I have the CS background with PhD/research focus. I'm honestly bad at Leetcode Easy even, simply because I can't get myself to practice with dicipline. I think I got lucky in my current job that I only had to solve 1 Leetcode Easy 3 years ago, but now I cannot pass interviews at all. I do some Leetcode on and off for a short time, then I interview, then get rejected, disappointed for 6 month. I'm stuck in this loop. My current TC is 320k (3 yoe), which isn't bad, but I can potentially get offers 100k more if I pass leetcode.. It's not about TC only, I really want to change job, really tired and bored of the work. I thought joining a serious program like Interview Kickstart can help me get focused and diciplined..
Go for it!
This is really hard. Reviews are very bimodal.
Reviews are for restaurants i.e. for things that are low-stakes. For things that are high-stakes in your life, you have to roll up your sleeves and do your own research first-hand. No program is ideal for everyone. And every program is perfect for some audience. Come to our info session, attend the first week, talk to fellow students why they are here, understand what we stand for and then make your call. Asking anonymous forums with armchair critics, or relying on one or two random stranger's opinions on the internet is not the way life-changing decisions should be made, IMHO.
I will give a thorough review.
The reviews all basically say that you're paying for the program to keep you focused and accountable. If you need that, then go for it. Otherwise, it's a waste of money. With your background (which presumably required some past discipline), I can hardly imagine it's worthwhile.
@OP Where are you working at 350k? YOE?
320k. Yoe 3 after PhD. A big non-faang tech. I'd rather not say for anonymity
The review you posted from Justin is very old as a recent graduate what I would say is that the best thing about the program is lectures/series/videos by Omkar. The problem is Soham was not giving us access to more of his classes and throws other instructors who are not that good on us. In spite of our request for more series from Omkar, he asks us to do mock interviews which are not so useful. That is my advice join but try to get as much from Omkar as you can. His series covers most patterns from leetcode questions and that can help you address your deficiency well.
Hi there, thanks for the note. Please see my reply earlier. IK's intent was never to be a long Masters like academic program with deep dives. IK is meant to bring focus to your prep, by spending time on the right things, taking right risks and learning by failing fast.
We are not asking for 2 years Masters program, just 6-8 months of support period(longer would be better but say 6-8 months) filled with classes or recordings of deep dives by Omkar. We don't understand why those classes have been stopped when they were helping the most. I have hardly seen anyone crack FAANG after 8 weeks of overhwleming content followed by "failing fast" approach.
Since I didn't see anything written about what IK is like today, I am giving this review as current student. I am glad I joined IK because I got to learn from Omkar, who heads the technical curriculum. Nick is also great on behavioral side but as IC looking to solve Leetcode problems well, you perhaps want to know more about technical side. I personally thank Omkar and grateful for raising the bar of teaching to the next level. He has this incredible magical way to recognize patterns in topics and problems and club them together which you will find absolutely nowhere and to present to the class in such an organized way that even hard Leetcode problems seem manageable and medium one seems easy. Irrespective of one’s understanding of the topic, when he teaches you will get to know the completely different perspective of the topic. This new outlook on the concept feels astonishing with respect to the understanding of the same topic. Omkar has conducted a series of some topics do far. These serries are basically in-depth knowledge on that particular topic with the varied numbers of fo problems and patterns associated with them. During the Dynamic programming series, he covered more than 25+ Leetcode problems falling into different patterns and his analysis of optimal substructure for them was very insightful. Not something you will find in other online videos. In other classes, we were told to just dump things into a table. Another series that Omkar took was on Trees where he covered more than 60+ Leetcode problems. He templatized normal BFS, DFS algorithms in such a way where most of the problems fit in including medium and hard LC. I was never confident with trees problems before which I was after attending Tree Series classes. He also covered variants of DFS top-down and bottom-up approaches and their tradeoffs which can be very helpful particularly in interviews to mention. He has gone above and beyond with trees topics. Until now one last series which he taught is about Binary search variants he covered more than 30+ Leetcode problems. That was like a total game-changer as he covered bisection and binary search in a totally different light. The way he categorizes problems to give a holistic understanding of the Binary Search variant problem was brain-opener. Again you will not see his patterns and template anywhere on the internet or other coaching class. It is Omkar’s invention. Omkar is a born teacher with unlimited patience and energy to teach. He is a real jewel in the teaching world for students and what students call him at IK as “GOD of IK”. You only get such a teacher once in a lifetime. Learning from Omkar is one of the enlighted experiences I had so far. After these series of classes on various topics so far, students wanted it to be continued for more topics. But unfortunately, the founders do not themselves realize the value of his content so make sure you ask for it when enrolling. In spite of our student’s request for more series from Omkar, the founder asks us to do directly jump on to practice or mock interviews and learn from failing which in students’ opinion is not fruitful since we are not ready for tough interviews without complete preparation. So before joining IK, please check with the founders during enrollment what the latest status is, since rules and access to his videos have not been given consistently. In short(long :P ) answer, Omkar and his series are what matters the most at IK. I would suggest you should check while enrolling that you will be able to attend his series and there will be more ongoing series on new topics after the 8 weeks. Don’t go by 8 weeks material as that is not much compared to the series. Interviews have become harder and you need lot more than what IK offers in the 8 weeks.
I support this thought. Series gave us lots more confident to tackle new problem else always my thinking is that we are very much dependent on luck and leaving on luck to get something very similar question which we solved prior. Since people are coming so all prepared, as IK student we expect to have an edge and that can only happen if we solve the leetcode tactically. Only thing series are little long and initially it was centered around teacher learning but I think table has turned around and students has been benefited on larger scale. If series is long in nature, I would be fine if omkar can record it prior with his patterns and send those videos only. Something we need in order to be more confident than riding on the luck bus.
