Since it has been a year since I wrote this I decided to go back to IK and see how things have changed. If you don't have time here's a broad overview on what's changed: - IK has a brand new prep website Interview question interface is cleaner and more efficient - Video content has been refreshed and is better organized inline with interview practice questions - IK has a strong career coaching program (IMO this is their best value prop) - Coaching focuses on creating a tailored strategy for your job search - conclusion: IK has improved program and is good solution for those seeking an interview prep framework and especially career search coaching For a more in-depth review I've updated my original blog post. Pop on over and check it out: https://justinrich.medium.com/my-experience-with-interview-kickstart-e3b5edc3bd55 read more

Interview kickstart is Complete fraud , whatever they claim they don't deliver at all , all good reviews you see is a PAID reviews because I am not only person fall in trap but I know 2-4 people who is working with them from 1.5 years but not happened anything , there career coach how they guide for resume never get interview as well they don't easily recommend as well in start they claim they will payback money but they even not bother pay back such a hefty amount and forget about FAANG company job normal job interview also doesn't come they not even recommend, save u r money don't fall in such big trap.i did mistake u all careful with such marketing gaming. read more

This is an honest opinion about the training provided by interview kickstart (Backend Engineering Interview Prep Program) overall rate 2/5 Pros: -This is not a scam -Some instructors are top notch -They know the topics for success -The review resume sessions are ok -The mock interviews are a good resource Cons: -The instructors are inconsistent some are bad or even they don't assist to the class -Some links are incorrect and you can lose the class -The administration/support is really bad -They reschedule in the last minute -Some recorded sessions are bad/ they prefer quantity than quality In general I don't recommend the trainings here the price is really high and you can get something similar with a good guide from Udemy and maybe get some mock interviews here but that's it I am sure that some people is landing their dream job with this but according my experience should be around 10% read more

This company is a pseudo-scam business based out of India pretending to be in silicon valley to sound legitimate. They are registered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. They have manufactured many positive review so mine may be drowned out but proceed with caution! They use classical aggressive pressure tactics and fear mongering to capitalize on their victims knowing full well most will not succeed. They try and refuse to abide by their own terms of service and are extremely unreliable. If you don't believe me, check the Better Business Bureau and Reddit for another side to their ecosystem of fake positive reviews. In the end they did refund me, so there that, but that may only because I didn't go through their financing option. Either way proceed with extreme caution. read more

Complete Scam. They are ripping of young graduates with misleading fine print. Basically ripping them off their little savings and their parents money by misleading promises on job. Don't consider paying them even a penny! read more

I had an excellent experience with Interview Kickstart's Technical Program Management (TPM) course. The program is well-structured, comprehensive, and tailored to the unique challenges of TPM interviews at top tech companies. The instructors are industry veterans from FAANG and other leading companies, providing deep insights into system design, program management, behavioral interviews, and leadership skills. I really got multiple pointers on how to structure the answer and what are key areas to focus on each answer. The structured curriculum, combined with mock interviews, live coaching, and feedback sessions, significantly boosted my confidence and interview readiness.nOne of the highlights was the 1:1 interview and personalized feedback, which helped me refine my approach to answering complex TPM questions. Thanks to Interview Kickstart, I felt well-prepared and confident going into my TPM interviews. read more

I would share the conclusion first and it is NOT recommend to join any this kind of courses. This also including other on site interview companies (Usually charge their students USD$4,000 ~ 15,000). I have attended to one of their course/product. I have the following reasons that I DO NOT recommend: 1. Courses are all over charged. Paying $6,000 for watching some guys telling me Leetcode solution on white board or videos is too much. There are couple online interview courses did a much much better job. They explained much better! For e.g. neetcode.io. Youtube also has lot of good people teaching all the skills for interviews 2. Videos are not viewers friendly. For e.g., one class is like 4 hours as I rmb and it only covers 4 questions. One class is basically one topic like DP, Graph. 3. Some lecturers are ok but some are terrible. For e.g., some of them did not explain the questions properly and some of them have bad english which no one can understand easily. 4. Sales are very pushy and so many excuses so DO NOT leave your phone no. You would receive calls and push you to pay. Also, do not believe in their ads like giving scholarship. At the end, you still need to pay thousands bucks for nothing. 5. Last but not least, many materials and online free and paid courses which provide interviewees better ideas how to prepare. They won't charge you crazy so you can enjoy the learning process without bankruptcy. I am sorry to my family that I lost thousands dollars on this so I would like to speak out so no more people would suffer. IMO, save you money and find the better one like neetcode.io and Udemy. Neetcode did help me a lot and he only charged me $120. read more

