# Recurse Center

34 Hacker News commenters recommended Recurse Center and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (6 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a self-directed programming community that builds lasting friendships and shapes careers.

## Why people recommend it

- Community and lasting friendships (6 comments): "RC is a great community and I will be forever grateful to them for introducing me to several good friends" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952953)) "I had an incredible experience at RC in 2019. I still have friends from my batch." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48959934)) "I learned so much and made great friends at my six weeks in Brooklyn." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48953064))
- Lasting impact on careers and lives (5 comments): "has positively impacted over 3,000 people so far. And 15 years on I still wake up every day excited to keep working on it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48949552)) "Some of the best engineers I worked at got their start in programming at the recurse center" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48953555)) "It had a massive impact on my life, and I'm very grateful for the experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48964541))
- Self-directed, unstructured learning (3 comments): "RC is not a college course with exams and a fixed syllabus -- It was unstructured and self-directed -- and that's what made it so special." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48953338)) "it was great, lots of people working and exploring a lot of cool stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48538028)) "Recurse is a place to freely learn and explore." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49871319))
- Good for people who love programming (2 comments): "I would strongly suggest applying if you like computers and want to talk about them constantly while building cool stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48954640)) "when I did my batch, almost everyone I met was scrappy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48960962))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.recurse.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Recurse Center", https://hackerapproved.com/p/recurse-center/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).