What is the 42 Madrid pool like?

In this article I am going to recount how I met and lived my experience in the 42 Madrid access test, known as “the pool”. Although I will omit many intrinsic details of the test —so that whoever explores doing it lives it fully—, I want to tell how it was for me.

How I met 42 Madrid

After years working in hospitality, I found myself in a hiatus, looking for a new direction in my life. As I mentioned in the previous post, computing had always been latent in me, and my Instagram algorithm knew it. One day it showed me a reel that started with the magic phrase:

“Do you want to learn to program for free?”

The first thing I thought was: What are you going to steal from me?

A fairly normal thought, considering the amount of “free” courses that circulate on the internet and that usually end up selling you a €2000 master’s degree or more. The market is full of bootcamps that promise you the job of your dreams in a few months, or that ensure “we won’t charge you until you get a job”, but hide small print everywhere.

Not all of them are like that, of course, but the general landscape invites distrust. The internet is plagued with expensive courses, without official certification, and sometimes outright scams. We tend to think —and with reason— that if something is free, it is because we are the product.

However, when I heard the name “Telefónica” in the ad, something changed. I thought:

“Damn, a company like that sounds serious.”

And indeed it was.

They sold the idea of a campus adapted to your pace and your situation, without the need for prior knowledge, gamified and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The only thing they asked for was to pass an access test and be of legal age that same year. No degrees, papers or payments. Totally free and free.

The first test

The first test was a small online test of about two hours. Simple, without the need for technical knowledge: rather a filter to check that you knew how to turn on a computer, open a browser and maintain concentration for more than ten minutes.

NOTE: a real milestone, considering how fried our brains are with so much TikTok.

After passing it, I was invited to an Open Day, where I could visit those impressive facilities, meet my first colleagues —whom I still keep today— and find out what came next.

The second test: the good one, the hard one, the “pool”

“Say goodbye to friends, family, girlfriends, pets, stuffed animals and life throughout this month.”

Honestly, it wasn’t an exaggeration. The test lasts that long: about 28 days without rest.

On the first day, around 400 people entered. You arrive, take the photo, sit in front of a computer and read the biggest motto of all 42:

“UP TO YOU”

The campus has several floors, with showers and beds for sleeping. And boy did we use them. During the pool, many of us chose to stay there programming all night, avoiding the hour and a half subway ride home.

With luck, you find a PDF that tells you what you have to deliver… into what look like ancient Chinese inscriptions. If you had never seen something like that, it’s hard to understand.

The first day I greeted many people with a “see you tomorrow”. I never saw them again.

By the second day we were about 300. A quarter had disappeared.

I tried searching on Google how to tackle the exercise, but upon despairing I asked the staff what I could do. Their answer was simple:

“You have 300 people to ask inside the campus.”

And there began the beautiful part: the peer-to-peer methodology. I started making friends with people who already knew something and asking them. When someone understood a concept, they explained it to another, and that one to another, until the wave of knowledge traveled throughout the campus. A collective environment was created, in which we all helped each other, learned and had fun.

IT WAS MAGICAL. TRULY, MAGICAL.

I had no idea how I had ended up there, but I was happy —stressed, yes— and determined to meet deadlines.

Fridays and their “special event”

The first Friday arrived. Back then, they warned you that on Fridays there were “special events” on campus. And now I can tell it, because they no longer hide it from new ones: the special event was…

AN EXAM.

How cool, right?

Everything followed an almost military order: you couldn’t speak, have tissues in your pockets or move much. The atmosphere was of absolute tension.

The exam lasted about four hours. My performance was so brilliant that, ten minutes in, they asked me to leave the room: I was not fit to take it. Fascinating.

The frustration was enormous. After a week of hard work, I felt that everything was falling apart. Of the 300 that remained, that day we were only about 200. Many did not return.

Even so, I am stubborn. I continued delivering new projects. The following Friday, another exam. This time I managed to advance somewhat, although little. The stress of feeling that I wasn’t passing anything and that maybe I was wasting time was brutal.

FRUSTRATION LEVEL: GOD.

But I was there. Thanks to the colleagues who resisted. In situations like this you make good friends quickly. We shared despair, frustration and sadness, but also mutual support. A community of people who held on together, trying to reach the end. To all of them, thanks.

Enjoying the process

“Weeks went by and the stress was palpable, but a beautiful point arrived: I started to enjoy the process.”

Learning, socializing, sharing our woes… From then on I lived one of the best moments of my life. I felt I had a goal, that I belonged to a warm group and that I was progressing. Even if I didn’t pass the test, I knew I was taking away lessons for forever.

Tolerance to frustration, study methodology and self-confidence. That was what the pool really taught me.

The last day

After that intense month, the last day arrived: the final exam, of about 8 hours. It started at 10 in the morning. With a handful of nuts in my pocket, I sat in front of the computer determined to give it my all.

After two or three hours, I realized I couldn’t advance any further. I didn’t have the necessary knowledge. Even so, I didn’t give up. I kept trying, rambling solutions, trying to understand something new for five more hours, without advancing a millimeter.

When time ran out, I had barely completed 25% of the exam. That afternoon I left in tears. Very nice enjoying the process, yes… but my tolerance for frustration had reached the limit.

The results of my pool

The evaluation criteria are totally secret. Once you finish, they tell you that you will have to wait between one and two months to know if you made it.

And yes: I spent those two months attacked by nerves, checking email every hour. Although in my head I was convinced I hadn’t passed, a small illusion remained alive.

At the beginning of the second month, the email arrived.

“You’re in.”

How to describe it? I can’t.

Many colleagues didn’t pass, and I wouldn’t know how to say how that feels. People with a lower level than me passed, others with more, others with the same. Of the 180 that remained in the last week, only 90 passed. Most had fallen by their own weight.

I don’t know what they evaluated in me, but I am thankful for having had it. Because, honestly, it changed my life.

Conclusion

If you are thinking of trying, do it. Whether you pass or not, if you can afford those 28 days, you will live a unique learning experience, that few places in the world can offer. Don’t let this post fool you: I have hidden many things, and not everything is pretty. But even so, it is very worth it.

In the end, the pool not only taught me to program, but to trust myself.

And yes, it turns out that in the end it was true: I sold my soul to the devil. Is it still considered free?

I leave here a small photo with all my colleagues who made it to the last day, whom I remember with great affection.

Thank you, 42.

— Juan Bautista “Volmer” Student at 42 Madrid and computer enthusiast. Learning to enjoy code, errors and the process.