The sales reps will not stop calling me. I signed up for a webinar just to get an idea of the pricing - sadly, they now have my phone number and this means that they call me all day every day from different phone numbers. I was hoping it might be something that I save up for the next time I want to prepare for a technical interview (currently not something I'm doing), but after being hounded by the sales reps multiple times a day over the past week, I have no interest in ever using this company. read more

This review is about one of their $12,000 course. All the sunday classes are going over 6+ hours and rushing it complete. Some of the concepts covered are difficult to digest and definitely needs more time, when we brought that with support, we got response that "We are working on it" that's it. Not covering all the basic concepts to understand the topic well. They just cover what is needed at bare minimum. 140+ slides to be covered in 4 hrs with over 95 students makes it wague and boring. The ability to explain to someone with no knowledge on the subject is an art. BEING a teacher and WORKING as a teacher are two extremely different aspects. Pretty sure most of the instructors are PHD's earning half a million/year. But the same concepts I can understand effectively from my favourite teacher in youtube videos. This course is supposedly designed for people with no experience but it is not true, cheap marketing! Why would they put 95+ students in the class. Very difficult to follow and wasted my money. Quantity over quality. read more

Good curriculum and the quality of training is really great..just wish there is a pause feature for the support period

Sales rep is super pushy and I told him my situation of not being able to currently commit to the time needed for this program and will reconsider in the future. And he said "got it" then hung up. WTF! read more

I will never recommand anyone. They are lier, they told me after finish the course if I don't get job at tier 1 companies they will refund my money but they did not. All the course metarials are freely available online so why should you pay $6000. scam scam scam this is true scam. I spend $6000 for some recorded video which I already knew. this full course should not cost more than $10. they teach only data structure and algorithms which you can buy from udemy or pluralsight for $10-$20 or from youtube For free. read more

I was interviewing and not getting offers without knowing why. Interview Kickstart (IK) pointed me straight to the issues and gave me the tools to address them. They also facilitated my meeting others dealing with the same interview process frustrations I was. The IK program is made up of two parts: comprehensive algorithms and scalable system design. The comprehensive algorithms coverage was excellent. For me, it was mostly review, except for some of the material covering graph-based and dynamic programming algorithms, but having it in a single place where I was forced to cover it at a set pace was invaluable. Similarly, as a result of my strong computer architecture background from the University of Wisconsin, the scalable systems design portion of the material was largely a review. The presentation from people who work with open-source projects like those supported by the Apache Foundation and the use of the microservice concept to maximize cohesion while enforcing minimal coupling between components was new to me and invaluable for presenting solutions to these problems in an interview environment. Of particular note in the algorithms portion of the course was the top-ten-university quality of the presentations by all of the IK instructors and in particular, Omkar. His presentation and insights in combinatorics left me wishing he had been my instructor in the probability course I took as an engineering undergraduate. In the introduction to his book _Cracking_the_Coding_Interview_, Gayle McDowell says Receiving an offer is not about solving questions flawlessly...it is about answering questions better than other candidates. This helped me understand the problem of picking from the thousands of candidates the top companies have competing for their jobs. Interview Kickstart helped me move quickly forward to the front of the pack of candidates. In IK I learned that programming ability represents roughly half of what top companies are looking for. One of the big issues companies have is making the work environment run as smoothly as possible, and vetting candidates based on the behavioral component of the employer/employee relationship is an important part of the hiring process. IK showed me the importance of this aspect of the interview process and provided mock interview opportunities with people who have interviewed hundreds of candidates at top companies. The help from these people was more helpful than I could have anticipated, both in improving my attitude toward interactions at work and in understanding the issues from the side of the employer. Compensation concerns are generally orthogonal to landing an offer. This is another aspect where IK comes through. Every week I heard from others who benefitted from IK's discussion of how to understand the negotiation process and maximize offer amounts. Finally, the course videos and materials, videos of my mock interviews, and reviews of those interviews will be available to me for life. I will benefit from them for the rest of my career. Thank you Interview Kickstart and a special thank you to Omkar for being the outstanding educator with IK. -Todd read more

