Leonardo Rodriguez

Instructor Lead

New York City

Leonardo Rodriguez is a SEI Lead Instructor at General Assembly. Leo started off as a self-taught developer in 2013 as a way to start a new career path. This is where he discovered his passion to code as it gave him the ability to merge his logical and creative thinking into final products that people can use. After years of learning on his own, Leo decided to enroll in General Assembly's WDI course in 2018 in order to accelerate his learning and career. In 2019 Leo was hired as an IA for General Assembly's NYC campus. Upon finishing his first successful cohort as an IA he moved up to become a Lead Instructor at General Assembly's Stamford, Connecticut campus. Since 2020, Leo has led and assisted on over 30 enterprise-level courses for GA, including kicking off a software engineering program initiative in Thailand.

What is your favorite technical skill to work with on your own projects and why?

I like working with the backend in my projects because that's the backbone of any software. Data is everything when it comes to technology and when utilized correctly it can create a seamless experience for users.

My favorite technical skill to teach is how to design and consume APIs. APIs power nearly every modern application, so learning them gives students immediate access to real-world data and services. Everything from maps and weather to payments and social feeds. By mastering APIs, students not only avoid reinventing the wheel, they also develop a deeper understanding of skills that translate directly into production-ready software.

What matters most to me is teaching students how to solve problems for themselves. Problem-solving is a universal skill transferrable to every sector of tech. If you know how to research challenges, debug effectively, and iterate on solutions, you’ll be steps ahead in any project or role.

Utilization supersedes memorization. Unlike how we may have learned information in school growing up, you can't gain technical skills from memorization. You have to practice what you're learning even if it's just building a tiny project no one will ever see. Once you start getting your hands dirty and are forced to solve the most annoying bugs you've ever seen in your life is when you'll learn more than you ever would have from any textbook or YouTube video.

Learning how to code has opened up so many opportunities for me to be creative and also help others. I’ve built a Chrome extension that automatically blurs distracting YouTube thumbnails, created a Japanese learning chatbot using the OpenAI API, and delivered polished web applications that help small businesses scale. Bringing these projects to life has let me flex my technical skills while making everyday experiences smoother for both myself and my users, which is incredibly rewarding.