Interview Kickstart
Average Rating4.78
271 Reviews
23 Courses
Interview Kickstart is a part-time, 12-15 week online career advancement platform that helps tech professionals nail technical interviews at FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) and Tier-1 companies. Interview Kickstart is dedicated to helping tech and product professionals secure their dream jobs with top tech companies. Since 2014, they have trained over 20,000 tech professionals to succeed in the toughest interviews at FAANG companies.
The courses at Interview Kickstart are designed by FAANG tech leads and taught by FAANG instructors. They cover 18 tech and product domains, including Machine Learning, Data Science, System Design, and Software development. Interview Kickstart also offers specialized training for career transitions to rapidly growing AI-related tech fields. With a team of 600 seasoned FAANG+ professionals, their instructors provide real-world guidance to help professionals achieve their career goals.
To enroll in any Interview Kickstart program, attend their pre-enrollment webinar held daily (except Saturday). During the webinar, prospective students will learn about courses and the market landscape. After attending, a program advisor will connect with prospective students to assist with the admission process.
271 Interview Kickstart Reviews
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EmilMay 10, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/AGreat content, smartly picked problems
I got into Google with < 150 LC questions thanks to IK. Their content and the practice problems really lets you think from the fundamentals. They also provide you with sufficient amount of mock interievs with detailed feedback which helped me improve my communication skills.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 05, 2022
Hi Emil, thank you for your words of appreciation! We are glad to know that you found the program useful in your upleveling journey. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program.- KSEngineering Manager Interview Preparation • San JoseMay 01, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
IK Engineering Management course review
I am glad that I made the right decision at the right time by selecting IK Engineering Management track. IK course boosted my confidence significantly and got a couple of offers in FAANG companies in just 4 months. Course is very rigorous & well-structured with lot of support throughout the journey in terms of mock interviews for both Technical and Leadership & Behavioral, foundation videos, Online classes & practice sessions, technical & career coaching and offer negoti...I am glad that I made the right decision at the right time by selecting IK Engineering Management track. IK course boosted my confidence significantly and got a couple of offers in FAANG companies in just 4 months. Course is very rigorous & well-structured with lot of support throughout the journey in terms of mock interviews for both Technical and Leadership & Behavioral, foundation videos, Online classes & practice sessions, technical & career coaching and offer negotiations.I would like to specially call out the excellent foundation course by Omkar, in-depth system design classes by Niloy, Tilo, Data Structures & algorithms classes by Tom G by focusing on the patterns rather than pointed solutions. This pattern helped me a lot to think of the solution holistically rather than a pointed approach.I strongly suggest this course to someone who can spend more than 20hrs/week and has a strong technical and people management experience. Thanks to IK for providing a platform to unlock the potential and alleviating the interview fear.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 05, 2022
Hi KS, thank you for your encouraging feedback! We are glad to know that you found the program structure valuable in your journey during the program. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - SteveDirector of EngineeringApr 03, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Just Finishing up Interview Kickstart
I chose the Engineering Management IK course. In summary:
1. It's a lot of work
2. Doing this work is necessary to get hired to a good position in today's job market
3. IK has some unique features that are a big deal
Here are some thoughts:- First step is getting interviews. IK shines in this area, because IK has a lot of recruiters on their team.
- IK's resume format WORKS. It autoscans properly, it plays well with LinkedIn algorithms, and most import...
I chose the Engineering Management IK course. In summary:
1. It's a lot of work
2. Doing this work is necessary to get hired to a good position in today's job market
3. IK has some unique features that are a big deal
Here are some thoughts:- First step is getting interviews. IK shines in this area, because IK has a lot of recruiters on their team.
- IK's resume format WORKS. It autoscans properly, it plays well with LinkedIn algorithms, and most importantly, it catches the eye of recruiters and makes it easy for them to parse. Since recruiters will only gather a finite set of candidates when they are hunting and they will simply toss anything that causes them to slow down, this is very important.
- Their approach to promoting yourself on LinkedIn WORKS. For me, the uptick was dramatic, going from 1-2 recruiters reaching out to me per month to 1-3 very valid reach-outs per week.
- IK resume reviews are extremely helpful, and they optimize for match stickiness.
- But you also have to always be applying to new jobs that are posted on LinkedIn. Every single day.
