42

42 is a tuition-free, project-based computer-science school founded by Xavier Niel in 2013, with its flagship campus in Paris and a global network of over 50 campuses across more than 30 countries. The school has no teachers, no classes, and no formal degrees — students progress through a peer-driven, gamified curriculum tackling C, systems programming, web, AI, and DevOps projects. With more than 25,000 active students worldwide and a selection bootcamp (the Piscine) that admits applicants without prior coding experience, 42 has become a major pipeline of engineering talent into the European startup ecosystem and a structural piece of France's tech-skills infrastructure.