Which is better, Algoexpert vs. Interview Cake? Let’s find out.
So, your dream is to work for the FAANG companies or any of the top tech companies?
Well, getting into any of these tech companies requires excellent performance in the interview process.
Wondering which among Algoexpert and Interview Cake will help you out with your upcoming tech interviews?
In this comparison, I cover:
- Overview of both Algoexpert and Interview Cake
- Comparison of Algoexpert and Interview Cake based on the course outline
- Pricing and features
- Others’ reviews
- Alternative(s).
Let’s dive in.
Algoexpert Overview
Algoexpert is a popular tech interview course created by Clement Mihailescu, a programming Youtuber and software engineer.
Clement Mihailescu co-founded Algoexpert in 2017 alongside Antoine Pourchet.
Algoexpert aims to prepare you for tech interviews and help you ace them to land your dream job.
Algoexpert has a team of seven running the company to ensure the satisfaction of the students.
All team members have experience working with some of the biggest tech companies, including Facebook and Uber.
Clement, the man behind Algoexpert, is an Ex-Facebook and Ex-Google software engineer.
His co-founder, Antoine, is an ex-Uber software engineer. Conner Ardman, one of the course instructors, is also an Ex-Facebook software engineer.
It is right to say that Algoexpert has experienced instructors to help you shine in your interviews.
Interview Cake Overview
From its name, Interview Cake is also a tech-interview-prep course to help software engineers prepare for their interviews.
Parker Phinney is the founder and CEO of Interview Cake. He was an intern software engineer at Google in 2011.
He has also worked with some other not-so-popular tech companies and brands that I’m hearing about for the first time, like Symphony Commerce, Sneakpeaq, etc.
Interview Cake came to be in 2013 after Parker left Symphony Commerce as a product manager.
Today, Interview Cake students boast of offers from some of the top tech companies in the world.
Algoexpert vs. Interview Cake – Comparison Overview
Now, we have seen an overview of both platforms. Let’s get into the comparison.
| Algoexpert | Interview Cake | |
| Creator/Instructor/Founder | Clemente Mihailescu and Antoine Pourchet | Parker Phinney |
| Duration | Six weeks | Three months |
| Price | $59 | $249 |
| Features |
|
|
| Premium community | No | Yes |
Algoexpert vs. Interview Cake – Course Outline and Features
In this section, I’ll compare both programs based on their content and features (bonuses and tech).
Let’s start with Algoexpert.
Algoexpert Course Outline and Features
Algoexpert program is split into five sections, including Coding Interview Questions, Data Structures Crash Course, Coding Interview Assessments, Mock Coding Interviews, and Coding Interview Tips.
Let’s dive deeper into what each one offers.
#1 Coding Interview Questions
Algoexpert offers 160 coding interview questions split into four (4) categories based on their difficulty.
There are 25 questions under the Easy tab. Fifty-five questions are under the Medium tab. Forty-six questions are under the Hard section. Finally, 34 questions are under the Tough section.
The 160 coding questions can further be distributed into 15 various coding categories.
The coding categories include Arrays, Binary Search Trees, Binary Trees, Programming, Famous algorithms, graphs, greedy algorithms e.t.c
2. Data Structure Crash Course
There is a data structure crash course for students to start with, and it consists of a whole video series on famous data structures.
It’s a thoughtful addition considering that without data structures, there is no coding at any level.
Memory, complexity analysis, Big O Notation, you name it, are treated in-depth.
3. Coding Interview Assessments
The coding interview assessments provide students with a way to test their preparedness level.
These assessments feature a variety of questions that students must give answers to within the allotted time.
Students will see their results after they have completed the test and know where they need extra effort.
4. Mock Coding Interviews
The mock coding interviews are not too different from the assessments if you take a closer look.
The difference is that students will answer to an actual interviewer under standard real-life interview conditions.
Nevertheless, the mocks present a more realistic way of preparing for interviews.
5. Coding Interview Tips.
Many think Algoexpert is only about learning to code and solving practice questions.
But in my experience with the platform, I noticed that the platform gives its users some tips and tricks on how to behave during the interviews.
For instance, students will learn how to answer questions confidently even when unsure about the answer.
Algoexpert’s Features
Algoexpert has several features aimed at optimizing the user experience. The platform features an interactive training experience, multiple language support, plenty of video content, scores of questions, and, yeah, certification.
More details on those features shortly.
Interactive Training Experience
The presence of video and the interactive code editor makes the training more interactive.
The code editor allows you to solve the questions, run code and get feedback in real time.
And also, the video explanations provided to the questions add a personal touch to the class.
Multi-language Support
Algoexpert has support for up to nine languages. They are JavaScript, Python, C++, C#, Java, Go, Swift, Typescript, and Kotlin.
Plenty of Video Content
Anyone who fancies learning with video might call Algoexpert home.
There are over 100 hours of videos that give a detailed breakdown of each concept the course covers.
All the videos use Python to explain. And there are two kinds of them; the ones that explain the concept and the ones that show how to use it to solve code problems.
Scores of Questions
Questions make up a considerable percentage of the course content. After finishing the course, you would have solved more than 160 FAANG-level questions.
To ensure that users are tested all around, the questions are grouped based on difficulty into five categories: easy, medium, hard, very hard, and extremely hard.
Certification
At the end of the course, students are given certificates, and then Algoexpert can recommend such students to tech companies.
That’s one feature you don’t get with Interview Cake.
Interview Cake Course Outline and Features
Interview Cake gives training on many topics, but the learning scheme is not as well defined as Algoexpert’s own.
At best, the course outline only gives a random list of topics without specifying the order students should follow.
That’s one area in which Interview Cake differs from Algoexpert and that newbies to tech might want to consider.