- Then it's interview time. The interviews themselves are really tough these days - algorithm/coding, system design, behavioral
- The bulk of the IK program is all about teaching you how to excel in all three areas. The biggest plus of IK is that you can do a ton of mock interviewers with real hiring managers in FAANG companies. You can study all you want, but the mocks are where the real value is. You get a bunch of useful feedback; you do then need to then do a bunch more work to actually apply the feedback constructively. No free lunch here.
- IK does a LOT of in-person classes, and captures each class as a video you can look at later. I actually got a subscription to Educative as well, because it allowed me to easily find specific material instead of trying to find something in a video. I'd like to see IK publish text-based summary guides that become available AFTER you've done a live class in addition to the videos.
- IK's classes are quite interactive, and that's very important. The only way to actually learn something is to do it. Their coding exercises are very useful and challenging, with a nice system for running a wide range of test cases against your code. One thing that I found a little annoying - as a JavaScript programmer, the input parameters as documented were often not quite right. I got into the habit of always doing a console.log() on the input parameters to see what they actually were before writing any code.
- This part of IK can be absolutely overwhelming, because there's just so much to learn. I've found that the best approach is to always move on to whatever is being taught in the current week, even if you haven't finished what was taught in the previous week. Otherwise, you will fall behind completely. You can always go back, but very often getting to 80% in an area will do the trick in real life.
- A little trick - if you do a coding interview, check out the person who will be doing the interview on LinkedIn. If possible, do the coding interview in a language that you know but they don't. Then you are teaching them things as well as them teaching you things, which can lead to a better interview.
- Behavioral interview coaching is SUPER important. We all tend to ramble, not frame answers correctly, etc. IK is really good at getting you to be succinct, to the point and relevant. Very important to do some behavioral mock interviews, not only technical. The reason I signed up for IK in the first place was because I completely bombed a few interviews at the beginning in this area. I knew I wasn't doing them right, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to do them better.
- IK systems approach. IK believes that there is a systematic approach to all of these areas; that's what they are really teaching you. They have pretty simple "flows" for all of the interview types that work quite well because they are easy to remember in an interview situation where you are nervous to begin with. This was actually the biggest advantage of IK for me; they try and turn every aspect of interviews into these flows, and then you practice, practice, practice until they become second nature.
Anyway, I'm now going through interview loops from 8 companies, a mixture of FAANGs and startups. These loops can take many weeks to get scheduled, then for results from each stage of the loop to get to you, etc. I'm finding that it's important to keep only applying to additional even when in the middle of interview loops. Because nothing teaches you more about interviewing than actually doing interviews, failing at some of them and then getting better at it...Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Steve, thank you for your words of appreciation! We are glad to know that you found the program structure useful in your upleveling journey. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - First step is getting interviews. IK shines in this area, because IK has a lot of recruiters on their team.
- SurajStudent • Backend Engineering Interview Preparation • San JoseApr 01, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Course review
Took a comprehensive backend engineer program.
Pros:
1. Helped me land a job in FAANG
2. Omkar's videos are absolute gold standard and some are even better than Stanford course explainations. Perfectly tailored to crack interviews
3. Additional benefits like mock interviews and offer negotiation was just amazing
4. A couple of sys design instructors are really good and provided good templates
Could be better:
1. Some vital material is provided only when asked f...Took a comprehensive backend engineer program.
Pros:
1. Helped me land a job in FAANG
2. Omkar's videos are absolute gold standard and some are even better than Stanford course explainations. Perfectly tailored to crack interviews
3. Additional benefits like mock interviews and offer negotiation was just amazing
4. A couple of sys design instructors are really good and provided good templates
Could be better:
1. Some vital material is provided only when asked for. That ideally should be provided to all candidates
2. Some instructors explainations and teaching could surely be better.
Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Suraj, thank you for your words of appreciation! We are glad to know that you found the program useful in your upleveling journey. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - IbrSoftware Engineer • Graduate • Backend Engineering Interview Preparation • San JoseMar 29, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Back End Engineer
The course is specialized in back end engineering track.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi lbr, thank you for your words of appreciation! We are glad to know that you found the program useful in your upleveling journey. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - KranthiMar 25, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Bootcamp
Good curriculum, knowledgeable instructors.
