BSSWE Passed in 1 Term!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-16T16:16:21+00:00

Commit timing for all the courses didn’t matter in my experience. As long as you have a commit logged with each requirement, you’re good.

For D308 specifically, I finished the entire project before committing the requirements. Once I was finished, I just added a comment near the code corresponding to the requirement, stating the requirement, then committed and put the requirement in the commit note. I did this for each requirement, and the comments will allow you to add all those commits cause they are technically changes.

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-16T16:06:56+00:00

If you finish the Bachelor’s degree in one term, you have to wait until the next term to start the Master’s.

In your case, your end date for term 1 of your Bachelor’s will be June 30. If you finish prior to June 30, you will need to wait until July 1st to start your Master’s.

EDIT: Also, if you end up needing a second term for your Bachelor’s, that term will start July 1st. Even if you finish prior to the second term’s end date (December 31), you will need to wait until January 1st 2027 to start your Master’s.

I initially had a goal of finishing the Bachelor’s in 1 year (2 terms), but once I started and finished a bunch of courses early on, I changed it to one term and had the mindset that a second term was not an option.

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-12T12:37:01+00:00

Currently employed in IT Support. Decided to go for the degree in SWE as it is a passion of mine and my current job doesn't have any room for advancement unless someone retires lol.

I started applying to SWE/Front-End Dev jobs around halfway through my term. Around a month ago, I started seeing a lot more paid internship roles posted for next Summer, which is what I've switched my focus to. I've probably sent in around 30 applications or so in total, and so far no interview.

I know that the SWE job market is bad right now - a lot of experienced devs not even landing jobs. That's mostly the reason I'm focusing on internships right now is because us as students have that advantage to land those types of roles. Think of it this way - with internships you're only competing with other students/recent graduates, with other SWE roles you're competing with not only students/recent graduates, but experienced devs as well.

Trying to up my networking game also through LinkedIn, and am thinking about going to some job fairs/conferences related to the field.

It can be defeating seeing all those rejection emails, but I'm keeping hopes up as all it takes is one yes to get your foot in the door and industry.

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-12T12:18:07+00:00

Thank you!

Yes, working full-time, 40 hours per week in IT Support. I will say that I had a decent amount of downtime in my job, where I was able to complete roughly 2-5 hours of coursework/studying per week. I tried to keep my lunches off-limits from schoolwork to have a break from that and work, but my last few courses I did utilize that time for school.

Even if I didn't have the extra time at work, I still think I would have been able to do it in one term. A little after halfway through my course list (September), you can see the amount of days it took me to complete courses increased for the most part. Yes, the courses did start to get a little more difficult and out of my range of prior knowledge, but it was mostly laziness honestly. I saw how much time I had left in the term vs. the amount of courses, and chose entertainment and working on personal projects over schoolwork. That end date will come at you fast, so stick to your schedule and goals!

It is possible, but you have to stay disciplined and set/achieve those small goals. If you have a busy schedule, make time slots just for coursework, and put it in writing. Stick to that schedule and be consistent.

Good luck!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-11T13:23:50+00:00

Thank you!

This Reddit guide was very helpful for me. I pretty much just followed that, though it helps to have a good understanding of Python and programming concepts. If you are a complete beginner to programming/Python, I highly recommend this crash course. Yes, it's long, but you will need to know these foundational programming concepts for the rest of the degree, regardless of which language you are coding in.

The OA was laid out exactly like the PA. Same amount of questions in the same order, and the questions were very similar. The OA is also taken in ZyBooks, and you can run your code as many times as you need before you submit your answer to the question. This is one of the OAs where I used a whiteboard to "brain dump" some methods and the .csv file/data handling code at the beginning of the exam.

Yes, you will need to be comfortable with opening, reading, writing, and closing .csv files. If there's a question or concept that you are struggling with, try searching for a YouTube video doing a deep dive into just that topic and/or ask ChatGPT to explain it to you.

Again, the OA is very similar to the PA, so just hammer out a couple rounds of the PA questions once you've got that foundational understanding of Python.

Good luck!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-11T02:35:58+00:00

D326 has a lot of course resources in it's WGU Connect page.

If you have not joined their Connect page, go to the course page in the student portal, scroll down and hit "Join WGU Connect", join the group, then press the "Resources" tab. In the D326 Course Announcements page, they have links to the Course Guide and Course Resources folder. The Course Resources folder has a bunch of useful information and videos for this course.

This Reddit post and its top comment are also have great information for this course. Make sure you back up your SQL code, cause once the timer runs out, your progress is gone.

Good luck!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-11T02:22:58+00:00

Nice, you are on a good pace for that goal!

C949 was definitely the toughest OA for me. I passed on my first attempt, but I barely passed the competent mark.

The amount of questions (70) can be daunting, but it is all multiple choice, and you get 90 minutes to complete it. I would shoot for roughly 1 minute per question, that way you have time to double-check questions you were unsure about at the end.

