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.
4 of our top 50 universities
are not in the traditional US News Top 50, based on demonstrated skills
#1 Stony Brook
breaks into our top rankings — a university often overlooked by traditional rankings
Stony Brook holds #1
with students in the 78th percentile
Biggest mover: Princeton
Climbed 11 spots to #16 compared to last year's ranking.
10 dark horse universities
Smaller programs with outsized skill performance, including Stony Brook, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, and 7 more.
Top 50 Universities
Ranked by median assessment performance of students. Search and sort to explore.
Rank | University |
|---|---|
| #1 |  Stony Brook stonybrook.edu |
| #2 |  MIT mit.edu |
| #3 |  Yale yale.edu |
| #4 |  Stanford stanford.edu |
| #5 |  CMU cmu.edu |
| #6 |  Caltech caltech.edu |
| #7 |  Rice rice.edu |
| #8 |  Harvard harvard.edu |
| #9 |  Brown brown.edu |
| #10 |  UPenn upenn.edu |
| #11 |  USC usc.edu |
| #12 |  Columbia columbia.edu |
| #13 |  UC Berkeley berkeley.edu |
| #14 |  UChicago uchicago.edu |
| #15 |  Cornell cornell.edu |
| #16 |  Princeton princeton.edu |
| #17 |  UMass umass.edu |
| #18 |  UC San Diego ucsd.edu |
| #19 |  Harvey Mudd hmc.edu |
| #20 |  Duke duke.edu |
| #21 |  Illinois illinois.edu |
| #22 |  UC Irvine uci.edu |
| #23 |  UT Austin utexas.edu |
| #24 |  UCLA ucla.edu |
| #25 |  WashU wustl.edu |
| #26 |  UC Santa Barbara ucsb.edu |
| #27 |  Michigan umich.edu |
| #28 |  Northwestern northwestern.edu |
| #29 |  Washington washington.edu |
| #30 |  NC State ncsu.edu |
| #31 |  Brandeis brandeis.edu |
| #32 |  Georgia Tech gatech.edu |
| #33 |  NYU nyu.edu |
| #34 |  Florida ufl.edu |
| #35 |  Arizona State asu.edu |
| #36 |  Dartmouth dartmouth.edu |
| #37 |  Wisconsin wisc.edu |
| #38 |  Udel udel.edu |
| #39 |  Boston University bu.edu |
| #40 |  Notre Dame nd.edu |
| #41 |  Uw uw.edu |
| #42 |  Vanderbilt vanderbilt.edu |
| #43 |  Ucdavis ucdavis.edu |
| #44 |  Tufts tufts.edu |
| #45 |  Pittsburgh pitt.edu |
| #46 |  Buffalo buffalo.edu |
| #47 |  Texas A&M tamu.edu |
| #48 |  Purdue purdue.edu |
| #49 |  San Jose State sjsu.edu |
| #50 |  Arizona arizona.edu |
Where top talent goes
Assessment data reveals hiring patterns across industries for graduates from the highest-performing universities
NYU
CMU
Illinois
Northeastern
USC
UC Berkeley
Georgia Tech
Columbia
Cornell
UC San Diego
Michigan
UT Austin
NYU
CMU
Illinois
Northeastern
USC
UC Berkeley
Georgia Tech
Columbia
Cornell
UC San Diego
Michigan
UT AustinHidden 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
Swarthmore
swarthmore.edu
Brandeis
brandeis.edu
Williams
williams.edu
Middlebury
middlebury.edu
Bucknell
bucknell.edu
Bowdoin
bowdoin.edu
San Jose State
sjsu.edu
RPI
rpi.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: 2022-02-01 to 2023-01-31
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.