Anyone familiar with these? I'm of a fan of Outco as they seem to be more open about the process and were the only ones that allowed an onsite visit and for the most part seemed pretty legitimate, minus a bit of a interesting history with Hack Reactor. The $1.5k upfront + 5% income of first year also seemed pretty reasonable as well and relatively clear, although I have yet to see the contract itself. Interview Kickstart on the other hand seems like they are more experienced and have instructors from the big4 which is my goal. Their culture seem fairly aggressive, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing. They've been mostly unavailable, but I'm wondering if it's worth it to wait and go with them instead as it's possible they're secretive for a reason. For context, I have about 4-5 years experience in engineering, although mostly contract — about 2 years in various businesses with a few hit projects there that were somewhat notable. Leaving contracting as it's not stable enough for me.
Most important part of preparation is to practice solving problems. With IK you have time between classes to do homework and every evening there is remote meeting with Technical Assistance if you need help. So, if you ready to work hard, IK will provide you great support, but practice is the key.
Is there onsite whiteboarding practice? I feel that is one of the more valuable things that is offered.
Yes there is onsite whiteboarding. From what I understand there are a ton of other valuable things in IK. Advanced curriculum, daily 1x1 help. Weekly test (I have heard they will give you more if you ask), graded stuff and of course so many mocks with experienced people. Not to mention instructors.
I second Oracle. I found IK to be super open, not secretive at all. Just talk to them. OTOH, Outco is a program for inexperienced people, not for people with CS degrees. I found the curriculum fairly basic and their pitch immature. I bet most of us here will regret going through outco. There is not even a comparison IMHO.
So, I may be on the less experienced side as I never went to college (too expensive to afford, even with scholarships or full ride — housing, loans, etc too much) and don't have a CS degree. My algorithms are mostly self taught, so I'm not entirely sure where I sit. Feedback ranges from great to absolute shit (from a PhD in ML, so higher standards?). I pass interviews at old school corporate, but get rejected for cultural fit reasons (too young, too much startup experience, etc). I think I need more of an onsite rigid regime to get into the groove, I tend to work better with more people as I'm a bit more of a social person. I'm a bit time bound sadly so I have to make a snap decision (big 4 interview in a month), but thanks for the tips. I have been waiting 2 months for IK to respond, but I'll try reaching out again.
If you have time, good starting point will be Coursera algorithms and DS course (from Princeton) for basics, then switch to Cracking the coding interview book (may not solve all problems), and after that go to IK.
Is IK really worth $6k?
I have joined IK program and never regret about that. There are many prerequisites you can do before cohort begins. The program is not easy and you should be ready to spend lots of time to do homework. Mock interviews with engineers from top companies with detailed feedback is also great experience.
Are you at oracle?