Apply for the Founding Cohort

Introducing Centizen Academy's First Cohort

Production-Ready Engineers,Not Prompt Operators

A 32-week AI-native engineering program, built and run inside Centizen, a US-based software company in Tirunelveli, where the curriculum comes from the work we actually ship.

Apply for the Founding CohortSee the Curriculum

  • 32 weeks: 24 weeks of core training, 8 weeks of residency

  • Built inside Centizen, the company behind ZenBasket and live client engineering work

  • Founding cohort, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, starting January 2027

  • 25 seats, by design

This is not a bootcamp. It is a residency inside a real company.

Most AI cohorts teach you to use AI tools on practice problems. We built this differently, because Centizen is not a training company that added a cohort. It is a software company, the one behind ZenBasket and ongoing client engineering work, that opened its own floor to a founding batch of engineers.

The first 24 weeks build the foundation: software engineering, backend, frontend, AI-native engineering, cloud and DevOps, a capstone, and the judgment to use AI tools well instead of depending on them blindly. The last 8 weeks are a residency, where you work on real Centizen and ZenBasket engineering work, not a simulated capstone built to look good on a certificate.

You will leave with production experience at a real company on your resume, not a training completion badge.

32 weeks, front to back

AI is not a module at the end. It is built into the program from week one.

24 weeks of core training

8 weeks of residency

Full week-by-week detail is on the curriculum page.

Professional Git workflows, Java idioms and design patterns, algorithmic complexity, production-grade SQL/PostgreSQL, concurrency, testing, and debugging.

Spring Boot, REST APIs, authorization, testing, Docker, and backend AI-code verification.

React, TypeScript, state management, API integration, UI fundamentals, and frontend verification.

Applied Python, AI tools, prompting-to-architecture workflows, RAG and LLM foundations, and AI verification.

AWS, deployment, IAM, CI/CD, monitoring, security scanning, and incident response.

Requirements, architecture, team delivery, deployment, and defense.

Supervised engineering work with staged access based on readiness and approval.

Taught by people who ship, not people who present

Every instructor here is an active engineer or leader at Centizen, teaching what they actually do.

  • [Placeholder: instructor name]

    [Placeholder: role at Centizen]

    [Placeholder: one real credential]

    [Placeholder: what they teach]

  • [Placeholder: instructor name]

    [Placeholder: role at Centizen]

    [Placeholder: one real credential]

    [Placeholder: what they teach]

  • [Placeholder: instructor name]

    [Placeholder: role at Centizen]

    [Placeholder: one real credential]

    [Placeholder: what they teach]

For parents: what this means for your child

We know you are evaluating this as closely as your child is. Here is what matters most, plainly stated.

Safety and stay

Accommodation guidance and assistance will be provided, prioritising safety and ease of commute.

Structure

Six days a week, defined hours, attendance tracked, with regular progress updates.

After the program

Real residency experience at Centizen, a capstone defense, and support connecting with employers. We are not promising a guaranteed job, and we will not claim one.

Full detail is in the FAQ, written for exactly the questions parents ask us directly.

One price

Introductory price for the founding cohort

Rs 1,50,000inclusive of GST

for the full 32-week program

Base fee
Rs 1,27,119
GST (CGST 9% + SGST 9%)
Rs 22,881
Total
Rs 1,50,000

Founding cohort pricing. Later cohorts will be priced higher, once we have real outcomes to show.

A GST-compliant tax invoice (SAC 999293, Centizen Technology Private Limited's GSTIN, CGST + SGST) will be issued for every payment.

Applications close 5 December 2026.

Apply for the Founding Cohort

How this compares

Self-studyTypical bootcampCentizen Academy
StructureNone, self-pacedFixed curriculumFixed curriculum, AI-native from week one
Real production workNoRarely, mostly simulated projectsYes, 8-week residency inside a real company
InstructorsRecorded contentMixed, often rotatingActive Centizen engineers
CostFree to lowRs 2 to 4 lakh+Rs 1,50,000 (inclusive of GST)

How admissions works

  1. Coding test, no AI assistance

    Shows us your real fundamentals.

  2. AI-assisted code review

    Shows us how you think with AI tools, not just whether you can use them.

  3. Oral defense

    A real conversation about your work with our team.

Applications close 5 December 2026. Founding cohort begins January 2027 in Tirunelveli.

Questions we get asked directly

See the full FAQ for complete answers.

Not really. Think of it more as an engineering apprenticeship or residency. You do not graduate because you sat through 32 weeks. You graduate after real production work, reviewed and signed off by a senior engineer, the same way a doctor graduates after residency, not after lectures.

The fee is Rs 1,50,000 (inclusive of GST) for the founding cohort. Later cohorts will be priced higher. A GST-compliant tax invoice (SAC 999293, Centizen Technology Private Limited's GSTIN, CGST + SGST) will be issued for every payment.

No. Qualified graduates may be considered for roles at Centizen, ZenBasket, Zenyo, or partner employers, and the Academy supports introductions, but hiring still depends on employer decisions and your own performance.

No. Access to real work is supervised and staged based on what you have already demonstrated. You start on Academy-controlled projects, and only move to Centizen, ZenBasket, or client work as your skills are proven. A mentor signs off on your work throughout.

Applications for the founding cohort are open

25 seats. Starting January 2027 in Tirunelveli.

Rs 1,50,000(inclusive of GST)Introductory price for the founding cohort

Apply for the Founding Cohort

Apply for the Founding Cohort