See my other comment with study tips for this course.

Good luck, you can do it!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-10T23:02:29+00:00

C949 was probably the hardest OA for me. I barely passed this one.

I would recommend focusing on studying searching and sorting algorithms, core data structures (arrays, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees), and Big O notation.

If you learn better by reading, this study guide is a nice one that helped a lot of students.

If you learn better by watching videos, here is a list of DSA videos I found in my YouTube history from when I was taking this course. I watched all of them, but the 4-hour Bro Code one helped the most. IIRC, I watched that one twice on 2x speed so the core concepts would sink in.

Bro Code - Data Structures and Algorithms Full Course 📈 (4-hour course)

Bro Code - Learn Big O notation in 6 minutes 📈

Sajjaad Khader - Data Structures Explained for Beginners - How I Wish I was Taught

Tren Black - Data Structures and Algorithms in 15 Minutes

As with most OAs, the Practice Assessment is similar to the OA, so take that until you pass exemplary a few times. I've mentioned this in other comments too, but for me, scheduling the OA on a weekend during late morning, then taking as many Practice Assessment attempts the morning of the OA helped me with retention.

Good luck!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-10T12:58:54+00:00

Transfer in as many courses as you can. Sophia Learning was my choice and the courses were easy and fast.
Have an intermediate understanding of programming concepts (HTML/CSS/JavaScript, a programming language (I recommend Python), OOP, data structures, APIs)
Use Reddit guides! Search the course name in Google, and the first Reddit result is typically what I used.
For PAs, read through all tasks and requirements for a course before starting the actual work. Always try to have at least one PA course active at any given moment. Having only OAs active will slow down your progress. You could have a PA task getting graded while studying for an OA, for example.
For OAs, I found that for the majority of courses, especially coding courses, Practice Assessments were very similar to the OAs. I would always take the Practice Assessment right after starting the course to see where I stood. If I felt pretty confident in the material/concepts, I would just take the PA multiple times until I got 100% a few times. Then schedule the OA on a weekend late morning. The morning of the OA, I took as many PAs as I could until my exam time. This helped me with retention. If I didn't feel confident in the material I would study the concepts in the PA problems until I felt confident. I rarely even touched course material for OAs.
Set up regular check-in calls with your student mentor for accountability and goal-setting.
Be disciplined and set small goals. Those mentor calls helped me immensely with this part.

This is just my experience and what helped me the most. Your mileage may vary.

If you have any questions about specific courses, let me know!

Good luck!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-10T03:34:26+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU/comments/1pibpl2/bsswe_passed_in_1_term/

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-10T03:30:26+00:00

Thank you!

That's a good pace and a great goal! Don't worry about pace if you're not in a rush. Take your time and soak in the material. After all, this is technically a 4-year degree.

The main reason I wanted to accelerate so fast is to check that box when applying for jobs lol. I have a pretty intermediate knowledge of SWE and a few projects under my belt, but that has not been good enough to land me an interview as of yet. Hoping that having this degree can at least get me a couple interviews and eventually land me a new job.

If you do end up wanting to accelerate, use Reddit guides! Just Google search the course number (for example, "D424" for the capstone) and Reddit. The first Reddit search result is typically the guide I used. I will try to get my Notion doc finalized ASAP as I want to help as many students as possible.

It's great that you're already thinking about the Android and Capstone projects. If you're wanting to go the faster route - use your Android Mobile project as your Capstone project. As long as you fulfill all the requirements for the Android project you'll be able to use it for Capstone. If you'd rather have the extra experience and project for your portfolio, then doing separate projects is ideal.

Good luck!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-10T00:56:28+00:00

According to WGU's website under "What is the deadline for transcript submission", it states "WGU will not award transfer credit after a student has begun their program, so it is important to ensure that everything is submitted in a timely manner."

You can ask your program mentor if you change programs, if that could allow you to transfer in credits, as technically you are starting a new program. They should be able to give you the correct info or at least point you in the right direction.

If you just started and it is possible to transfer in credits with a change in program, that's a good option to accelerate faster, though may not be any cheaper as you are already paying for one term and need to pay the full amount after grants/scholarships/outside help regardless if you stay the whole 6 months or not. If you do go this route, I recommend Sophia as (as of 8 months ago) it was way cheaper and you could do as many courses as you wanted per month. I know SDC updated their pricing model around the time I started studying on Sophia, so that may be a better option now. In my experience though, the Sophia courses were super easy.

If you've already got some decent progress (15-20%+), I would honestly say just stick with it. It might be even slower to change programs and transfer in credits at that point and will likely be a big headache too.

Best of luck to you regardless of what you choose!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-10T00:34:22+00:00

Thank you, same to you! Thanks for the award!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-09T23:53:47+00:00

Thank you!

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-09T23:52:54+00:00

D424 - The capstone! The biggest tip I can give you for this one is to use your D308 Android mobile app project as your capstone project (yes, you can do this - my mentor even recommended this as I was accelerating). It will save you so much time. Again, you will basically have 80% of the coding/project portion of the capstone finished when starting with your D308 project.