IK as an idea is great. Its all about their sales pitch and how they get you in but after that the quality is poor. Content: The content that they have is amazing and they are actually sitting on a gold mine with their content that is created by Omkar. It is their content only which is valuable and if that content could be delivered effectively, IK will be worth every penny. Instructors: Only handful (1-2) of the live instructors are good and rest are not even worth attending the class. They sell you that you are taught by FAANG engineers - if you are working at FAANG company it does not mean you are a good teacher. Student Advisor: Student advisor is a joke as SA does nothing and is mostly not available as they are mostly not in US time zone. Even after providing feedback multiple times, there is no action taken or support provided by the SA and you end up wasting your time. 1-1 coaching: It is helpful to clear your doubts and is abundantly available. I am thankful IK has this support. Live Classes Most of the classes are waste of time as the quality of the instructors is not worth attending the class. On top of it, since the classes are virtual, IK stuffs their classes with 100+ students. If every student ask only 1 question and it takes 2 mins to answer the question, 200 mins: 3+ hrs would just go answering the questions in a 6 hr class. I don't mind the questions as you learn from others but most of those questions are because many students come to class without going through course material in advance. There is no moderation by IK for this resulting in wasting time for students who actually do their part and come prepared. Cost: IK is pretty expensive with close to ~6K for their masterclass program. My 2 cents: Ik advertises that they have live classes that differentiates them from others. The truth is they pack hundreds of students in their classes and its not like they will have only a cohort attending a live class. It is all about their sales pitch and how they will advertise and put pressure by suggesting only 1 or 2 seats are left, its all full etc. Avoid them and go through leet code + Abdul Bari videos on youtube and you will be set for the interviews - Only if their instructors would be great and they moderate or club group of people who are at same level I would not be making the above statement and the review would be 5 stars. Soham if you are reading this, improve the quality of your instructors as that is what will make IK worth every penny. It is not about money as time is most precious commodity and the quality of instructors determines the value of spending 6+ hrs every live class and in most cases instructors are not even sub-par - And if you don't know yet, please go over the recent live class recordings. read more

I took 3 interview prep sessions with IK seeking for preparing DE style interview. Was able to take 2 and understood the engineers are SE and they don't have any clue about DE coding and interview style. Those interviews never helped me and 1 interview was opted as I felt it didn't help me. The coordinator never helped to improve it ( forget about returning the money) Do not recommend for DE prep read more

I was not impressed with the service as a one-week trial participant. It was very expensive and provided little value. The program did not consider my background when joining and it is not personalized or tailored to it. The classes on Sunday are incredibly long like 5 or 6 hours straight without much break. The questions are not that great and are rarely asked. For example, I have never been asked to implement a sort from scratch in an interview, yet that is what most of the long sorting course goes over. It also is true that many questions can be found on LeetCode as well. The one week trial costs 600 which only includes one in-class lecture I believe. There are a large number of people (50-100?) in the class as well because of the heavy advertising, low barrier of entry (no tests required), and remote-nature of the program. The first week only includes sorting too which is largely useless in interviews when you can use built-in sorting methods like Arrays.sort in your problem solutions or some customized binary search solution. While I was in the program, I was not asked how I was doing at all or if I needed any help, in contrast to the salesperson cold-calling me every night to join the program. I think the program is better suited to people who don't have CS degrees or background. If you do have a good background, the program is most likely a waste of money. Instead of a live class, it is probably better to just watch recorded videos since the live classes are much too long and boring, especially if you already know what they are talking about. I'd much rather join a personalized approach rather than a large Zoom class where the teachers don't know who you are. I heard around 2017 it was more personalized and small but it seems that the program has turned into a for-profit venture. read more