IK founders @soham@IK The cohort sessions are really good kick-starters for interview process and essential but that’s not it! In today's competition for top tier companies, we need more insights. The series have been extremely helpful especially Omkar’s series. He dives deep and finds pattern on leetcode problems which are most frequently asked on top companies. His Series of Trees, DP and binary search are remarkable. He spends hours/days to solve the problems to find patterns and insights, so we can spend an awesome 20-25 mins in the interviews! His insights/patterns/template make things so intuitive that LC hard/medium problems become obvious to solve. or maybe I would not have given this full 5 star to IK, if it weren’t for his sessions/series. (doesn’t mean other instructors are not great). But you maynot know how many IK folks are willing(/dying) to take his series and to learn from his insights. Please give it a go! They have been going great so far.. :) P.S.: it's also part of the thorough IK review comment.
I have been an IK students for 6 months now. The things that I learned are unimaginable (not a bit of exaggeration). I have attended all the cohort sessions and a lot of practice sessions by instructors. Attended around 9 mocks. I am still in the process of interviewing with “top Tier” companies and the interviews are going very well so far and the main reason is IK’s course systematic structure and some of the exceptional instructors. (Most of them work for FANG/ top tier companies) For folks who want a thorough review of IK: IK has the most systematic approach to crack interviews. They have a great set of Instructors who are super passionate about coding/system design. part 0: They initially handout a small coursework (which is an accumulation of all the important links) that help you brush up some basic data structures and techniques. Things you need to know to start the preparation. Like Recursion, collection of different data structures, their pros/cons, basics of OS/machines/cache, basics of system design and all part 1: When the Cohort session starts, they provide pre-prep videos for concepts for each major topic(both coding/system design) and complexity analysis of every algorithm/techniques that build a strong foundation and gives insights. The live class instructors will use those insights/concepts and solve the problems (frequently asked questions in interviews). After that we have homework (practice questions), that will clear all the confusion and gives better understanding. They will teach you on soft skills like behavioral/salary negotiation/ how to schedule the preparation/setup mindset, they are super important. part 2: Mocks: Which are golden. Mocks are taken by those instructors working for the top companies and they know what are the interviewers exactly looking for and they will give you a thorough and honest feedback (/how they felt and what they think you should improve upon) which in the real interviews we will never know (and will probably die in mystery! :)). Imagine taking 5 mock interviews of Google/Facebook (without any penalty) Mocks will give you a lot of learning lessons. Smartness is one thing and performing on board (or presenting) is another. And IK gives 15 of them. (or you may ask for referral.. shhh.. ;) ) part 3: Keep interviewing more and more while practicing more problems. They have sessions where you can ask any questions like from leetcode or anywhere and the instructors will show you the approach. At the same time, attend the practice session by new instructors (optional) but super helpful. Those teacher’s insights have been extremely helpful so far in interviews. Learn in groups and use the board. They have helped me a lot. It’s up to you how much you get out of IK! (“yeah whatever.. what’s the conversion rate? Tell me how many got into FANG.?) I don’t have a conversion rate (maybe not the right person as a student), but what I can say is: There are so many reasons we can get selected or rejected. We don’t know even after performing great in the interview if we will crack it. (Well mocks will give you a lot better idea and a better judgement on how well did you perform) but someone else might have better experience than you do or the interviewer wasn’t fully convinced by your idea or the position got filled before your evaluation or nervousness or the person’s nature doesn’t fit the team and so on..) Some people are “lucky”, some are not!! What you should know/do, take as many interviews as possible and by building strong foundation, you will be confident enough in those interviews and perform well which will increase the chance of getting selected in interviews and by giving more interviews, you will have highly likely chances to get offers from “target/cool” companies. - I learnt this from IK soft skill sessions! For IK Founders: The cohort sessions are really good kickstarters for interview process and essential but that’s not it! The series have been extremely helpful especially Omkar’s series. He dives deep and finds pattern on leetcode problems which are most frequently asked on top companies. His Series of Trees, DP and binary search are remarkable. He spends hours/days to solve the problems to find patterns and insights, so we can spend an awesome 20-25 mins in the interviews! His insights/patterns/template make things super intuitive that LC hard/medium problems become obvious to solve. or maybe I would not have given this full 5 star to IK, if it weren’t for his sessions/series. (doesn’t mean other instructors are not great). But you maynot know how many IK folks are willing(/dying) to take his series and to learn from his insights. Please give it a go! They have been going great so far.. :)
Tell us you're interviewing well only when you have offers from those companies. Anyone can think they performed well. TBH your post reads as a thinly disguised shill for IK.
@Bloomberg I am giving an honest review here. If you don't like it, It's fine. I am not marketing myself or IK. This is what I genuinely feel. In fact let me remove that part, so that you would be happy.
I’ve attended this , it was quite helpful for my interviews. Both curriculum and mocks. Soham genuinely helps people!
How is Soham's involvement in the session? Does he provide career coaching for instance if someone is considering switching to engineering manager?
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Read this: https://medium.com/@justinrich/my-experience-with-interview-kickstart-e3b5edc3bd55
For anyone relying on this review, please know that we have since revamped our curriculum. The student in question also had massive mismatch of expectations going in. I wish he had given us an opportunity to address it.
@soham@ik : Not the new content but would the new students get access to all of Omkar's deep dive sessions discussed above?