coding interview Archives - Simple Programmer https://simpleprogrammer.com/category/coding-interview/ Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:41:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 Parker of Interview Cake – How legit is IC’s founder? https://simpleprogrammer.com/parker-interview-cake/ Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:40:26 +0000 https://simpleprogrammer.com/?p=44846 If you’re curious about IC’s founder, his background, and how he came to create one of the leading interview prep courses today in Interview Cake – as I’ve established when I covered the course in detail, you’ll find out all about Parker Phinney in this article. Why Parker Phinney founded Interview Cake As he tells...

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If you’re curious about IC’s founder, his background, and how he came to create one of the leading interview prep courses today in Interview Cake – as I’ve established when I covered the course in detail, you’ll find out all about Parker Phinney in this article.

Why Parker Phinney founded Interview Cake

As he tells us about it on Interview Cake’s website, his idea to found the company came after he tutored his friend Alice in coding interview skills. After Parker taught her problem-solving frameworks, and gave her a plan of attack for mastering data structures, algorithms, and strategy for coding interviews, she managed to get really good.

Alice then went on to win in one of her interviews at Facebook. She went from being broke and unemployed to making excellent money at one of the most prestigious Software Engineering positions out there.

This experience led Parker Phinney to want to create Interview Cake – as his vehicle for helping thousands more developers write a similar success story.

His background and qualifications

Parker Phinney is the CEO of Interview Cake, and himself a Python on Django and Angular developer. IC was founded in 2013 when Parker was just 23 years old.

He’s also a music composer for movies and video games, as well as a motivational speaker.

How he created a quality product

His process of preparing developers for coding interviews was perfected at in-person bootcamps in the Bay Area. 

Parker worked there as an instructor and could drill down on the best way to turn his students into masters at coding questions.

Parker’s phenomenal success with Interview Cake

As of today, IC boasts tens of thousands of alumni. And despite the generous refund policy, 98% of students decide to stick with the program. This is what he shared about his company’s success on the YCombinator forums:

IC having been around 2013 and still going strong with such a low drop-off rate speaks for the course’s quality. Interview Cake’s alumni are testifying to great results from the program

It seems as if Parker’s dream of helping countless developers ace their coding interview and land a high-paying job has been realized.

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How much is Interview Cake? The real cost in 2023 https://simpleprogrammer.com/how-much-is-interview-cake/ Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:22:30 +0000 https://simpleprogrammer.com/?p=45159 Over the years, Interview Cake have experimented with different pricing structures. If you’re curious whether their program (I’ve reviewed Interview Cake here) is within your budget and what their different tiers cost at the moment – we’ll have the complete, quick answer for you. Over the years, Interview Cake have experimented with different pricing structures.  Interview...

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Over the years, Interview Cake have experimented with different pricing structures. If you’re curious whether their program (I’ve reviewed Interview Cake here) is within your budget and what their different tiers cost at the moment – we’ll have the complete, quick answer for you.

Over the years, Interview Cake have experimented with different pricing structures. 

Interview Cake Pricing Structure – The Complete Picture

So, how much does Interview Cake cost?

As of 2023, Interview Cake can be free, $149 or $249. The final price you’ll pay depends on whether you’re a student or not and how long you want to use the program for. It’s free for students for three weeks, a three-month plan costs $149, and you can get a full year’s access for $249.

Three Months Access – The ‘Crunch Time’ Plan

If your coding interview is coming up soon and you just need to work on your skills for a few months, you can choose Interview Cake’s three-month plan, instead of the whole one-year program.

Mind you: You’re getting full access to all course contents, the only limitation for this plan is that it stops after three months.

It’s perfect for quick, intense study – but if you need more time or want to prepare for multiple interviews throughout the year, you should choose the yearly plan. 

Yearly Plan – The ‘Full Course’

This plan is for you if you want more flexibility for when you work through the course materials, or you’re planning to use it to prep for multiple coding interviews throughout the year.

Although IC’s pool of questions is focused and includes only 50 separate problems, they still take a while to fully work your way through. If you don’t want to feel rushed and don’t mind spending the extra $100 for a full 12 months of access, the yearly plan is for you.

The 100% Money-Back Guarantee

 At between $149 and $249, Interview Cake is not the most expensive, but also not the cheapest coding interview prep course out there – you don’t want to invest that money only to find it wasn’t what you’re looking for.

