No, their business model is getting placement fees for whoever they graduate from the program. Considering this was a sponsored link on HN, endorsed by Y Combi

No, their business model is getting placement fees for whoever they graduate from the program. Considering this was a sponsored link on HN, endorsed by Y Combinator, I'd say you have a ridiculous threshold for labeling something a "scam", except to the degree that the companies committing to hire these people are pretty unlikely to get whatever they were hoping to get.