Are interview prep bootcamps worth it?
Barely have any time or energy to study after long days at work. Is signing up for a some sort of paid interview prep course worth it? I know there's plenty of resources like CTCI and EPI that are a much cheaper option in comparison. But in terms of keeping myself accountable and on schedule, maybe it would make sense? Have you had any experience with anything like this? Most likely not looking to stay at GS next year. TC 140k, 4 yoe
I'm totally against interview prep as a business, but here we are. If anything, the money you pay for the bootcamp at least motivates you to continue studying. And they are also a good one-stop resource to prepare rather than buying 10 books and watching 20 different YouTube channels.
I’m genuinely curious what makes you against them? I think it’s a bit scummy too...
Word. Also, I can't think of any other industry where people spend hundreds of hours studying just to switch jobs.....
I’ve had the same question...a lot of it is about approach and structure to your prep. I feel like either way you have to put in the effort even when you are tired. Gotta also think about what helps facilitate learning more efficiently as well. If you think about it, absorbing material is not proportional to time spent. I do also wanna know if bootcamps can actually help you learn as opposed to just keeping you accountable.
Hopefully someone can share their experience with a course/bootcamp
The thing now a days that makes thing difficult too is you’re expected to code on an online IDE, which forces you to be 100% correct, compiles, and pass test cases. If you have small bugs and can’t identify nor fix them fast them enough it’s a likely no pass. Compare this to back in my day where you could white board it. Your algo still had to be sound, but you still had some room for marginal errors.