For this reason Parker Phinney, IC’s founder, has come up with a generous refund policy for the course: If you’re at all dissatisfied with the content, or it didn’t deliver on its promised results, you can get back 100% of your tuition fee.

You simply have to email the founder, state your case, and if your complaints are reasonable, he’ll issue you a full refund. Only 2% of students choose to do this – which says something about the level customer satisfaction with Interview Cake’s product.

Check out everything Interview Cake has to offer

Head on over to Interview Cake’s site to see their full curriculum.

Good luck preparing for your coding interview!

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Interview Cake vs LeetCode – Which should you pick in 2023? https://simpleprogrammer.com/interview-cake-vs-leetcode/ Wed, 15 Feb 2023 15:32:40 +0000 https://simpleprogrammer.com/?p=45122 Quick comparison Header Interview Cake LeetCode Number of questions (50, highly relevant) (1000+) Quality of instruction (high-quality explanations & progressive hints) (User-generated solutions) Community (Slack channel) (Discussion forums) Price (3-month or yearly plan) (Reasonable monthly subscription) Overall rating ✨    4.25/5 ✨    4.25/5 Site Let’s review both Interview Cake and Leetcode and see which...

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Quick comparison

Header

Interview Cake

LeetCode

Number of questions

(50, highly relevant)

(1000+)

Quality of instruction

(high-quality explanations & progressive hints)

(User-generated solutions)

Community

(Slack channel)

(Discussion forums)

Price

(3-month or yearly plan)

(Reasonable monthly subscription)

Overall rating

✨    4.25/5

✨    4.25/5

Site

Let’s review both Interview Cake and Leetcode and see which one fits you best.

If you’re looking to maximize your Data structures & Algorithms knowledge, level up your skills in solving coding problems, and get ready for coding interviews, you have a number of platforms to choose from.

Leetcode and IC are two of these options. Here’s 

  • what they offer..
  • where they’re falling short..
  • who comes out on top:

How Interview Cake and LeetCode are similar

The concept behind IC and LC is similar – so it makes sense that some of their features overlap.

For some of them, one comes out slightly ahead of the other. For others, they’re all but equal.

Both require a coding and data structures & algorithm background

You don’t need to have a computer science degree or even a bootcamp education to benefit from LeetCode or Interview Cake.

Topics covered in Interview Cake's program

But enrolling in one of these programs only makes sense if you’re proficient in at least one programming language and know the basics of Data Structures & Algorithms.

IC is a bit more beginner-friendly because you get more structure and step-by-step guidance, while LeetCode is well-suited for someone who wants to master the widest possible variety of coding questions – and isn’t afraid to brute-force his way through hundreds of problems to get there.

Text-based instruction

Unlike some other coding interview prep platforms, Interview Cake doesn’t have instructional videos. LC has some user-generated videos, but most of them aren’t as polished and of professional quality.

It’s still mostly text-based, so they’re similar in that regard.

The lack of videos doesn’t have to be a negative: With written instructions, you’re going to be more proactive and focused on your next steps, as opposed to sitting back and absorbing a lecture.

Multi-language support

Coding languages offered in Interview Cake

Neither of these courses requires you to learn a new programming language if you don’t want to. 

You can pick one of 11 languages in Interview Cake – it’ll then automatically switch all explanations and examples to the one you’ve chosen. Leetcode even offers you 18.

This is an advantage over other programs, which sometimes only give you the option to choose between Java, JavaScript, C++, or Python, and nothing else.

Company-specific questions

As Parker Phinney states: Questions asked at Google aren’t unique to Google. But there’s still some quirks to each company and a pool of likely questions they’ve chosen from in the past.

Based on this historical data, both LC and IC give you lists of specific questions you can use to prepare if you’re interviewing for FAANG or similar top-tier companies.

Paid & free content

LeetCode’s free tier gives you access to hundreds of coding problems and solutions – it’s superior in this regard.

At IC, you do get to see the whole table of contents without having to pay for Interview Cake. You can also read some of their articles and interview tips, and even access full solutions for select problems.

But LC’s free offer is more complete, and you could argue against the need to even pay for the premium tier.

Ability to filter questions

While IC’s program is more tightly focused, both candidates give you the option to filter questions and work only on what you like.