I am an IK student, and enrolling in IK was a mistake. It is essentially just an interview prep service. The salespeople make exaggerated and false promises about helping you land an interview. If you are looking for something that can genuinely assist you in securing interviews, I would not recommend enrolling in this program. read more

This program is intense, and requires your focus and time (8-12 weeks at 20-40 hours/week). But it is worth it! Going into interviews, I had the practice I needed and confidence to perform my best! read more

I was part of the late 2019 IK cohort and would recommend it to anyone preparing to interview for software engineering roles, in particular at larger companies. Prior to IK I had been at a smaller company for a quite a while. When I started interviewing I failed my first few interviews as I was completely out of shape. For me the main benefit of IK was the confidence I gained answering algorithmic questions as well as understanding the hiring process at larger companies. IK promoted itself as a 2 month coaching program to prep you for an interview with 6 month of additional support. In practice I found that it took me closer to 4 months to prepare and probably 6 monthly total before I covered all of the material. This may not be necessary for everyone but if you haven't interviewed in a few years and you're going to a top tier company, assume it does apply to you. IK provides online courses in coding challenges, system design and behavioral interviews. They also provide coaching sessions and mock interviews. The amount of work required for the course is non trivial at anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week. For the first 8 weeks there were weekly 4+ hour lectures, 3+ hours of videos to watch 5+ hours of coding challenges and a 2+ hours test and review. Once the first 2 months of initial set of algorithmic lectures were over, there were still 6 weeks of optional algorithmic lectures and 6 weeks of behavioral lectures. After the course I found that I did not have any difficulty answering algorithmic questions during interviews, regardless of the pressure you are under during an interview. The system design portion of the program was a less deep than the algorithmic part. Not enough material was covered and practicing was either on your own or by doing one of the mock interviews. I recommend reading "Designing Data-Intensive Applications", "Designing Event-Driven Systems" and perhaps the the educative system design courses. Companies ask a really wide range of questions on this topic so there really isn't a limit to how broad or deep you go on your own. The behavioral portion was great for providing an overview of how the process works at large companies, for tips and review of writing a resume, etc. Doing well on the mock interviews opened up options to be referred into top companies, which was nice. I did not end up using all 15 mock interviews before getting job offers. Once you start interviewing your time is filled with real interviews anyway. In summary, this is like getting back to the gym. You'll need time to get back in shape, but it feels great to be able to knock out an algorithmic questions without stressing out too much. read more

Joining IK program has been very fruitful. I was able to get multiple offers from top level companies. IK helped me develop logical reasoning and enhanced my ability to approach a problem in systematic way. Best part of the program is the mock interview sessions and feedback they provide. These are interviewers at FAANG and they help understand shortcomings and improve on those. read more

For me, the tech interview processes were a mystery. After so many rejections, I was wondering what is going on. My wife's friends recommended the class, which she took eventually. After extremely hard and very well-guided work, she found her dream job. Not only that, she became a rockstar performer. Once she got her offer, she purchased me the course as a gift. Initially, everything was so new and intense for me. I really needed to put time and effort to go through. It was especially hard with combining to my work. But the coaches were super helpful there. You could just schedule a same-day call and get all your questions answered. The quality of the course is stellar. I don't have any formal education in software engineering or CS. This truly became my education. Mock interviews are a game-changer, as you get real interview experience from the FANG interviewers. Advice: make sure you literally follow their instructions. Don't improvise, don't try to cut corners, don't overthink. Just trust them. They know what they are talking about! I would highly recommend the course to anyone in software engineering, academia, and national labs, or someone who wants to be on top of his/hers career. read more

