We Custom Design, Build and Deploy Tech Teams at Scale
Our Pedagogy
Results oriented and heavily researched learning curriculum designed for a long-term career as a Software Engineer.
Everyone has their own opinion on the best way to learn or teach programming. If you ask 10 experienced programmers how to learn, you’ll likely get 10 different answers.
Even seasoned experts tend to focus on their personal experiences and often don’t consider how to design an effective learning path for someone just beginning their journey today.
Much of the confusion surrounding how to learn stems from two key ambiguities: 1) not having a clear understanding of the learner’s end goal, and 2) failing to take a broad enough view of the entire learning journey.
The first issue often arises from vague goals (e.g., “I want a job”), while the second comes from a lack of awareness about the different stages involved in mastering a skill. In the following paragraphs, we’ll explain how our teaching approach resolves these challenges.
First and foremost, it’s important to note that Azua’s singular goal is to help individuals launch successful careers at top companies. Interestingly, this isn’t just about landing a job; building a career demands a long-term mindset and a much deeper, more comprehensive training process—you need to be prepared to learn over years, not just months.
Second, the learning journey is far more complex than most people realize. What and how you study should vary depending on where you are in that journey. We’ll explain this concept in greater detail in the sections below.
Learning Framework for Our Pedagogy
Explore: True Beginner
When one first tries to enter any field - cooking, tennis, piano, programming - it initially starts with a process of discovery and exploration.
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Prior Experience:
None. Absolute beginner in the field.
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Goal:
At this stage, the primary goal is to get your feet wet and develop some hands-on experience with the topic. This is a time for exploration, discovery, and having fun while feeling like you're making progress. Play is encouraged, and the focus is on building, experimenting, and launching without worrying about deep understanding or how everything works beneath the surface.
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Support:
At this stage, the support system is centered on ensuring that students have a positive experience to motivate further exploration. The most effective teachers in this phase are supportive and uplifting, creating an environment filled with encouragement and inspiration. The tools provided should be plug-and-play, allowing for immediate and intuitive use. It's best to avoid tools that require complex setup or configuration; instead, prioritize usability over advanced features.
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Mental Model:
At this stage, the mental model centers on developing a comprehensive understanding of the entire ecosystem or environment. A high-level overview of the field is valuable for helping learners begin to construct a general idea of where everything fits within the broader context.
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Learning Structure:
In this phase, with an emphasis on building and experimenting, students adopt a build-first, top-down approach to learning. It’s not just acceptable but encouraged to bypass complete mastery of the fundamentals to maintain momentum and keep the learning process dynamic.
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Duration:
This stage can last anywhere from weeks to years, or even decades. Many casual hobbyists remain in this phase indefinitely; for instance, weekend football league participants often have no intention of pursuing a career in football. Occasionally, some individuals may exit this stage rapidly—sometimes in just a few weeks—typically because they have previously experienced a similar journey in another field. Learners who possess significant expertise in a different area generally don't linger here for long.
Study: Serious Student
After the initial excitement of discovery, play, and exploration, most students who continue beyond the "happy path" of tutorials begin to realize there’s much more beneath the surface if they aspire to become professionals or experts in the field. Doubts start to emerge, along with a growing awareness of how much is yet to be understood. Some eager learners attempt to push through the frustration, hoping the next tutorial will bring clarity. However, over time, it becomes clear that to achieve a professional level of understanding, the journey must begin with mastering fundamentals and first principles, requiring the gradual development of sound mental models at every step.
To achieve this, a structured curriculum and a shift in mindset—from playfulness to rigorous study and deliberate practice—are essential. This marks the critical inflection point, known as "the plateau," which is the longest and most challenging phase in the path toward mastery.
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Prior Experience:
I've been dabbling and exploring for a while, and now I'm ready to shift from the "explore" mindset to a more focused "study" approach.
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Goal:
At this stage, the goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts. It's no longer enough to simply experiment with the topic; the focus shifts toward uncovering deeper insights and structure. The emphasis moves from just exploring to studying how things work by breaking down concepts. This process of deconstruction allows you to gradually build more accurate mental models. The key actions here involve understanding and deconstructing, so you not only learn how to use a tool but also grasp how and why it was designed in a particular way.
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Support:
The best teachers in the Study phase provide precise instruction, focusing on breaking down concepts to their core components, one layer deeper than before. Each new concept should help learners develop a stronger and more accurate mental representation of the underlying principles. Assessments are essential for gauging mastery, while students need time to explore and digest the material independently. Deliberate practice is crucial to ensure students are refining their skills, not just accumulating knowledge. At this stage, Azua applies the principles of Mastery-Based Learning to ensure that students thoroughly understand the fundamentals at every step.
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Mental Model:
At this stage, learners must begin developing progressively clearer mental representations of core concepts. This involves not only being able to follow instructions to complete tasks (e.g., through tutorials) but also being able to explain a concept's key attributes to others (e.g., by writing articles, giving presentations, or, as we do at Azua, through 1-on-1 assessment interviews). Learners need to build clear mental models of "atomic" concepts, which will later be applied to more "integrated" concepts. By building up smaller mental representations, learners will start to grasp and appreciate the larger problems that tools and practices were designed to solve. This approach shifts the focus from learning specific tasks to understanding broader, fundamental challenges. We refer to this as understanding problems, not solutions, and it requires the gradual accumulation of mental models over time.