You can filter by category & company in Interview Cake and by difficulty, frequency & company in LeetCode. 

The differences

Let’s now explore the differences of Interview Cake vs Leetcode, of which there are a few as well.

What’s better with Interview Cake

Seeing as IC is one of the highest-quality interview prep programs available today, it manages to beat LC in several areas.

In-depth detailed explanations

This is where Parker’s program shines:

The solutions and explanations thereof are top-notch. After you’ve worked through one of IC’s problems and taken in every detail of the instruction, there’s no guesswork left. 

No need to go off into a forum to figure out the how & why.

It’s all right there – each question has on average a whole page of instructions to go along with it. That’s superior to LeetCode’s user-generated solutions and assistance.

Helpful hints

Similar to a real coding interview, if you can’t get further on your own, you can get hints to help you get to a functional solution.

The progressive hints inside Interview Cake

This makes you learn more effectively than with Leetcode, where you either have to keep struggling on your own, seek help in the forums, or reveal the whole solution at once.

The 100% money-back guarantee

Unlike with LeetCode, you can get your course fees back if you feel the program isn’t for you after all, or it didn’t help you get the results you wanted. Simply email the founder and he’ll refund you everything.

Apparently though most students are happy with Interview Cake: They’re boasting a low refund rate of only 2%.

Where LeetCode wins

On the other hand, LC does some things better than IC:

The sheer volume of questions

Yes, this feature of LeetCode could be seen as a negative: It’s easy to get overwhelmed by its wealth of questions. 

But if you’re one of the most dedicated learners – someone ready and willing to invest more time and energy into your interview prep than everyone else – it’s a plus. 

You’ll never run out of practice problems, you’ll be able to cover each topic from all angles, and after mastering hundreds of LeetCode questions, no interviewer will be able to catch you off-guard.

A form of mock interviews

Leetcode offers mock interviews not with a hiring manager or even one of your peers – but a simulator that gives you timed questions specific to a company you choose (e.g., Netflix.)

This isn’t the same as talking to a human being, but it’s still useful for practicing your skill in solving coding problems under some form of pressure.

The possibility to get discovered and hired by recruiters

If you’re active on Leetcode and set your profile to public, you have a chance of being contacted by recruiters who are often browsing the platform looking for a suitable hire.

There’s also frequent contests on the website, where if you place at the top, companies are likely to reach out to you with interview offers.

Comparing pricing structure

When we look at what both prep platforms cost, Leetcode is ahead.

A premium subscription to LC is $13.25 per month right now – a competitive price.

Access to Interview Cake is more pricey for their 3-month or 12-month plan. This investment makes sense if you’re committed to going through their whole program and optimally prepare for interviews within those timeframes.

If you’re just dipping your toes is, going with Leetcode’s cheap monthly plan could make more sense. 

Final Verdict – IC for deep learning, LC for volume

Final verdict of comparing IC and LC

Interview Cake’s way of teaching is the best in the business. The page-long explanations, progressive hints and summary of takeaways & common mistakes guide you to understand each problem.

Doing Leetcode feels a bit more scattered with its thousands of questions and mostly user-generated solutions – but if you’re going for working on as many problems as you can, it’s a good choice as well.

Using both might be the best approach

If I was preparing for a coding interview right now, I’d go through Interview Cake’s focused curriculum to master the essentials. This puts you in a strong position to handle the questions you’ll face most frequently.

You’ll also learn common patterns to problems, so you’ll be able to deal even with questions you haven’t explicitly practiced before.

After that use Leetcode if you want to take the next step and drill your new skills on close to unlimited challenges.

It could be argued that you don’t even need to buy LeetCode’s premium plan to do this, and still be 100% ready for your next interview.

Alternatives to Interview Cake and Leetcode

In my article on Interview Cake alternatives, I review six more platforms like IC you could consider for your coding interview preparation.

Whichever course you end up choosing – the greatest ingredient to your success will be the diligent work you put in. Good luck in your interview preparation, may you crush it and get that Software Engineering position you’re looking for!