I have taken an IK course a few years back and did a bunch of mock interviews! They were really helpful for me to land a job! Few years down the line, I was looking for a job change, gave few interviews, and failed them without much preparation or mock practice. I reached out to IK to help with Mock interviews for engineering manager roles. The Mock interviewers who spoke with me were really good and provided great insights in terms of structuring my answers! I used the recorded sessions to understand the feedback, iterate, and improve my interview answering experience. And finally, I cleared a top FAANG company recently! read more

Switching to a new position as a working professional can be hard. IK helped me to be much more efficient especially the mock interview process and feedback loop. read more

This review is long overdue. It's been 2 years since I participated in the IK program. It met all my expectations. They have well-selected problems to practice, good coaches and practice interview opportunities. All the staff are very responsive and approachable, they are like family now. They guide you and give excellent recommendations every step of the way. I started the program while 8-month pregnant, gave birth literally in the middle of the initial 2-month coursework. The outcome depends solely on the student, the more diligent you are, the better results you get. I was able to get about 5-6 competing offers, including a couple from FAANG. I am very happy for all the support and confidence IK has given me! read more

Not worth the money. Poor Instructional Design. You're far better off searching for System Design and doing Leetcode Exercises. Many free resources on YouTube provide more value. read more

Thank you so much Interview Kickstart Team. I am very grateful for your impeccable program and wonderful team. I attribute my career transition to the well-structured foundational material, dedicated instructors who motivated me to work hard to uplevel my career. Omkar & Tilo instructors are golden folks who changed the way I think about problems. My career journey has just begun and I attribute my career transition to the IK team & look forward to acing my career with your program. Thank you so much. read more

I was struggling to clear the interviews for top tech companies for a couple of years. When I learned about IK, I knew that they offered a solutions that fit my working schedule and would allow me to properly ramp up and polish my skillset. I ended up getting an offer to a top tech company this spring! The instructors and advisors are top notch and the curriculum is comprehensive, technical and soft skills. I would highly recommend the course for anyone looking to level up. read more

I really like the courses. For many working professionals, going through examples and different perspectives are the most valuable. I started interviewing for FB in May, then took IK to study for my FB interview. IK was great because its structure helped me really understand each topic needed for my interview. IK also had a high sense of comradery! I had a study group and felt the engagement was much stronger than in an academic setting. I also felt that the program added excellent value by having an awesome community. Lastly, it was super helpful to do mock interviews because the instructors were very helpful in finding my weaknesses and showing me where I needed to improve. The mock interviews were the most useful aspect of the program for me. read more

Ace your Interview! "One offer at a Time" Interview Kickstart (IK) provides you a solid platform to not only strengthen your algorithm and interview game, I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the best/brightest minds in the industry (Faculty and students included). It was a humble experience, to say the least. If you are looking for more than just a Bootcamp to improve your algorithmic skills or Interview skills, I would wholeheartedly suggest IK. Soham and their team have done a phenomenal job in making sure students get the right resources to set their path for success! I've been their 2017 Aluminus batch and have gotten 14 offers including FAANG! All the best to IK team and I really hope to see this venture grow into something huge. read more

I learned about IK through Quora and wanted to try them out. IK helped me get deep understanding of various Algo/DS/SD topics and how to approach them during an interview. Unlike others, I took IK after I switched job (going through several interviews painfully failing many at the coding stage). I wish I had taken IK several years ago, as each of the failed attempts could have been easily averted with IK training. Even after we finished the IK training, we were still given free training on stats/probability and that showed how genuinely they care about giving us tools not only to crack the interview but also to strengthen our core fundamentals in topics of interest to us. read more

I took the virtual class and it was well worth it. I enjoyed the classes and that gave me the confidence to tackle the hard coding problems.

