Interview Kickstart and Scaler can look like they were built on the same plan but then went their separate ways.
They do share some similarities: both feature live classes, virtual training, pre-recorded video courses, and so on.
But is that all there is to expect of a good tech interview prep platform? Not at all.
We also look at such things as, which is more comprehensive and more affordable. Which one offers a better after-end-of-training support lifespan?
There is also the issue of the amount of self-practice you can expect from a particular software platform.
Any tech interview course that manages to tick all the right boxes in the above categories can be termed a “perfect” course. Can Interview Kickstart or Scaler claim that title? We’ll see.
If they don’t, we can declare it an open battle and involve their alternatives in the contest. We just need to pick the right one for our needs. Passing coding interviews is no easy task.
No doubt, you are eager to find out the winner in this review. Let’s begin.
Interview Kickstart vs Scaler – Overview
Interview Kickstart is an online platform with a wide selection of courses to help software engineers prepare for tech interviews and pass them with flying colors.
Interview Kickstart was launched in 2014 so evidently, it’s had a good deal of experience in its role as a tech interview prep platform.
The platform was founded by Soham Mehta and Ryan Valles who were themselves recruiters and managers in some of the world’s biggest tech companies.
The mode of training is your choice. You can have in-person classes or go with the virtual conference option.
The platform has got plenty of skilled instructors such as Qiuping X and Adrian Fernandez who have been employees with FAANG companies like Google, Amazon, Uber, et cetera.
If you ask the average upcoming software engineer, chances are they dream of working in a FAANG company. You know where this is going right? Loads of insider information in addition to all the technical training.
What do we have with Scaler? Scaler is also an online academy for preparing for tech interviews. It aims to help working professionals and college students sharpen their coding skills to build their careers and create impact.
Scaler is an Indian company with headquarters in Bangalore that was launched in 2019 by the owners of InterviewBit Technologies, a large company that’s a tech interview prep hub.
Scaler is a youngster next to Interview Kickstart—age-wise of course. But age doesn’t tell the whole story.
And we can see that from the number of companies Scaler claims to have representatives in. There are dozens of them aside from the Big Five.
Scaler can help you learn from the ground up if you are a newbie. Otherwise, you can pick up from the advanced level.
Like Interview Kickstart, Scaler offers live classes for training. To join them, you have to sign up, pick a course and book your seat before all the available slots are taken.
If you miss any of the sessions, don’t worry. The recording will be made available.
There are several dozens of courses to pick from in Scaler. They are categorized into software development and data science slash machine learning.
Alternatively, a learner can combine the two categories into one under the master’s degree program.
Many of the courses are taught in live or virtual classes while others are taught in pre-recorded videos. Just like we have it in Interview Kickstart.
Scaler Academy has up to a thousand tech experts and coding gurus from nearly all walks of companies serving as instructors, coaches, and mentors.
Interview Kickstart vs. Scaler – Differences
Interview Kickstart and Scaler have many differences even though they are both for coding training and practice.
They both have their way of grooming tech enthusiasts to find a place in the global tech industry and grow from there.
Let’s go over their take on some of the features that have become a staple among tech interview prep platforms. They are interview questions, coding interface, programming languages, courses offered, and community support.
Interview Questions
Interview Kickstart and Scaler both offer mock interviews. These preparatory drills gear up students for real-life interviews.
Scaler and Interview Kickstart have both gone to great lengths to liaise with high-ranking companies to provide interview questions that resemble what the real ones will be like.
The good thing about these advanced tests is that participants will receive feedback on their performance as well as additional tips from the instructors involved.
Another plus point is that these mock interviews are easily accessible in-person or via virtual training.
Coding Interface for Practice
A good tech interview prep platform has a coding interface that allows learners to solve code problems, run the solutions and check them against the correct answers in real-time.
Interview Kickstart and Scaler both have software that allows learners to practice code in an interactive environment.
On Scaler, the coding interface is common with self-guided courses and tutorials.
Programming languages
It’s always good to check that your tech interview prep platform of choice has a good number of programming languages.
Scaler and Interview Kickstart (IK) have tutorials on several programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, Kotlin, C++, and so on.
You can learn these programming languages conveniently and know how to write programs with them as a software developer.
Many tech companies like to see how skilled you are with on-site coding and you don’t want to be left stranded when being tested.
Courses offered
There are a lot of courses you can learn with the help of these two platforms, IK and Scaler.
It now depends on whether you want to be an expert in multiple aspects of software engineering or you want to narrow it down.
Scaler will be the better option in that regard. It allows you to take a master’s program where you can combine the aspects of software development and machine learning and all the topics therein.
Interview Kickstart on the other hand has about 18-course specialties like backend engineering, test engineering, and so on.
Here are some of the courses both platforms offer:
Scaler
• Intro to Programming
This module is for those who are new to coding but have an idea of what it entails.
Some of the topics addressed here include decision trees and control, strings and loops, et cetera.
• Programming Constructs
You will be skipped to this module if you select the intermediate level of learning.
This is where you learn about number systems and bit manipulation, array techniques, OOPs, and so on.
• Problem Solving & CS Fundamentals
Advanced learners who have good knowledge of coding and can build apps, will be able to skip to this point.
It will last for 15 weeks and treat such topics as time complexity, arrays, strings, and bit manipulation, among others.