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The 6 BEST Interview Cake Alternatives in 2023 https://simpleprogrammer.com/interview-cake-alternatives/ Wed, 15 Feb 2023 05:09:19 +0000 https://simpleprogrammer.com/?p=45108 Best Data Structures & Algorithms Alternative Algomonster AlgoMonster is the best at teaching you Data Structures and Algorithms at a high level. Best Behavioral Interview  Alternative accelerate your Dev career Accelerate your S.D. career has the best advice on personal presentation skills. Best Full Career Preparation Alternative Interview Kickstart Interview Kickstart is a multi-month bootcamp...

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Best Data Structures & Algorithms Alternative

Algomonster's company logo

Algomonster

AlgoMonster is the best at teaching you Data Structures and Algorithms at a high level.

Best Behavioral Interview  Alternative

accelerate your Dev career

Accelerate your S.D. career has the best advice on personal presentation skills.

Best Full Career Preparation Alternative

Interview Kickstart

Interview Kickstart is a multi-month bootcamp for current or aspiring Engineers.

As I’ve established in my review of Interview Cake, it’s a strong program for your interview preparation.

But maybe you don’t like some parts of it – the following could be criticized about the course:

  • While not prohibitively expensive, access to Interview Cake isn’t cheap, starting at $149 for 3 months
  • It’s limited to around 50 hand-picked coding questions. You might be looking for a program with a larger library of problems to solve
  • The section on interview tips and behavioral prep is limited. If you need more help in that area, Interview Cake’s program might not be enough

In this article you’ll learn all about IC’s competitors – and which of them you should choose depending on what kind of alternative you’re looking for.

Best Interview Cake Alternative for Data Structures & Algorithms: AlgoMonster

Like Interview Cake, AlgoMonster is great at teaching data structures & algorithms. It’s also text-based in the same way as IC is. That means it’s not superior if you prefer video instruction. 

AlgoMonster’s pool of questions was created by Google Engineers – so at least on paper its founders are slightly more prestigious than Parker Phinney of Interview Cake. Note though that he has worked as a bootcamp instructor in the Bay Area, and the quality and instruction at IC have been praised by its alumni.

With AlgoMonster, you’ll get:

  • 160 hand-picked, tailored coding problems
  • A real-time coding environment right on the platform
  • 700 insightful illustrations to accompany the instructions
  • Problem-solving patterns so you can handle any coding question

Pros  of AlgoMonster vs Interview Cake:

  • The yearly plan is much cheaper, and you can get lifetime access at an affordable price as well.
  • Its pool of questions consists of 160+ coding interview problems vs IC’s 50+

Negatives of AlgoMonster compared to IC:

  • Lacks any interview tips and career advice
  • Doesn’t have a community like IC’s slack group

Verdict:

For pure data structures & algorithms instruction, AlgoMonster is on par with Interview Cake. IC’s questions are more tightly focused, and the coding interview tips and student community are a great bonus.

The main advantage of AlgoMonster over IC is the lower price point. I can recommend both courses equally, with AM ahead if you’re looking to save money, and Interview Cake winning if you’d like a community of peers to learn with.

A good option for beginners: Edabit

Edabit has a collection of coding challenges in 8 languages. Each challenge also contains information from other members about ways to solve the problems and additional resources.

Edabit

You can create your own collection of challenges. Although Edabit doesn’t offer a specific “interview skill path”, you could create a repertoire of interview-relevant coding problems for yourself that way.

With Edabit, you’ll get: 

  • Over 10,000 different coding challenges
  • A fun, gamified experience that has you level up and gain XP
  • DSA, Algorithms & coding tutorials for complete beginners to advanced coders

The advantages of Edabit over Interview Cake:

  • Many challenges can be accessed for free

  • The gamified system is more motivating

Edabit’s disadvantages compared to IC:

  • It lacks the interview focus and pre-selected problems of Interview Cake
  • No how-to’s for passing interviews or advancing your career

Verdict:

I recommend Edabit if you’re at an early stage in your Software Developer career and looking for a fun way to master the basics step by step.

Learn coding interview skills while paying less: Udemy

Education giant Udemy has many courses on all topics of programming, and they’re even offering dedicated coding interview prep videos. This one does a good job of covering Data Structures & Algorithms, at a competitive price for lifetime access.