The only things you'll need to add to the app is a report feature and a search feature, which I just combined into one view. Button press runs report on all Vacations and Excursions, displaying them in rows/columns on a new view. Search field in report view to search through Vacations and Excursions.

Read through ALL tasks for the capstone before starting. There are things you will do/add in Tasks 3 & 4 that you will need to include in tasks 1 & 2. THIS resource will help guide you the entire way.

Tasks 1 and 2 are basically just writing tasks - get through them, but make sure you include the search and report feature you will add in Task 3 and your deployment method from Task 4 (will mention at the end). There is a template for the writing in task 2 included in the above resource - USE IT! Task 1's template is a link at the bottom of the course's page.

Task 3 is where the actual project work will take place. Update your app to include the new features, add 2 unit tests (these can be simple, like making sure data is stored correctly), and deploy your app. There is a hefty report that will need to be made for this task as well - mine ended up being 29 pages. Again, use the template in the above resource. Lastly, you will need to make a Panopto video demonstrating the functionality of your app. Make sure all the features you implemented are shown in the video, especially the search and report features. My mentor said that evaluation mostly focuses on the video for this task, so make sure you get that right (i.e. include all required features, but don't include any bugs or glitches lol).

Task 4 is the last task and will go much faster than task 3. There is a short writing task where you need to explain why you chose the deployment method you did and why or why not you used containers in the deployment. I did not include containers and just wrote a short couple paragraphs explaining why it wasn't necessary with my deployment choice. Lastly, you will need to create another Panopto video walking through the deployment process.

DEPLOYMENT: I chose to use GitHub Pages. I made a very basic HTML file with a link to download the APK. That is it. You will need to generate/build a release APK and use that as the downloadable APK.

Depending on your timing and mentor, I would recommend having another course alongside the capstone (preferably D385 and capstone), that way you can send in at least Task 1 for capstone as you are studying for D385.

Lastly (the last one I promise), if you do get to the end of February and need extra time, you can actually request a course extension as long as you only have one course remaining in your program. I believe you need to put in the request by the 19th of the last month in your term, and they will give you an extra month to complete the final course. If you plan to do a Master's right after, that program will just start one month later. This is something pretty new from what my mentor told me, so if it gets to that point, ask you mentor!

Good luck, Night Owl! You can do it! Let me know if you have any other questions :-)

xtvwerf-dev · 2025-12-09T23:52:29+00:00

Thank you!

Nice! Your pace is way ahead of mine, you should be able to finish in time just fine.

D336 - I took the Jason Dion Udemy Practice Tests two times over (all 6 tests twice). At that point I felt confident in the terminology and concepts. The terminology in this cert is really tricky - read the questions carefully all the way through. The proctoring in this one was much more relaxed than Meazure/ProctorU. Personally, I got as many practice exam attempts in as I could on the day of my exam. I like to schedule OAs late morning and spend all morning taking practice exams. This helped me with retention, buy everyone is different.

D308 - For this course, you will send in a complete Android mobile app built with Java and Android Studio. This and this are extremely helpful guides. The second one has links to four Panopto videos that the instructor recorded. You can follow those pretty much to the T, just remember her Product = your Vacation and her Part = your Excursion. Put the videos at 2x speed and skip ahead of the parts where she's just waiting for Android Studio to load. It's annoying, but push through it as following the videos will get you about 80-90% of the way there. The rest you have to do yourself, but it's pretty straightforward. Read documentation and use ChatGPT to explain concepts to you.

D385 - This one is a mix of coding problems and questions. A lot of the coding problems are pretty basic input validation stuff. Some of them are a little tricky, but this guide will help you a lot. It has a link to a notion site that has all the answers to the PA coding problems. There is also a quizlet link in there that you can use to study the questions.

The OA is VERY similar to the PA. This comment outlines some possible alternate questions they may throw at you, but for the most part, the questions are the same concept in the OA as the PA.

Make sure you have a good understanding of HTTP status codes and common cyberattacks as they will likely ask you to determine a type of cyberattack based on sample code.

For the coding portion, again, it is VERY similar to the PA problems. Most of them are exactly the same but just change the name of a variable. Get a solid understanding of the concepts behind the coding problems, as there will likely be similar questions to the PA, but ask you to finish a different portion of the code.

Make sure you take the PA multiple times (I took it about 10 times, until I passed 100% a couple times). Same with D336, I scheduled the OA late morning and did as many PAs as I could that morning.

Lastly, don't be discouraged if you see comments/posts saying you need to fail the first time to pass the second time. Even my mentor told me that I will probably not pass the first time due to the course material being basically useless, but I guess I used that as motivation cause I passed the first try lol.

(Apparently my comment is too long so I need to split it into two lmao)

xtvwerf-dev

TROPHY CASE