This BYU article shows that there are three basic programming concepts:

1. Sequence of commands (The right commands in the right order)
2. Conditional Structures (Do certain things based on a true or false, yes or no decision)
3. Looping structures (A list of instructions to do more than once)

They further explain the programming strategies of top-down design and pseudo code. These concepts are required to understand to begin a journey of programming.

Basic programming courses can be found all over the internet for free (W3 Schools, Odin Project, Free Code Camp, Net Ninja, etc...). Vets Who Code could create their own basic programming course. By having that knowledge as a part of the pre-work we can assume several characteristics of our candidates. These applicants will have demonstrated the ability to find information on the internet and translate it into runnable code. Furthermore, this is prerequisite knowledge for teaching javascript syntax. We have run into instructors teaching "here's how to loop in Javascript" and students going "okay". Then when they go to enact a loop, they don't understand what the point of it is resulting in their projects not incorporating those concepts. It has led to quite a bit of confusion.

We hope that with this format of the pre-work, we'll be able to have clearer goals when it comes to programming in the boot camp.