With Udemy’s interview prep course, you’ll get:

  • A good introduction to Data Structures & Algorithms, progressing from the ground up
  • 19+ hours of video lessons
  • Brief sections on how to behave at your interview & negotiate a possible offer

On the plus side:

  • Udemy’s course is more accessible to beginners than Interview Cake, because the video lessons start with the very basics

  • You get lifetime access at an affordable price vs. Interview Cake’s medium-priced 3-month or 12-month plan

On the negative side:

  • The course only offers one coding exercise while IC has 50+
  • Udemy’s explanations of each problem don’t go as deep as Interview Cake’s with their progressive hints and extensive takeaways section

Verdict:

If you’re not in a rush to be fully interview-ready, but want to dip your toes into coding interview prep – without having to think twice about the course fee – then Udemy’s course could be for you.

Simple Programmer’s course for coding AND behavioral interview prep

In the “Accelerate Your Software Developer Career Toolkit” by Simple Programmer I teach you how to approach the different types of coding questions, and I show you how to solve them on a whiteboard in multiple video courses.

But where the course has caused the biggest transformation in students is the behavioral aspect.

While most other courses brush over this subject, you’ll go deep into what it takes to act with confidence, answer behavioral questions most intelligently, and win over your interviewer.

With my coding interview prep course, you’ll get:

  • 8-part video course on solving coding questions

  • 8-part video course on tackling behavioral questions

  • Assessments, resources and checklists

Where Accelerate Your Career trumps Interview Cake:

  • Hours of video content vs only text-based instruction

  • Strong focus on job hunting skills and improving your personal presentation

  • Bonus segments for skill assessment and salary negotiation 

The cons of SP’s program vs IC:

  • No coding environment
  • No community of alumni

Verdict:

Interview Cake goes deep into solving tens of specific coding questions. I give you approaches and patterns for solving them.

Accelerate Your Software Developer Career has the best advice on personal presentation skills and conquering not just coding problems, but also the crucial behavioral type questions. 

For interactive practice of Data Structure & Algorithms with a built-in IDE, go with something like Interview Cake.

To become a more skilled, charismatic and valuable programmer as a whole, winning at all aspects of your job hunt, choose the Career Accelerator Toolkit.

A decent alternative to prepare for a specific kind of interview: Educative

Another platform offering text-based instruction for solving coding interview questions is Educative.io of Grokking the Coding Interview fame.

If you’re preparing for your interview in one programming language, Educative has skill paths specific to interviews in C#, C++, Python, Java and JavaScript (as well as two for Front-End and System Design interviews.)

With Educative, you’ll get:

  • Data Structures & Algorithms fundamentals included in each skill path
  • Around 200 hours of work, 700-900 lessons, and hundreds of quizzes, playgrounds & challenges, along with thousands of illustrations per course
  • An affordable monthly subscription fee

Pros of Educative vs Interview Cake:

  • Even if you stick with the monthly plan for a year, it’s still cheaper than Interview Cake

  • It has hundreds of code challenges vs. IC’s 50+

Educative’s cons vs IC:

Verdict:

With its wealth of coding problems, Educative reminds a bit of LeetCode, but with more thorough expert-created explanations.

I would recommend it if you’d like to drill on a high volume of questions. 

The instructions are good, although they’re not using Interview Cake’s system of progressive clues and reminders.

Interview Kickstart as a deep specialization alternative to Interview Cake

It’s the most thorough online program for coding interview preparation – read my full review of Interview Kickstart here. Depending on which career path you want to master, IK’s courses span up to 18 weeks.

They’re guaranteeing you’ll get a job within the 6-month post-program support period – or 100% of your money back.

Be prepared to invest mid five figures into this bootcamp-style deep dive. That’s playing in a whole other league than Interview Cake. But the average salary boost of an IK alumnus might make the investment worth it for you.

With Interview Kickstart, you’ll get:

  • Taught by IK’s team of 500+ experienced FAANG & Tier-1 interviewers with specialized expertise in different fields
  • 17 available specializations in everything from Full Stack Engineering and Tech Program Management to Data Science and Machine Learning
  • Six month support period with 1:1 career coaching and access to Interview Kickstarts network of companies
  • Working alongside your peers in 4-18 week cohorts, and a 5000+ strong community of alumni
  • The learning platform UpLevel to have all course materials, schedules, and 100s of hours of recorded lectures in one place

These factors might make Interview Kickstart a viable alternative:

  • The cohort-based, bootcamp-style program offers unparalleled immersion and optimal preparation for specific Engineering positions

  • Career coaching, mock interviews and 1:1 mentorship by FAANG+ tech leads and hiring managers

IK is worse than Interview Cake in these regards:

  • You’ll invest many times more into the course than with IC
  • You’ll commit yourself for months vs the self-paced nature of Interview Cake

Verdict:

If you’re dead set on getting a significant promotion or entering a premium-pay Engineering discipline, Interview Kickstart is for you and will get you there (guaranteed by their exceptional refund policy.) Otherwise, stick with Interview Cake or any of its similarly-priced competitors.