Interview Kickstart
The first four out of eighteen specialties are highlighted below:
Backend engineering
The module lasts for 13 weeks during which time you’ll learn coding and data structures, scalable systems, backend domain courses, et cetera.
Full stack engineering
The curriculum for this module enables students to get the horizontal and vertical expertise they will need as full-stack engineers working in tier one companies.
Some of the treats here include lecture and take-home activities, lots of topics ranging from algorithms to behavioral interviews as well as access to mock interviews.
Front-end engineering
If you are a software engineer, you’ve placed yourself in good stead to apply to a FAANG company.
Add a front-end specialization and you get a very high chance of being hired. It’s that popular.
The curriculum gives students both the traditional computer science training and the front-end engineering materials they need to succeed.
Engineering Manager
This course is for aspiring senior engineering professionals who wish to learn engineering management roles at tier one companies.
The course will teach everything from scalable systems to leadership in 12 weeks.
The leadership sessions will teach such things as icebreakers, motivation, team and culture, and so on. At the end of these training sessions, students will be well equipped to manage tasking projects in any tech company.
And so on.
Community
I’d have second thoughts about a training platform sooner than usual if it lacked a community.
Luckily, that’s not the case here. IK and Scaler both have full-fledged communities where a lot of discussions and problem-solving interactions take place.
For IK, it’s a Facebook community while Scaler chose an in-house community solution.
On both platforms, the communities are immediately open to you as soon as you enroll for training.
Interview Kickstart vs. Scaler—Pricing
Before drawing the curtain on this contest, let’s talk about their pricing. That will give us a clear idea of their respective price-to-value ratios.
Interview Kickstart Price
Right now, the current price of IK’s program is $5600. There is also a paid trial which costs $600. That adds up to $6200 if you run the trial and pay for the full program.
Paying the bills allows you to enjoy all of the training and still have six more months of support.
Scaler Price
Scaler will indicate their pricing plans to you when you contact their customer support.
However, Techcrunch reports that a course on Scaler can cost up to $3350 so that should give a good idea of what to expect when you contact customer support for bargaining.
#3 Top Recommendations for Coding Interview Courses
We are done with Interview Kickstart and Scaler. But they are not the only coding interview prep course in the market.
There are many others and if you want to look outside of IK and Scaler, I have selected three good courses that are worth a trial, at the very least.
Tech Interview Pro ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tech interview Pro is the shiny gold star of coding interview courses for many reasons. A little bit of background though.
Patrick Shyu, aka Tech lead, is the creator of the course. You might have read about him before, but if not, he is one of the most popular tech YouTubers around.
He is a native of Silicon Valley and a guru in anything computer science. He has worked with Facebook and Google and has been a recruiter and interviewer in those and some other companies.
Tech Interview Pro combines all of his years of experience working with FAANG companies plus lessons he gleaned from his mistakes all those years he was submitting applications that were declined.
The course features a comprehensive, fully self-guided curriculum that leaves out nothing a software engineer should know about preparing for and passing tech interviews.
Other perks include individual resume resumes, bi-weekly Q/A sessions, a Facebook community, and moderate fees better than what IK and Scaler, and most of the competition charge.
And oh, all of that comes with lifetime access.
Educative.io ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Educative.io was founded by Fahim Ul Haq, Naseem Ul Haq, and Cecilia Cayetano.
They are all software engineers who have worked in various tech companies like Microsoft, eBay, et cetera.
Educative.io can be used by both individuals and businesses for training their software engineer teams.
The platform provides extensive training on software development, programming, data structures, algorithms, and so on but without video. It’s all text-based.
All of the courses are grouped into categories called learning paths. Each learning path leads you to a particular outcome depending on where you want to specialize.
The core features of Educative.io include but are not limited to, hundreds of courses (up to 460 and counting), text-based learning with rich text, interactive in-browser coding editors, playgrounds, assessments, and completion certificates.
Another cool feature is the provision of participating in self-guided projects that you can add to your portfolio.
The pricing plans are monthly, annually, and bi-annually for $35, $9.99, and $8.99 monthly respectively.
CoderPro ⭐️⭐️⭐️
CoderPro and Tech Interview Pro are both owned by Tech lead. CoderPro is less comprehensive because it has a different purpose.
Tech Interview Pro is designed to cover everything there is to know about passing tech interviews but CoderPro is just a collection of videos on popular coding interview questions.
The aim is to familiarize you with how tech companies set questions.
CodePro joins our list of viable alternatives to either Scaler or IK because it is very wide in scope and new topic problems are added to the course regularly.
Wrapping Up
Throughout this review, we have seen how an Interview Kickstart vs Scaler showdown will play out.
There are a lot of similarities between them but they stand apart in a few areas.
Interview Kickstart may have the edge in years of experience (2014 vs 2019) but Scaler has space for newbies and is preferable if you want to learn coding from scratch.
Interview Kickstart is for when you have advanced knowledge of coding and want to specialize in let’s say frontend engineering or data science for example.
But neither of them is easy on the budget and that can lead you to start questioning the price-to-value ratio.
Scaler is cheaper though, and overall looks like an improvement on Interview Kickstart.
For the best alternative, just pick Tech Interview Pro. It delivers a very personalized learning experience with lifetime access for just $997.
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