CodeSignal's
University Ranking
Report
A data-driven ranking of universities based on the demonstrated programming and software engineering skills of their graduates.
Key findings
Key insights from analyzing real-world engineering skills across universities based on our skills-based ranking methodology.
2 of our top 50 universities
are not in the traditional US News Top 50, based on demonstrated skills
#11 Stony Brook
breaks into our top rankings — a university often overlooked by traditional rankings
MIT holds #1
with students in the 76th percentile
50 universities ranked
Universities ranked by median assessment performance of their students on standardized coding assessments.
5 dark horse universities
Smaller programs with outsized skill performance, including Stony Brook, Harvey Mudd, RPI, and 2 more.
Top 50 Universities
Ranked by median assessment performance of students. Search and sort to explore.
Rank | University |
|---|---|
| #1 |  MIT mit.edu |
| #2 |  Harvard harvard.edu |
| #3 |  Rice rice.edu |
| #4 |  Columbia columbia.edu |
| #5 |  Yale yale.edu |
| #6 |  Washington washington.edu |
| #7 |  UChicago uchicago.edu |
| #8 |  Stanford stanford.edu |
| #9 |  UCLA ucla.edu |
| #10 |  CMU cmu.edu |
| #11 |  Stony Brook stonybrook.edu |
| #12 |  Texas A&M tamu.edu |
| #13 |  UC Berkeley berkeley.edu |
| #14 |  Northwestern northwestern.edu |
| #15 |  USC usc.edu |
| #16 |  NC State ncsu.edu |
| #17 |  UC San Diego ucsd.edu |
| #18 |  Brown brown.edu |
| #19 |  Duke duke.edu |
| #20 |  UC Santa Barbara ucsb.edu |
| #21 |  Minnesota umn.edu |
| #22 |  UMass umass.edu |
| #23 |  Indiana indiana.edu |
| #24 |  UPenn upenn.edu |
| #25 |  Illinois illinois.edu |
| #26 |  Michigan umich.edu |
| #27 |  Georgia Tech gatech.edu |
| #28 |  UT Austin utexas.edu |
| #29 |  Cornell cornell.edu |
| #30 |  Dartmouth dartmouth.edu |
| #31 |  Princeton princeton.edu |
| #32 |  UC Irvine uci.edu |
| #33 |  Ucdavis ucdavis.edu |
| #34 |  Purdue purdue.edu |
| #35 |  NYU nyu.edu |
| #36 |  Rochester rochester.edu |
| #37 |  Vanderbilt vanderbilt.edu |
| #38 |  Tufts tufts.edu |
| #39 |  Uw uw.edu |
| #40 |  Neu neu.edu |
| #41 |  Florida ufl.edu |
| #42 |  Usfca usfca.edu |
| #43 |  Buffalo buffalo.edu |
| #44 |  UIC uic.edu |
| #45 |  Arizona State asu.edu |
| #46 |  Notre Dame nd.edu |
| #47 |  Rit rit.edu |
| #48 |  Northeastern northeastern.edu |
| #49 |  Santa Clara scu.edu |
| #50 |  UT Dallas utdallas.edu |
Where top talent goes
Assessment data reveals hiring patterns across industries for graduates from the highest-performing universities
Northeastern
USC
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
CMU
Arizona State
NYU
Cornell
Columbia
Illinois
Michigan
UC Irvine
Northeastern
USC
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
CMU
Arizona State
NYU
Cornell
Columbia
Illinois
Michigan
UC IrvineHidden gems
These universities may not top traditional ranking lists, but their graduates demonstrate strong programming and software engineering skills
Stony Brook
stonybrook.edu
Harvey Mudd
hmc.edu
RPI
rpi.edu
Swarthmore
swarthmore.edu
Rochester
rochester.edu
Methodology
A transparent look at our data-driven ranking methodology
Data-driven skills-based rankings
Unlike traditional university rankings that rely on reputation surveys and funding metrics, our ranking is based entirely on the demonstrated programming and software engineering skills of each university's students, as measured through standardized assessments.
Inclusion Criteria
- Proctored and successfully verified results only
- Minimum 30 unique students per university
- Best score per student (not averages across attempts)
- Assessment period: 2020-02-01 to 2021-01-31
Scoring Method
Universities are ranked by their students' median percentile on CodeSignal's General Coding Assessment (GCA) and Industry Coding Assessment (ICA). The percentile represents where a university's typical student falls compared to all test-takers.