That said, here’s a glimpse of the topics hosted on Interview Cake:
1. Array and string manipulation
This section talks about everything related to arrays and strings. It brushes students on such concepts as array slicing and dynamic displays.
After going through the textual explanations on the above-listed topics and those that follow, the user can try their hand at the practice questions.
2. Hashing and hash tables
Hashing and hash tables come next. These are some of the data structure-related concepts that users will learn about.
This section also has a practice session with fictional scenarios and problems that students have to tackle.
3. Greedy algorithms
If you are a software engineer, you will remember this topic as a popular problem-solving technique in the digital world.
The training here consists of a rather lengthy article (no disapproval intended), after which practice questions follow.
4. Sorting, searching, and logarithms
This part goes into much detail about algorithms, mostly binary search algorithms.
After that, several practice questions follow. Some include questions about finding rotation points, top scores, etc.
5. Trees and graphs
The notebook-style article and practice questions aim to familiarize students with binary trees, graphs, depth-first search, etc.
6. Dynamic programming and recursion
Programming, especially the dynamic aspect, can be tricky for freshers to catch up with.
This module promises to help such ones get the hang of programming and its application areas.
The module discusses such stuff as overlapping subproblems, memorization, and bottom-up algorithms.
Interview Cake Features
Since Interview Cake shares many features with Algoexpert, I will only use this section to expand on features that are unique to Interview Cake.
But if you need a quick recap of the shared features, here you go: interactive learning experience with code editor, multi-language support, scores of questions, and interview tips.
Let’s now talk about Interview Cake’s exclusive features:
1. Article-style Explanations
Interview Cake is one of those few tech interview prep platforms that favor articles rather than videos for training.
That’s the significant difference between it and Algoexpert. It’s okay for many people, but for the vast majority, I guess not.
However, the articles are not too long but are straightforward.
2. Question Sort by Company
This is one feature I liked a lot when reviewing Interview Cake.
You can select questions specific to a company. If you are practising for Google interviews, you can concentrate your efforts on questions that are typical of Google.
This method of sorting questions appears more consequential than simply practising by topics.
3. Solution Breakdown and Review Section
In Interview Cake, one can have detailed explanations of the solution to each problem.
That way, if you are the user, you get to know where you flopped along the line and can retrace your steps.
It goes beyond that, though.
Interview Cake gives a proper review of each module. It consists of a “gotcha” list that spotlights common mistakes and contains a ” what we learned” part.
4. Additional Support
There are extra perks that come with using Interview Cake. The major one is that you can decide not to learn solo.
If you enrol in the coaching plan, you can have one-on-one lessons.
Algoexpert vs. Interview Cake – Pricing
Pricing is one of the most decisive factors when making any choice that will require a purchase, and that’s what we want to look at now.
Which of these prep platforms has better pricing?
Algoexpert Pricing
Algoexpert has multiple pricing options depending on which area of tech you focus on.
The default plan is also named Algoexpert, and it’s for when all you will be needing its training on data structure and algorithms. The cost is $29 for one year of access
But it’s unlikely that data structure and algorithms alone will suffice when preparing for tech interviews with FAANG companies.
You also need system design training, and for that, there is the Systems Expert package. It also costs $29.
Or, you can go for the tech interview bundle, which combines Algoexpert and Systems Expert, for $46.
Interview Cake Price
Now let’s talk about Interview Cake’s pricing.
Two paid subscription plans are available; one labeled Crunchtime and the other, Full Course.
The former grants three weeks of access for $149, while the one-time costs $249 for twelve months of access.
Which Interview Prep Course for Software Engineers is Better?
Tech Interview Pro. Tech Interview Pro is the leading tech interview prep course out there.
The course was put together by Patrick Shyu (aka Techlead) and is quite comprehensive.
Patrick Shyu is an ex-Google software engineer. He has also worked with Facebook and Microsoft, and several other big-name tech companies.
Aspiring software engineers who have faced years of rejection from tech companies can relate to Techlead.
It took him up to eight years to land his first job at Google. He practised for his interviews the hard way and learned a lot of lessons along the way.
Techlead has also worked as a recruiter and a hiring manager at Google. He has gained quite a lot of experience from interviewing candidates.
As a result, he knows many top secrets of what tech companies are looking for in the ideal candidate and is therefore in the best position to groom aspiring SWEs.
A glance at what the course covers is enough to realize that the system is the best out there for SWEs, newbies, and long-timers alike.
Aside from topics like coding, data structure and algorithms, and system design which are the staples of software tech, Techlead dives deep into the communication aspect.
Communication is usually the most overlooked in many prep courses but is as important as technical skills.
Many candidates fail tech interviews not because they are weak in some technical skills but because they lack the social etiquette needed to relate well with others in formal situations.
And it doesn’t end there. Tech Interview Pro packs extras that aren’t found elsewhere, such as resume reviews. In short, it has all the goodies the competition brags of.
Finally, all that comes with lifetime access. There is no expiry date for your subscription. Pay once and get it all for life.
Wrapping Up
We are finally done with the Algoexpert vs. Interview Cake face-off.
Algoexpert and Interview Cake are competitors with very different take on how prep platforms should be.
The significant difference is that one is all video, and the other is all text. Pretty cool, depending on which method you favour.
If we look beyond that subjective difference, Interview Cake appears to give Algoexpert some severe run for its money with its more powerful features like company-specific questions and a well-fleshed-out review style.
Both platforms still have serious deficiencies that argue against my recommending them.
I’m sure you’ll be able to spot them after you go over the part where I spoke about Tech Interview Pro.
Tech Interview Pro is the best option if, after reading this review, something or two leaves you unimpressed with either Algoexpert or Interview Cake.
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