<

p style=””>Note:

You can’t enroll in the program directly. They first make you go through a one-hour webinar with one of the founders to explain the skill paths and pricing in detail.

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FULL Interview Cake Review (2023 New Features) https://simpleprogrammer.com/interview-cake-review/ Tue, 14 Feb 2023 15:04:41 +0000 https://simpleprogrammer.com/?p=45013 Quick Verdict I recommend you buy Interview Cake if: you know at least one coding language and the basics of Data Structures & Algorithms you want a tightly focused resource for your interview prep you’re looking for something more affordable than a full-on job specialization bootcamp you’re fine with a text-based learning format  Overall Rating: 4/5...

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Quick Verdict

I recommend you buy Interview Cake if:

  • you know at least one coding language and the basics of Data Structures & Algorithms
  • you want a tightly focused resource for your interview prep
  • you’re looking for something more affordable than a full-on job specialization bootcamp
  • you’re fine with a text-based learning format 

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Quality of instruction

DOMAIN SPECIFICITY

community

INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION

motivating

price

Interview Cake is one of multiple options of platforms to prepare for your next coding interview.

While it’s not the most expensive choice out there (it’s in the middle of the pack) – you still want to know whether it’s worth investing this money into the course. And more importantly, your time and energy.

  • How good is IC’s content really?
  • Does it cover the right topics, and teach them with proficiency?
  • Will it help you prepare in the shortest amount of time?

Let’s shine a light at Interview Cake from all angles, and determine if it’s right for you.

Quick Pros & Cons

If you’d like just the quick lowdown, then here’s the major advantages & disadvantages I’ve found with the program.

  • Picking only what matters most. Interview Cake’s questions overlap with those most frequently asked at FAANG interviews. You’ll be working on the same category of problems interviewers are using most frequently, instead of spreading yourself thin on hundreds of mildly relevant questions.
  • Teaching the HOW of problem-solving, step by step. For every step towards the optimal solution to a problem, you can have IC guide you along with helpful hints. And at the end, you’re getting in-depth explanations of the solution, as well as the most important takeaways. This makes you retain what you’ve worked on – and build not mere memorization, but actual skills.
  • Providing a platform that’s easy to use, navigate and see your progress in. While its UI doesn’t look fancy, the content is organized such that you can find everything quickly, jump to other relevant articles, and see how far you’ve come & where you’ve left off. The built-in coding environment lets you build and run your solutions in real time, so there’s no switching back and forth complicating your learning.
  • No videos. As the goal is to have you be as proactive as possible when going through the course, they’ve decided not to include any of the lecture-style videos common with other coding interview prep programs. This aspect can be a dealbreaker for some, though. If you want more than the text- and illustration-based explanations, you’ll need to look for a program other than Interview Cake
  • Access for 3 months/one year only, not lifetime. You can get a short-term plan at a greatly reduced price with Interview Cake, as well as their normal option for a yearly subscription. This is fine if you use it to prepare for a few rounds of interviews throughout a year. But if you want to refresh your skills next year, you’ll have to buy it again.
  • No huge database of questions like LeetCode. I know I’ve listed this as a plus. Some people do prefer to be confronted with a massive variety of coding problems – they want to be prepared for every eventuality. If you’re in this camp, IC’s tightly focused set of questions will be a negative for you.

Heard enough already? Sign up for Interview Cake here.

How Interview Cake works & what it offers – 7 best features

Let’s dive into IC’s features, so you know exactly what you’re getting when you join their course to prep for your next coding interview:

1. Select your language of choice

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The course is available in 11 coding languages. You can select the one that’s relevant for your interview, and all course contents will be automatically adjusted according to your choice.