So I have been giving interviews for about 4-5 months with leetcoding and trying to solve as many problems possible but still receiving rejections after reaching the onsites. I got to know about IK and thought about giving it a try before scheduling any further interviews. Ik really changed the way I was approaching my problems. With proper topic wise sessions that were held weekly and providing with the practice problems and weekly tests really helped me understand the topic to its core rather than randomly solving problems on LC. They also offer doubt sessions if at any point you are struggling through a problem or need help understanding some topics. The mock interviews was another plus point that helped to analyse the way i interviewed. And not only that, you get the feedback from the people working at the FAANGM companies and giving to feedback on what to improve upon and take care of in real interviews. And the best part, the course materials and videos, videos of my mock interviews, and reviews of those interviews will be available to me for life. After my completion, I got multiple offers from am gonna be joining one of the big 4 companies. Thank you IK for being an integral part of my journey. read more

The IK Program is intense and very detailed, it helped me identify the X factor that I was missing in interviews. I followed the program in more of self paced mode. Some of the lectures and instructors are really top notch. The program is a bit pricy, but if you consider all the support including mock interviews, and negotiation supports and just the new TC you will get from the new job it is well worth it. Definitely recommend, especially if you haven't been able to identify why you are struggling with tech interviews. read more

I can't think of a better recipe for technical interview success than combining Interview Kickstart program with hard work. I participated in the August 2017 cohort and received offers at nearly all of the companies I interviewed at, including the two FANG companies that I interviewed at. The Interview Kickstart program is well structured and includes two months of classes to brush up on technical areas, weekly behavioral workshops, thoughtful homework problems, and valuable mock interviews. The Interview Kickstart team is outstanding and wants to see you succeed. If you are willing to work hard, I believe you will find Interview Kickstart to be well worth the cost and it will provide very solid foundation and direction for your interview success. One final tip: the course moves fast and it is expected that you will spend at least one month after the first two months of classes doing mock interviews and finishing homework problems before you interview at your dream companies. Keep that in mind when deciding which cohort to enroll in. read more

Interview Kickstart is a fantastic way to get prepared to tackle technical interviews. They provide a strong, organized curriculum designed to efficiently prepare and retain knowledge. The staff is very knowledgeable and helpful. I had been a professional engineer for several years before IK, but their program helped me get into interviewing shape and maximize my interview opportunities. read more

highly recommend their program. some of the instructors are pretty good. learning the framework for solving problems was useful. course is on expensive side but i would say its worth it. read more

I did the program last year and received multiple offers. The program has 4 components - Algorithms for tackling coding questions, system design fundamentals, behavioral interview preparation and mock interviews. The online material from Omkar and instructor led sessions are stellar. The online classes were on weekends and 1 weekday night. It is no means an easy program or a shortcut to land jobs. What IK provides is a toolset and structured preparation towards job interviews. You will also get opportunity to be part of community, and not feel isolated during the interview process. Even if you are not interviewing in near term, the algorithm classes are top notch for anyone who needs a refresher in a structured way. The quality of materials and problem solving tips you obtain are life long skills. read more

I started with IK course back in December 2019. The training material is extensive and the trainers are very good. Having said that, they provide a direction and ultimately their needs to be hard work put at your end to do the course and prepare rigorously for interviews. I cracked Apple after doing well in my earlier attempts in other companies. I must truly said the IK helped me a lot. read more

This course is ideal for someone who can spend 4-5 hours per day on preparation and is looking for getting an offer in 2-3 months time as it is very demanding and there are lot of things they provide. One of the best is career coach, make sure to have an 1 on 1 with a career coach early on, so you can check if your expectations are right, identify your priorities and target companies and get to know the strategies on how to make best use of Mocks. 6 month support period was way too short for me to make best use of all the resources they had. With a full time job and family, I was not able to spend more than 2 hours a day on H/W and everything. Being not very well prepared, I had to take all the mocks in my quota just because my support period would expire and did not get much value out of it. Since my timelines for job switching was more than 6 months, this sort of artificial pressure that the support period created ended up causing more harm to me than I anticipated. I just wanted to share that this program is not for everyone. Mock interviews are harder than actual interviews and I was told that it is by design. read more

I had good experience with IK. Professional coaching and lots of resources available. Good and experienced instructors, very supportive staff. If someone is looking to improve algorithm or interview skills, they should definitely consider using IK. Came across very nice people. Highly recommend read more