42 is a private, nonprofit and tuition-free computer programming school that proposes a new way of learning: no teachers, students learning one from others (peer to peer learning). You learn coding from stratch so no prior knowledge required. However, if you have some coding experience, you can make all the process less stressful.
The Piscine (from the French word for "swimming pool") is the last phase before full admission to the 42 Berlin program. It's 4 weeks long, designed to learn the basics of programming. Piscine is very intensive period and in my experience, it is very difficult to manage when you have a job. The time is very limited and you have to be at school day and night to pass.
During the initial two days of Piscine; participants focus on acquiring knowledge about basic to intermediate shell commands. This helps them become proficient in navigating through the terminal smoothly. However, in general, the main programming language taught is C. This includes various concepts such as variables, pointers, memory allocation, macros, and the creation of functions and programs. Students also learn about using and creating libraries and Makefiles.
There are 2 Shell, 13 C language and 3 Rush projects in the Piscine process, but it is difficult to finish them all. Just as an example; I had no coding experience and I was able to complete 1 shell and 6 C projects. As far as I know there are no strict rules for becoming a student. So it's not just about completing a lot of projects to get through the process successfully,exams are also very important too. It is also important to fit in with the culture of the school and to help each other. Good luck!