Is interview kickstart/outco worth it? Is there anything better or cheaper available? Though I am little from data background and did not have formal cs education. Yoe 10 Tc 150k East coast
IK alumni here, if you don’t have Cs background then i would say go for it. They consolidated a bunch of CS fundamental/advanced topic in the context of coding interview. So it saves you a lot of time when it comes to preparing your interview. The instructors quality was hit and miss ime, but they have a recorded session taught by someone else in case y don’t like your instructor. But eod, leetcode is still a deciding factor :)!
Don’t go for outco, not worth it!!
Outco is a waste of money
Given your background, would recommend Interview Kickstart. Especially get hold of Omkar's content/videos and then it wouldn't matter which instructor you get. They will give you a solid CS education and worth it. My wife cracked FAANG thanks to them.
Who is Omkar, one of their instructors?
Yes and also Director of Curriculum
No it's an Indian sweatshop and they charge $5k for what could be learned doing 250 leetcode problems. Their system design was also weak. There are no shortcuts.
5k? You might be an old timer then as we paid 6k. Quality now is good though at least algorithms.
6K? f*** ripoff
Stay away from IK, its a total ripoff. The founder SM is full of non-sense and its almost like you need to beg for extra pre-recorded videos while wasting time on useless instructors every week. I am beyond frustrated and really wish I had not joined here, I am having to grind LC and system design from books anyways now. I am not sure why they wouldn't make the videos available, its like secret knowledge that you can only acquire by begging. Most reviews on blind looks like they are paid for, don't go with them. Talk to someone you know personally who has finished the course.
Do they not promise/provide Omkar's videos upfront? What is the process like? I'm planning to enroll but seems like they make a big deal out of it.
^same. They dodged all questions about Omkar during the info session I attended. I would be afraid to sign up just to be stuck with a bad instructor who isn’t Omkar
I did IK two years ago. Yea it was a rip off. They basically give you 5-10 Leetcode hards for homework and don’t really explain strategies well. I found Grokking coding patterns and YouTube more useful. Maybe it’s changed since then. $500 dollars - sure. $6K? Fuck no. Go pay for Stanford’s CS 161 for the same money and get a better experience. There are truly no shortcuts. I ended up doing 250 leetcodes and it’s what I should have done all along. Read DDIA and System Design Interview books on Amazon. Then practice practice practice.
I did IK less than a year ago, and just FYI, I hit 200+ Leetcodes just by following Omkar's series since he covers so many problems across all his classes and series. IK two years ago must have been very different without him, and without the content they have now, can imagine it as a rip off. But there's a huge difference now.
Sguna - is IK now zoom classroom based and does having the cohort/classmates help?
I was wondering anyone recently enrolled or planning to enroll in IK ? I m exploring my option the $$$ is what really scares me and the deal I have been reading around Omkar and his content. So is it true he does not teach himself and his content is not included with their master class ???
Yes
Oh did you sign up with them ?
DM me