CIRR (Council on Integrity in Results Reporting)
What Is CIRR?
The Council on Integrity in Results Reporting (CIRR) is a voluntary industry body that establishes standardised definitions for bootcamp outcomes reporting and submits member data for independent audit.
CIRR was founded by a group of coding bootcamps that wanted to establish credible, comparable outcomes data. Membership is voluntary — bootcamps that join CIRR agree to use CIRR’s standardised definitions and submit their data for third-party audit.
The CIRR Definition of “Hired in Field”
CIRR’s standardised definition of “hired in field” is: employed as a software developer, software engineer, or directly related technical role within 180 days of the graduation date listed in the CIRR database.
This definition excludes:
- Any employment in a non-technical role (including IT support, QA testing at a non-developer rate, and similar roles that some bootcamps count as “tech employment”)
- Students who deferred their job search
- Students who did not participate in the CIRR tracking (all enrolled students must be included in the denominator, including those who dropped out or chose not to job-search)
- Students who found employment after the 180-day window
The 180-day window and the “directly related technical role” definition make CIRR’s placement rate a significantly more conservative — and more honest — metric than most self-reported bootcamp statistics.
How CIRR Data Is Audited
CIRR member bootcamps submit their cohort data through CIRR’s reporting system. The data is then audited by a third-party accounting firm against the submitted records. The audit verifies that:
- All enrolled students are included in the cohort (dropouts cannot be quietly excluded)
- Employment claims are supported by verifiable offers or employment verification
- The roles claimed as “in-field” meet CIRR’s definition
The audit reports are published on CIRR’s website. This means prospective students can access the actual audit data, not just the school’s marketing summary of that data.
Current CIRR Members (Verify at cirr.org)
The CIRR member list changes as schools join and leave. As of our January 2026 review, CIRR members include App Academy and BloomTech. Codesmith has also been a CIRR member in previous years.
Always verify the current member roster directly at cirr.org/schools before relying on any list, including this one.
CIRR vs Self-Reported: The Numbers Gap
When the same bootcamp publishes a CIRR-audited rate and a self-reported rate, the self-reported rate is almost always higher. The gap can be substantial — 15-25 percentage points in some cases. This is not because bootcamps are deliberately lying; it is because the self-reported methodology naturally excludes the students who do not count positively (dropouts, non-searchers, students still searching) in ways that CIRR does not allow.
What CIRR Doesn’t Cover
CIRR is an improvement over self-reporting, not a perfect transparency standard. CIRR does not standardise:
- Starting salary reporting (median vs mean; which salaries are included)
- Time-to-employment (the 180-day window is CIRR’s, but individual averages within that window vary)
- Employer quality (a role at a staffing agency vs a product company vs a FAANG employer are all “in-field” under CIRR)
- Geographic variation (a $85,000 role in Nebraska vs a $85,000 role in San Francisco represents very different purchasing power)
For salary outcomes, ask for both median and mean, and ask for the geographic distribution of where graduates found employment.
Using CIRR Data in Your Decision
- Go to cirr.org/schools and verify whether your target bootcamp is listed
- If listed, download the most recent cohort report (not a marketing summary — the actual CIRR report)
- Note the cohort year — the 2020-2021 reports may not reflect 2024-2025 market conditions
- Compare the CIRR-audited placement rate against peer CIRR members, not against non-CIRR self-reported rates (apples to apples)
- Note the salary data if published, and verify whether it is median or mean
If a bootcamp is not a CIRR member, treat its published placement statistics as an upper bound, not a reliable estimate.