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
#5 Stony Brook
breaks into our top rankings — a university often overlooked by traditional rankings
MIT holds #1
with students in the 66th percentile
Biggest mover: Dartmouth
Climbed 23 spots to #13 compared to last year's ranking.
2 dark horse universities
Smaller programs with outsized skill performance, including Stony Brook, and Harvey Mudd.
Top 50 Universities
Ranked by median assessment performance of students. Search and sort to explore.
Rank | University |
|---|---|
| #1 |  MIT mit.edu |
| #2 |  CMU cmu.edu |
| #3 |  Rice rice.edu |
| #4 |  UChicago uchicago.edu |
| #5 |  Stony Brook stonybrook.edu |
| #6 |  Yale yale.edu |
| #7 |  Caltech caltech.edu |
| #8 |  Stanford stanford.edu |
| #9 |  UPenn upenn.edu |
| #10 |  UC Berkeley berkeley.edu |
| #11 |  UCLA ucla.edu |
| #12 |  UC San Diego ucsd.edu |
| #13 |  Dartmouth dartmouth.edu |
| #14 |  Duke duke.edu |
| #15 |  UT Austin utexas.edu |
| #16 |  Illinois illinois.edu |
| #17 |  UC Irvine uci.edu |
| #18 |  Brown brown.edu |
| #19 |  Cornell cornell.edu |
| #20 |  Northwestern northwestern.edu |
| #21 |  Georgia Tech gatech.edu |
| #22 |  USC usc.edu |
| #23 |  Columbia columbia.edu |
| #24 |  Princeton princeton.edu |
| #25 |  Washington washington.edu |
| #26 |  Harvard harvard.edu |
| #27 |  Michigan umich.edu |
| #28 |  UMass umass.edu |
| #29 |  UC Santa Barbara ucsb.edu |
| #30 |  Wisconsin wisc.edu |
| #31 |  Harvey Mudd hmc.edu |
| #32 |  Johns Hopkins jhu.edu |
| #33 |  Arizona State asu.edu |
| #34 |  NYU nyu.edu |
| #35 |  Santa Clara scu.edu |
| #36 |  Vanderbilt vanderbilt.edu |
| #37 |  Indiana indiana.edu |
| #38 |  Howard howard.edu |
| #39 |  San Jose State sjsu.edu |
| #40 |  Buffalo buffalo.edu |
| #41 |  Texas A&M tamu.edu |
| #42 |  Purdue purdue.edu |
| #43 |  Ucdavis ucdavis.edu |
| #44 |  Florida ufl.edu |
| #45 |  NC State ncsu.edu |
| #46 |  UCSC ucsc.edu |
| #47 |  Virginia virginia.edu |
| #48 |  Maryland umd.edu |
| #49 |  WashU wustl.edu |
| #50 |  Uw uw.edu |
Where top talent goes
Assessment data reveals hiring patterns across industries for graduates from the highest-performing universities
Northeastern
UC Berkeley
NYU
Georgia Tech
Cornell
USC
UT Austin
Michigan
Illinois
MIT
CMU
Arizona State
Northeastern
UC Berkeley
NYU
Georgia Tech
Cornell
USC
UT Austin
Michigan
Illinois
MIT
CMU
Arizona StateHidden 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
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: 2023-02-01 to 2024-01-31
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.