumstances.

I don't love this answer with my outsider hat on. On the one hand, you shouldn't have to study Codesmith-proprietary techniques and learn things the Codesmith way to get into Codesmith.... it's a little brainwashy BUT, on the other hand, it's also good confirmation that IF the Codesmith way of learning works for you then Codesmith is also a good fit for you and adds additional confidence in choosing it. I just think if you do things all the Codesmith way and don't get it, it's probably a good sign Codesmith isn't for you, and not a reflection on your abilities as an engineer. Two sides to every story :D

Zooming out here, most people's goal is to become a strong software engineer and make an impact on the world. For others, it's to build a better life and do more interesting work day to day to get there. All I'm warning against here is tunnel vision that only Codesmith can provide this outcome and you must do months and months of Codesmith prep to prove you are worthy. There are many paths for many people and for a lot of people Codemsith might be the best path, but don't lock yourself in until you know that for yourself.