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Learning Structure:
Since we’re learning from first principles, this phase follows a bottom-up approach. The sequence and structure of learning are critical, and achieving proficiency at each step is essential to understanding the next level. Assessments are used to confirm mastery at each stage, and progress is determined by mastering a topic, not by the amount of time spent. Azua's applied Mastery-Based Learning model ensures that learners fully grasp the fundamentals at every step, which is the key to building a solid foundation of knowledge.
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Duration:
We refer to this phase as "the plateau" because the duration of learning is indefinite. Since the focus is on mastering fundamentals, we use a Mastery-Based Learning system instead of a time-based approach, meaning the length of this phase can vary. At Azua, most students spend 8 to 13+ months of intense study to progress through this stage, although the exact timeline depends on the individual learner's pace.
Professional: Software Engineer
After mastery of fundamentals, the next phase is about applying that knowledge and skills to higher-level concepts. This is where discussions around best practices, design, architecture, and trade-offs can finally happen. This is also the phase where the transition to a professional begins.
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Prior Experience:
Mastery of fundamentals and an understanding of how they are used and constructed. Must have sound mental models of atomic and lightly-integrated concepts.
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Goal:
The professional phase is where we can start challenging learners and push them to their limits to discover their engineering capability. Learners at this stage should try to develop a deeper intuition about tradeoffs and context, and focus on engineering patterns and architectures. At this point, performing the task is relatively easy, but when to perform the task and to what depth is now the focus.
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Support:
Students at this stage get the best return on their time and experience from an instructor who can facilitate focused discussions and guide research-oriented tasks. Developing deep intuition comes from discussions and engagement, not just practice and memorization. At this phase, instructors should hold high-level discussions around context, architecture, design, trade-offs, and engineering philosophy. It's time to apply all the previously acquired fundamentals to the most difficult engineering problems at the boundary of one's capability.
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Mental Model:
The mental model at this phase is on how all the pieces fit together in a variety of ways, with special attention to each design's tradeoffs and use cases. Whereas before learners acquired smaller problem patterns, this stage is about zooming out and developing more sophisticated architectural and infrastructure patterns.
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Learning Structure:
Once we transition out of fundamental concepts and into larger libraries and concepts, the surface area of these topics grow exponentially, and employing a detailed, no-compromise Mastery-based learning approach becomes impossible and unnecessary. At this phase, it's important to help learners navigate the huge surface area of topics by employing larger and more sophisticated mental representations, which we can now do by building upon the smaller mental models acquired in the previous phase. In the Professional phase, we use an instructor-led, top-down learning approach, allowing us to zoom out and apply core skills in a variety of interesting settings and projects in order to analyze their trade-offs and consequences. It's through this process that a professional engineering mindset starts to form, and confidence in tackling any engineering problem starts to develop.
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Duration:
At Azua, the Capstone duration is 3-5+ months.
Azua’s Capstone Program is specifically designed for this phase. It is highly selective and exceptionally rigorous, surpassing any other training program available. The Capstone serves as the admissions-based “finishing” experience for Azua students.
It is instructor-led and team-based, with many participants describing it as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Most graduates of the Capstone take between 1.5 to 2 years to complete the entire Azua curriculum, progressing from the Study phase (Core Curriculum) through to the Professional phase (Capstone). As a result, graduates are automatically placed with one of our top tech partner companies.
Azua Pedagogical style by Learning phase
Azua Pedagogical style by Learning phase
With our Mastery-based Learning and Capstone Program approach, you, too, can become a professional Software Engineer. However, it will likely take longer than you expect. If you’re willing to measure your progress in years rather than months, the Azua methodology might be the right fit for you.
Take your time moving through the three phases and understand where you are in the process. If you’re still exploring and getting a feel for programming, enjoy the journey, and find a supportive community to encourage you along the way.
When you’re ready to dive deeper into your studies, try the Mastery-based Learning approach. Focus on the fundamentals without rushing through, ensuring that you fully understand each concept before moving on. This will prepare you for tackling more complex engineering challenges when you’re ready.
Each phase of learning requires different strategies, along with a shift in mindset and lifestyle. For example, progressing through “the plateau” stage is quite different from the experience of going through Capstone.
One important distinction to keep in mind is the difference between “getting a job” and “launching a career.” While they might seem similar, they are vastly different goals.
Our program is designed to help you launch a lasting career, which is far more challenging and requires more time. The Mastery-based approach is only beneficial if you have a long-term vision and the goal of building a career as a Software Engineer.
Next
Now that you understand the various phases in the entire learning path and their respective pedagogies, read about the main pedagogy in the “Study” phase: Mastery-based Learning.
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Eligibility for the Azua Job Guarantee:
- Bachelor’s Degree
Successful completion of all mandatory coursework, core projects and career development tasks
- Completion of our capstone project, which takes 2-3 months, is required. This is an intensive additional program that includes written exams, 1-on-1 live coding interviews, and take-home assignments.
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