Gauntlet
Check Application StatusCheck Status

The Challenger program
Life in the program

For anyone deciding whether to apply

Ten weeks inside.
Ready for the room.

What life in the program looks like,
from the first Monday to Demo Day. And how we get you ready for the partner interviews
that start in week five.
Apply now
Scroll

Every week

One project.
Seven days.

All ten weeks run on the same loop.A new project lands Monday and ships by Sunday noon.

This week's project, for example

Add an AI assistant to a mature codebase someone else wrote.

Examples of the kind of work. The specifics change every cohort.

Monday

The requirement lands

The project arrives in the morning. By the afternoon you are defending your architecture to staff before you write much of anything.

  • New project assigned
  • Two classes
  • Architecture defense with staff
  • Office hours

Live instruction averages 15 hours a week. The rest is building.

An instructor at a standing desk teaching Challengers on the atrium bleachers at Gauntlet HQ
Live instruction in the atrium, Gauntlet HQ

Weeks 1 to 4, from home

Austin is
earned

The first four weeks are remote, on the same weekly loop.Keep the pace every week, and your seat in Austin is yours.

  • Every Sunday counts

    Each submission is evaluated against a clear standard. It works as specified, or the week is not passed.

  • Your seat is the stake

    The program costs you nothing, so what you put up is your place in it. Pass the week and you keep it.

  • 80 to 100 hours, from home

    Remote does not mean part time. Plan these four weeks the way you would plan the six in Austin.

  • Never on your own

    Live classes, office hours most days, and a cohort working the same problem at the same hour.

Weeks 5 to 10, Austin

Then you meet
your people

Week five, the cohort arrives at Gauntlet HQ together.The engineers beside you become friends,
and the staff become mentors.
A cohort of Challengers after a run, downtown Austin behind them
Cohort run, downtown Austin
Challengers together on the atrium bleachers at Gauntlet HQ
The cohort, Gauntlet HQ
  • You live, build and eat alongside the same people for six weeks, through the hardest work most of you have done.
  • Instructors and staff are in the room every day, at the whiteboard and at office hours, not behind a ticket queue.
  • The friendships and mentors you find here are built to outlast week ten, and the network grows with every cohort.

Everything but the work is handled

  • Round-trip flightsCovered
  • Housing for six weeksCovered
  • FoodCovered
  • LaundryCovered
  • Training and computeCovered
  • Billed to you$0

How you get hired

Ready for
every room

Career Development prepares you for every interview.Customer Success gets you into the rooms.

Career Development

Customer Success

Every Thursday and Friday, from week one

Technical interviews with staff

Staff run technical interviews the way hiring partners do: a problem, a time limit, and questions about your design. You get feedback and do it again the next week.

A full atrium at Gauntlet HQ during a hiring partner visit
Hiring partners in the atrium, Gauntlet HQ

What it leads to

The room is
worth the week

Partners come to Austin to hire engineers
who can do the whole job.

$200Kto$950K*

Offers received and accepted from attending the program

*Range of cash compensation for offers accepted from Hiring Partners in our program.

100+

Commercial partners

Across train-to-hire and corporate training.

1,350+

Individuals transformed

Across train-to-hire and corporate training.

Train-to-hire program, est. January 2025.

Abhay Dalmia, VP of Engineering at Nerdy

What a hiring partner sees

We've shifted our dev cycles from monthly to almost daily. That's a level of iteration we've been able to achieve with the Gauntlet engineers.
Abhay DalmiaVP of Engineering, Nerdy

Apply now

Start your application

Submit this form and the assessment link lands in your inbox.

Questions we hear

Asked about
the ten weeks

Can I keep my job during the program?

No. It is 80 to 100 hours a week for all ten weeks, remote weeks included, and the deadlines do not move. Plan around that before you start.

What happens if I miss a week?

Every week is evaluated against the same standard, and passing it is how you keep your seat. Office hours, staff and your cohort are there so a hard week still ends in a working build.

Who are the staff interviews with?

Gauntlet mentors and staff, every Thursday and Friday. They run them the way partners do, so the first time you meet a hiring partner is not your first interview of the program.

Who books my interviews with partners?

Customer Success plans and coordinates them with hiring partners from week five. You prepare with Career Development and do the interviews.

Is the offer guaranteed?

Interviews for $200K+ roles are guaranteed, starting in week five. Offers are earned, in front of the people who hire, and the program is built so you walk into those rooms ready.