Updated in 2023
- What does Interview Kickstart do?
- Who is Interview Kickstart for?
- What does Interview Kickstart cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Interview Kickstart
- Alternatives to Interview Kickstart
- How does Interview Kickstart compare to Pathrise?
What does Interview Kickstart do?
Interview Kickstart is a software engineering interview prep bootcamp. They work with people who have extensive experience so that they can be more successful in their technical interviews. They mainly focus on helping software engineers get into the interview mindset. Generally, the understanding is that these assessments are different than the coding that they will do on the job. Therefore, even though a lot of their students have years of experience already in the field, they need guidance on how to interview correctly. In addition, these people are mainly looking for engineering manager positions.
The course, which includes lectures, assignments, and coaching sessions, lasts 8 weeks. Then, students participate in an additional 6 month support period. Students lose access to the material at the end of the 6 months. The website describes the program as rigorous. Students are expected to commit 2-3 hours per day. Classes can be onsite in Santa Clara or remote.
Who is Interview Kickstart for?
A lot of the Interview Kickstart students have years of experience already in the field of software engineering. These people are looking for manager positions. At the very least, students are required to have a good base knowledge of data structures and algorithms as well as similar core software engineering concepts. For beginners, or software engineers with less experience, Interview Kickstart might not be the best program.
What does Interview Kickstart cost? How much work is involved?
On their website, they explain that Interview Kickstart is “not cheap”. Prices range depending on the types of services, starting around $5200 and ending up around $7200. Candidates must attend a pre-enrollment webinar and an introductory phone call. These act as assessments to decide whether or not they have the required background. Students are also required to pay a $500 deposit before joining the program. Then, they have 1 week of courses before they are required to pay the tuition. The deposit is not part of the tuition.
Ratings and reviews
Like most of these online programs, there are a fair number of mixed reviews online for Interview Kickstart. A review from July 2019 describes a fairly negative experience with IK. He ended up having to pay the deposit twice alongside his tuition. When he finally started the program, he found that the videos were not great quality, the classes ranged based on who was teaching, the platform for the practice problems was not conducive for learning, and the coaching was misleading.
Since Interview Kickstart advertises 1-on-1 coaching, this is where the reviewer was the most disappointed. These sessions were full of students and the “coaches” went through questions that the students asked on a Google spreadsheet beforehand. In addition, he found that their career resources were disorganized and negotiation sessions could only occur if asked. Sometimes, it was only up to a week from the date, which was too late.
However, on CourseReport, most students report positive experiences. In fact, one goes as far as to say, “If you are looking to rediscover your roots as a software engineer and grow to the next level in your career, look no further.”
Similarly, in other reviews online, some people have found the program helpful and some have not. It does seem to depend greatly on the work the student puts in. But, it also seems to cater more to students who have a lot of experience already. In addition, a reviewer noted that the 50% tuition refund if the student does not get a better job in 6 months never happened.
Alternatives to Interview Kickstart
For software engineers interested in practicing for their technical interviews:
- Those looking to participate in mock interviews with software engineers at top tech companies should check out Interviewing.io. Learn more about Interviewing.io in our review.
- Pramp, Tech Mock Interview, and Gainlo are other resources for software engineers looking for mock interview prep with their peers or anonymous engineers.
- A good option is AlgoExpert, which is a platform where software engineers can practice questions that cover a variety of interview topics.
- Coderbyte offer a mix of free and paid resources and challenges for software engineers looking to practice their skills. Read more about Coderbyte in our review.
- Leetcode and HackerRank are the most common sources for software engineer interview questions to practice, but they do not provide interview training.
- Created by a former Google software engineer, Interview Cake is a study tool that teaches people the right way to think about technical questions so they do well in interviews. Read more about Interview Cake in our review.
- Similarly, Codebasil features questions written by software engineers at top tech companies like Facebook, Apple, and Amazon.
- Learneroo and Skilled.dev are similar platforms where software engineers can practice technical questions.
- If you are looking for technical questions directly in your email, Daily Coding Problem is a newsletter that sends 1 problem a day and the solutions for those who subscribe.
- Similarly, Quastor sends out a daily newsletter with software engineering interview questions. They also have a free online course.
More alternatives to Interview Kickstart
- Software engineers can use the tracks offered by Educative to brush up on skills or practice for specific-language interviews.
- Codewars is a user-generated alternative, where all of the challenges are written by the community and CodinGame makes coding challenges more fun by gamifying them.
- You can also check out CodeChef and Edabit for free online communities and platforms to practice software engineering technical questions.
- For people looking to prep with real world problems, CodeKata provides challenges that mimic requests from real tech companies.
- With exercises in Python and JavaScript for beginners and advanced engineers, CheckiO is a good free resource to check out.
We compiled a list of resources to practice software engineer interview questions that you can use to decide the best one for you. You can also check out our list of 93 software engineering interview questions from top tech companies to practice.
How does Interview Kickstart compare to Pathrise?
Interview Kickstart teaches experienced software engineers how to think about technical interview questions so that they are more successful in their interviews. They require a deposit and upfront tuition as well as focus more on lecture-style courses and less on 1-on-1 personalized support.
Pathrise is a full service organization, working with candidates through all stages of the job search to enhance their soft skills and develop strategies that can help them in the future. We also spend a lot of time working with our software engineers on their technical interview preparation, through workshops, pair programming, and personalized, 1-on-1 sessions with their advisor, a former senior software engineer.
In addition, we work with candidates through their entire pipeline. Our mentors support fellows as they optimize their resumes and online profiles, find the best possible opportunities, prepare and practice for behavioral and technical interviews, and negotiate to ensure they end up with compensation that is above industry average. Our program is extremely flexible and fellows can schedule sessions ad hoc with their mentors whenever they need help, including last-minute.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. With our tips and guidance, we’ve seen our fellows receive 3x as many responses to their applications and their interview scores double.
If you want to work with any of our mentors 1-on-1 to get help with your any aspect of your job search, become a Pathrise fellow.
Apply today.
