The school breaks with the often-rigid methods and philosophy of the government-run education system wherever it can, and Mr. Niel believes it will produce graduates who are more innovative, more employable, more diverse and more useful to the stagnant French economy as a result.

But the French revere their schools system, the Éducation Nationale. And 42, billed as an affront to tradition, has proved a minor scandal here.

Its very name is a cryptic provocation: In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the zany science-fiction novel by Douglas Adams, which is a favorite of technology types here, the number 42 is proclaimed the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.”

“People say to us, ‘But why didn’t you see about working with the Éducation Nationale?’ ” said Mr. Niel, who has put up 70 million euros, or about $94 million, for 42’s first decade of operations.

“Well,” he said in an interview, “do you want this thing to work or not?”

The Ministry of Higher Education declined to comment on the new academy. But public officials acknowledge that existing institutions are failing to train students in skills that are in demand. Critics deride universities as “unemployment factories.” Despite a national jobless rate of nearly 11 percent, as many as 60,000 computer coding jobs are thought to be vacant in France, the government says, for lack of qualified candidates.