Best Behavioral Interview Alternative
accelerate your Dev career
Accelerate your S.D. career has the best advice on personal presentation skills.
Best Full Coding Interview Prep Alternative
Interview Cake
Interview Cake is well-rounded interview prep at a medium price point.
Best Full-Scale Interview Kickstart Competitor
Scaler
Scaler is as much a viable choice as IK, as it offers extensive skill paths and valuable certification
In our analysis of its prep program, we've rated Interview Kickstart as worth your time and money.
But, we understand it's not for everyone:
- What’s criticized most is IK’s pricing: It starts at $2400 for their entry-level course and goes up to $11000 for the most advanced programs, with the average learning path setting you back around $7200.
- Another reason to look for an alternative could be that you want to brush up on only one part of interview skills, for example Data Structures and Algorithms, or Behavioral Interview prep. Then, shelling out the full price for IK would be overkill.
- Or maybe you are ready to enroll in a specialized program like Interview Kickstart, but want to check out if other companies offer a better curriculum or instruction. In that case, if you’d like you could skip right to the section about full-scale programs.
In this article you’ll learn all about IK’s competitors – and which of them you should choose depending on what kind of alternative you’re looking for.
Alternatives for Data Structures and Algorithms
If you don’t think you’re going to need a whole online bootcamp that certifies you in a Software Engineering or Data Science discipline, but want to brush up on your DSA skills to get ready for a coding interview, these IK alternatives are for you.
They’re laser-focused on the technical questions you’ll face during your next interview, and provide a solid learning environment for you to level up your skills.
Algo.Monster
Remember Interview Kickstart’s money-back job guarantee? AlgoMonster are offering the same deal – but their program is by multitudes cheaper.
With Algo.Monster, you’ll get:
160 hand-picked, tailored coding problems
A real-time coding environment right on the platform
700 insightful illustrations to accompany the instructions
Problem-solving patterns so you can handle any coding question
Pros of AlgoMonster vs Interview Kickstart:
Negatives compared to IK:
Interview Cake
While Interview Cake doesn’t offer the same job guarantee as Interview Kickstart or AlgoMonster, there’s a 100-day no questions asked refund policy.
Interview Cake is great at teaching you advanced algorithmic thinking, which will help you master solving and explaining any coding question. From combinatorics, on to bit manipulation, up to system design, the course covers all necessary topics to ace a coding interview.
The content is laid out well in multiple modules and includes over 50 hours of practice questions and readings.
I have a full writeup of Interview Cake's pros and cons.
Advantages of Interview Cake over Interview Kickstart:
What it lacks in comparison to IK:
Behavioral Interview Prep Alternatives
If you’ve got your technical skills dialed in and want to work mostly on behavioral interview preparation, you could get a program other than Interview Kickstart – improving your soft skills to a similar degree, but saving thousands of dollars in course fees.
Accelerate Your Software Developer Career - Simple Programmer
Simple Programmer’s course gives you an effective process for preparing your interview, approaching behavioral questions effectively, and even problem-solving patterns for technical questions.
In addition, I’ll teach you the tactics that have landed me multiple high-paying jobs as a developer:
How to streamline your job hunt
How to create the most persuasive personal presentation as a programmer
How to win at your salary negotiation
Land Your First Tech Job - Break Into Tech
‘Land Your First Tech Job’ is 100% focused on the career and behavioral skills needed to get a job, not on the coding questions themselves.
The interview prep course teaches you:
Resume skills
Interview skills
Confidence
Behavioral questions
It comes in a structured format with easy-to-consume instructional videos.
Full-Scale Interview Kickstart Competitors
Are you looking to do a multi-month online bootcamp or certification just like Interview Kickstart, but maybe taking issue with their pricing or any part of their curriculum?
Then have a look at these competitors offering programs of same or similar scope:
With Educative.io, you get curated skill paths that take you through different multi-week modules to the goal of a new job description, for example:
Front-End Developer
C++ Programmer
DevOps Expert
AWS Professional
Android Developer
and many more
Where Educative trumps Interview Kickstart:
The disadvantages of Educative vs. Interview Kickstart:
As a platform offering higher education online in conjunction with colleges around the world, upGrad boasts quality instruction and impressive credentials for any alumnus of their courses.
They include:
Full Stack Development Post Graduate Program
Master of Science in Computer Science
Cloud Backend Development Certification
Advanced Blockchain Certification
Advanced Cybersecurity Certification
But, the programs offered on Upgrad are equally as expensive as Interview Kickstart – so when it comes to pricing, it doesn’t have the same advantage as other alternatives do.
UpGrad's advantages over Interview Kickstart:
What IK is still doing better:
As one of IK’s main competitors, Scaler is mirroring some of their curriculum:
Every student first goes through a refresher on Computer Science fundamentals like Data Structures and Algorithms, then specializes in disciplines like Back-End or Full-Stack Engineering, all while perfecting System Design skills through real coding practice.
The pros of Scaler over IK:
Scaler's disadvantages vs ÌK:
Similar to IK, Outco is a complete program that coaches you to master technical and soft skills questions for your next Software Engineering interview.
The course takes you from the fundamentals to more advanced concepts in a systematic way over the span of one month.
These factors might make Outco a viable alternative:
Outco is worse than Interview Kickstart in these regards: