This isn’t a direct comparison for several reasons because Tech Interview Pro is suitable for beginners and intermediate engineers while Interview Kickstart is for high-end software engineers with some years of experience.
But irrespective of their differences, Tech Interview Pro is a better course for anyone preparing for a coding interview.
Tech Interview Pro has over 200,000 student success stories with a few of them securing six-figure jobs at the top tech companies in the world.
The course also comes with a private Facebook community where you’ll find alumni and top engineers who work for FAANG companies and many others.
Interview Kickstart also has its pros but why pay a heavy price ($5k+ with some hidden costs) when there are better and affordable alternatives?
Tech Interview Pro and Interview Kickstart are tech interview prep courses with many similarities and differences.
At a glance, they are both for software engineers looking to stand out among the crowd of other certified job seekers.
On both platforms, recruiters and hiring managers feature prominently in their host lectures. Due to that, there is much insider information about interview processes.
Combine all the advantages we’ve just touched on, and it becomes clear that these courses promise to give anyone who uses them a tremendous competitive advantage.
But at this point, the question on our mind is which one does it better? Or which one will work for you?
I trust you are all in for the match. Let’s kick off with an overview of Tech Interview Pro.
Tech Interview Pro Overview
The Tech Interview Pro is the interview prep course woven together by ex-Google software engineer Patrick Shyu.
The course consists of over 150 video lessons that teach virtually all the skills (technical and human relations) that you need to pass any formal interview.
That includes resume reviews and coding videos.
Patrick Shyu has been in the game before interviewing and verifying candidates for tech positions in various high-tier companies.
So he knows where successful candidates are hitting it and where the others are fumbling.
The Tech Interview Pro isn’t all theoretical as well. There are scores of mock interviews mimicking real-life interview situations.
There is also a Facebook community ready to help with any problems you may have.
And as a bonus, once you sign up, you can access all of the content for as long as the course exists.
Interview Kickstart Overview
Interview Kickstart is the interview prep solution provided by Soham Mehta and Ryan Valles.
They worked as recruiters and managers in some of the world’s biggest companies before coming together in 2014 to build Interview Kickstart.
They designed the platform as a place to learn programming skills that can fetch you a spot in any tech company.
But programming skills are not the only thing you’ll learn. The training dedicates much time to the interview process and how to impress the interview team
There are up to 17 courses in Interview Kickstart, such as data engineering, iOS engineering, Android engineering, full-stack engineering, etc.
The training consists of life courses held for eight months straight. It’s a proper virtual classroom where you can interact with instructors and colleagues.
Out of the eight months, however, only two or three are spent on the course itself. The rest is devoted to mentoring and support.
In addition to the comprehensive course curriculum, IK (Interview Kickstart) also has mock interview sessions. This shows that they don’t just feed you with theory. They also go practical.
The other must-haves you would expect in software of this nature are also here.
Talk about one-on-one assistance, personalized feedback, career skills and development, and salary negotiation.
If you are a working professional, you can attend online classes without cheating your company of their time.
IK’s curriculum demands only evenings and weekends, so you can join classes when you’re not working.
And they also promise an extended support period so you can still access their content long after leaving their tutelage.
Tech Interview Pro vs Interview Kickstart – Comparison Overview
| Tech Interview Pro | Interview Kickstart | |
| Creator/Instructor/Founder | Patrick Shyu | Soham Mehta & Ryan Valles |
| Duration | No fixed duration | Eight months (32 weeks) |
| Price | Fixed-price | Varies based on the course |
| Features | Broad curriculum, Mock interviews,One on one assistance, Personalised feedback, Career Skills Development, Salary negotiationCommunity | Broad curriculum, Mock interviews, One on one assistance, Personalised feedback, Career Skills Development, Salary negotiation |
| Premium community | Yes | Yes |
Tech Interview Pro vs Interview Kickstart – Course Outline and Features
On the surface, Tech Interview Pro and Interview Kickstart look similar as they have an identical feature set.
It is upon closer examination, however, that the differences start becoming more evident.
To start with, they target different categories of people.
Tech Interview Pro focuses on coding and other basics of engineering generally.
Interview Kickstart, on the other hand, is for those who want to specialise in a particular field of software engineering.
So if you want to learn data engineering or iOS engineering, etc., there are whole courses on Interview Kickstart.
Certain features are also different in both courses. For example, while Interview Kickstart’s programs consist of live classes, Tech Interview Pro teaches you through pre-recorded videos.
Aside from those differences, though, there are very few others. Just glance at the table above, and you’ll see that they have a lot in common.
Tech Interview Pro Course Outline and Features
Tech Interview Pro’s video course consists of nine modules. Let’s take a quick overview of each one.
Module 1
The first module talks about what the interview process usually looks like.
It is here that résumés are treated in detail so that students know what makes résumés work and what makes them flop.
He (Techlead) will also show how best to take the telephone screening and what you encounter during the on-site interview.
Module 2
Module two is where things start getting technical.
It contains the elements below:
#1 Coding
Coding is an element of software engineering you can’t miss in any interview, and that’s why the course would be incomplete without it.
Few other platforms give as much attention to coding as Tech Interview Pro.
After the already intensive lectures on coding, there are about 100 coding sessions for students to practice their coding skills.
# Data Structures and Algorithms
Just like coding, DS&A is a staple of the interviewing process, so it’s a must here as well.
In this module, DS&A is treated on the surface so expect more details on them in modules four and seven.
# Systems Design
You can code and write algorithms, but in systems design, you bring together all those algorithms to work.
# Communication.
Communication is vital in software engineering since you will need to cooperate with colleagues rather than do it all by yourself.
Module 3: Interviewing Masterclass.
This module consists of information on how to craft résumés that do the job of getting you the job.
The module does, amongst other things, show you the missing ingredients in resumes that leave their owners disappointed.
In short, the module shows you how to be on the same page with the recruiter.
Module 4: Data Structure and Algorithms (DS&A)
Remember that we first encountered DS&A in module two.
But here, students will treat them in more detail.
Some of the topics treated here include:
Hash tables, linked lists, trees and graphs and so on.
Tech Interview Pro’s Features
Now that we are here, aside from Tech Interview Pro’s course outline, what else is there to it?
As expected, the curriculum is broad and leaves nothing that a prospective employee would have to know.
Another feature is the sheer number of mock interviews—that way; you don’t just learn theory, you also go practical.
There are over 100 mock interviews throughout the course. Techlead knows how important they are.
Aside from the broad curriculum and mock interviews, there is also one-on-one assistance.
One on one assistance comes into play when resumes are being reviewed. Techlead handles this part himself.
Patrick Shyu will show what makes successful résumés and why others end up in the wastebasket.
As part of the personalised assistance, you’ll also receive personalised feedback to help you know how far you’ve progressed.
Career skills development is another bonus in the program.
Every software engineer has to know how to develop himself for his dream career, whether in a FAANG company or a self-established enterprise.
Tech Interview Pro also has that.
Finally, since companies might tend to underprice software engineers, Tech Interview Pro includes salary negotiation in its package.
Yes, Techlead and his team will guarantee your credibility by negotiating your salary with potential employers.
You don’t need to worry if you feel you don’t know how much you’re worth. Tech Interview Pro has got you covered.
Interview Kickstart Course Outline and Features
We’ve said a lot about Tech Interview Pro. It’s about time we move into the breakdown of Interview Kickstart.
Interview Kickstart has over 17 courses that train students on the most in-demand skills.
Each course has its outline, and time dictates against looking at each of them here.
But let’s take the outline of one of the courses as an example.
I’ve thrown the dice, and it’s picking data engineering.
Below is the course outline for data engineering:
Algorithms (5 weeks)
Algorithms occupy the first five weeks of data engineering.
Under algorithms, the instructor will take the following topics:
#1 Sorting
#2 Recursions
#3 Trees
#4 Graphs
#5 Dynamic programming.
The next subject in this course is
Systems Design (3 weeks)
Systems design includes all of the topics below
#1 Online Processing Systems
#2 Batch Processing Systems
#3 Object Modeling
This is followed by
Data Engineering (4 weeks)
This is where you start treating Data Engineering proper after learning the basics in the first weeks of learning.
It is where you get to specialise in your chosen field of engineering.
Every other specification on Interview Kickstart follows the course pattern used as an example above.
The basics of software engineering as a whole are first treated. They include data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems design.
Then you move on to the course speciality.
After completing that, you will move on to career coaching, where stuff like Resume and LinkedIn Masterclass and Salary Negotiation Masterclass will be taught.
Mock interviews follow career coaching. They are up to 15 in total, which of course, is far from embarrassing.
Interview Kickstart Features
Interview Kickstart features are pretty similar to that of Tech Interview Pro.
However, in this section, we’ll talk about some features of Interview Kickstart. They are also true of Tech Interview Pro, only that I didn’t talk about them in the latter’s section.
So on the count of two, let’s go.
General Guidance.
Yes, both Tech Interview Pro and Interview Kickstart offer you the basic pattern of how interviews go.
It’s not as if you are solving problems from one colossal archive.
Instead, you are learning tips to find your way through any problem.
Proven Track Record.
Interview Kickstart has helped over 4000 students land jobs in top engineering companies.
Tech Interview Pro, though, fares better here. While IK’s students usually have at least five years of experience before the training, Tech Interview Pro does not need you to have prior experience.
For that reason, Tech Interview Pro has helped far more students land their dream jobs at Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.
Tech Interview Pro vs Interview Kickstart – Pricing
Pricing is where Tech Interview Pro and Interview Kickstart are miles apart.
And the scales don’t tip in favour of Interview Kickstart.
The winner is apparent here.
Tech Interview Pro Pricing
You will get the complete course for just $997, and if you act fast—now—now—you can get it for $597 through this link.
That’s more than one-tenth of the price of Interview Kickstart for more guaranteed results.
Interview Kickstart Price
The just named software costs a whopping $6200 to purchase. When you break that down, it is $600 for just the trial.
You can skip the trial and go all out for the entire course for $5600, which is still embarrassingly high.
Which Interview Prep Course for Software Engineers is Better?
I will not hesitate to emphasise that Tech Interview Pro wins this match in almost all ways.
And the reasons are glaring.
For all the hype that surrounds Interview Kickstart, all of its students have or had at least a few years of experience.
But Tech Interview Pro performs even better—it has helped more students who had zero experience ace even the most complex tech interviews.
The point is that Interview Kickstart is exclusive while Tech Interview Pro is not.
Another area where Interview Kickstart should borrow a leaf or two from Tech Interview Pro is its pricing.
Without protesting, I know most people, especially those fresh from college, will find IK’s pricing intimidating.
Wrapping Up
Without a doubt, this match has been a decisive one.
Both software has proven their strengths in more or less similar ways, as this review has shown.
They both have exhaustive curriculums, industry-leading levels of support, and the list goes on.
It should have been a fist to fist exchange, but Tech Interview Pro delivers the crippling blow with friendlier pricing and accommodation for little to zero experience.
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