2. Cover all relevant topics for cracking coding interviews

If you know the basics of Data Structures & Algorithms, Interview Cake will make you an expert at it, given that you commit to diligently working your way through the course.

You’ll learn all topics asked in coding interviews to a high level. Here’s an overview of what’s covered:

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Algorithmic thinking, Arrays & Strings, Hashing, Greedy Algorithms, Sorting Algorithms, Trees & Graphs, Dynamic Programming, Recursion, Queues & Stacks, Linked Lists, System Design, General Programming, Bit Manipulation, Math & Combinatorics, JavaScript problems, Coding Interview Tips

There’s only a few hand-picked questions for every topic. This is so you learn what you need, without being bombarded by endless problems. The questions mirror those frequently asked at FAANG and similar companies.

3. Get high-quality hints and deep explanations

One of the features setting Interview Cake apart from other prep courses is the progressive hints they give you as you’re working on a problem. With other courses, if you’re stuck, you only have the option to reveal the whole solution – which isn’t optimal for your learning.

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IC asks you for your answer, and if you can’t give it yet, you can click “Tell me more” to get tips for the next step. This way you can do as much as you can on your own, or tip-toe your way to the optimal solution if at some point you can’t get further.

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Then once you’ve come up with an answer, there’s the “Gotcha” bonus feature. It will tell you the common mistakes people make in their solutions to this specific problem, and show you how to avoid doing the same in your own.

Most of the questions inside Interview Cake have a whole page of explanations. Parker did a good job at being thorough, making sure you understand the how of solving each problem in detail.

Taking your time to study these lessons means you’ll be well prepared for your next coding interview.

4. Build your code in real time

You can create and test your code right in IC’s built-in IDE. This is a feature not all prep courses offer. It’s convenient to be able to do this, saving you the stress of switching back & forth between the course and your code editor.

You feel like you have everything you need to be well-prepared right inside the platform. No need to go to other applications to solve the problems (and also no need to Google anything because the instruction is so thorough). But, just in case you do want more input (from other users), there’s the bonus of IC’s community..

5. Join a community

Something that’s been added to Interview Cake recently is the Slack channel, which you can use to get assistance with the course from your peers, as well as network or just chat with other students.

Unlike more expensive programs like Interview Kickstart, IC doesn’t include live group classes or 1:1 mentorship calls. With the Slack channel you get similar benefits of being part of a community without having to spend thousands.

6. Receive career advice

Granted, the “Interview Tips” section of IC isn’t huge – but working through these articles means you’ll know what to expect at your interview, the best way to prepare yourself, and how to act so you avoid common pitfalls.

7. If you don’t like it, get a full refund

Just email Parker Phinney, Interview Cake’s founder. He advertises a 98% success rate for his program. Only 2% of people felt they didn’t get value out of the course and got a refund.

Online reviews by past students

Aside from the numerous testimonials published on IC’s website, such as these –

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– past students are also sharing their experience with Interview Cake on sites like Quora, or their personal blogs:

“I’d recommend Interview Cake the most to candidates who have already have experience and want to brush up on algorithms. If you’re someone who’s familiar with technical interviews and working your way through a problem, Interview Cake is great because it explains problems and logical flow well.” – A commenter on Quora

“It’s great for all levels of experience. Whether you’ve been coding for 3 months or 30 years.

They have a high quality set of questions. All questions you’d see at FAANG coding interviews. There’s high overlap with frequently asked questions at Google interviews (like the egg drop question). You’ll notice these showing up in the mock interviews at Pramp & interviewing.io. So after going through Interview Cake, you’ll be familiar with these popular questions.” – Colorful Codes, programming blogger

Final Verdict – Is it worth it?

Taking into account all pros & cons, its features, price point and the quality of questions, I can recommend Interview Cake as an effective program to prepare for your next coding interview.

It’s less intensive than premium-priced courses like Interview Kickstart, but with the whole set of 50+ coding problems for you to complete, you’ll get a strong preparation plan at a moderate cost. 

IC’s explanations and hints leave nothing to be desired. It’s great to get not just single solutions, but learn patterns for approaching any interview problem.

The built-in coding environment is helpful as well.

My verdict:

If you put your head down and diligently go through Interview Cake from start to finish, solving interview questions will have become second nature for you. I doubt you’ll have any problems passing coding interviews even at high-profile companies after that.

FAQ

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