The mock interviews is what made this absolutely worth it for me.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Kranthi, thank you for your words of appreciation! We are glad to know that you found the program useful in your upleveling journey. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - Rodolfo YabutSenior Software Engineer • Student • Backend Engineering Interview Preparation • San JoseMar 24, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
The best algorithm interview prep on the market
I took this course last year because I saw a video of Omkar Deshpande explaining graphs on Youtube. His explanation of graph fundamentals was vastly different from how other interview courses describe Graph and Tree traversal-- it felt like he was actually teaching the concept and not just some stuff you memorize.
I was on the fence at first because of the price, but I've since completed the course and I feel that my algorithm design and comprehension skills have been upgraded in ...I took this course last year because I saw a video of Omkar Deshpande explaining graphs on Youtube. His explanation of graph fundamentals was vastly different from how other interview courses describe Graph and Tree traversal-- it felt like he was actually teaching the concept and not just some stuff you memorize.
I was on the fence at first because of the price, but I've since completed the course and I feel that my algorithm design and comprehension skills have been upgraded in a major way. This course should really be renamed to "Algorithm Design Bootcamp" or something, because that's what it is.
It compresses 4 years of standard CS to a few months. The included mock interviews are modeled after FAANG interviews, so your performance will be scrutinized the way an interviewer at Google/Meta/Amazon will. But the value in that is you will also receive feedback and metrics on how to improve.
The course is split up into a few sections. The Algorithm Design / DSA section is probably the one you are interested in. It is excellent. This section alone is worth the money IMO. The other important section is Scalable Systems. This is where you learn how to design a scalable distributed system. Even if you already know how to do this, the videos will teach you the verbiage and format that FAANG interviewers expect for the System Design interview (you can use your mock interviews for this as well).
There is a heavy focus on the "why" in the classes. Omkar and instructors force you to really learn the innards of an algorithm and show you patterns that will stick in your head.
Your cohort is also assigned a support representative. Mine was excellent and always made sure my library was updated (when new videos came out) and helped me out with many of my issues. Preethi still continues to help me and be concerned with me as a student :)
Unfortunately, I took all my interviews at FAANG before I took this course. As such, I'm waiting for my retake cooldowns to expire. However, whenever I apply for a Tier 2 company or a startup, I can reasonably solve Medium level problems. And when I practice on Leetcode, I can solve previously unseen Mediums in about 40-60 minutes-- down from never being able to solve them before or taking 4+ hours randomly trying strategies because I didn't know the patterns yet.
That's why IK absolutely outperforms other programs. Nothing comes close.
I'm very confident with Graphs and Trees just because I love them. But like many people, I am less confident with DP problems, although the section on that is very good. I know I just need to practice DP more.
There is a part of the program that is a bit lackluster. That's the practical sections (Docker, Frontend, SQL, etc). If you're a working professional already, you probably won't extract much value from those. But that's not what I was targeting to learn.
I still can't believe I'm now able to talk about A* or Prim graph algorithms in detail. My background isn't in CS so I always shied away from these esoteric algorithms. But I'm now much more confident with algorithms. Thanks IK!Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Rodolfo, thank you for your encouraging feedback! We are glad to know that you found the program and the curriculum valuable in your journey during the program. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - AkshaySoftware Engineer • StudentMar 20, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Course Review
I joined IK to get comfortable with problem-solving. After following the course, classes, and practice material I got really comfortable with topics. I would like to highly appreciate IK operations for helping me to get back on track when I felt lost. I liked the part where you can have career coaching and technical coaching sessions. I also made use of their resume writing service. All faculties that you deal with are working with FAANG & top tech companies so you get real-time feed...I joined IK to get comfortable with problem-solving. After following the course, classes, and practice material I got really comfortable with topics. I would like to highly appreciate IK operations for helping me to get back on track when I felt lost. I liked the part where you can have career coaching and technical coaching sessions. I also made use of their resume writing service. All faculties that you deal with are working with FAANG & top tech companies so you get real-time feedback of what recruiters think.
I also made use of mock interviews. This made me focus on my weak areas. Overall it was a satisfactory experience.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Akshay, thank you for your encouraging feedback! We are glad to know that you found the program useful in your journey during the program. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - Madhav ManneSite Reliability EngineerMar 09, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Site Reliability Engineering
The course has helped in gaining knowledge on how to approach each and every specific topic. Instructors and Support team have been very helpful through out the course.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Madhav, thank you for your encouraging feedback! We are glad to know that you found the program valuable in your journey during the program. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - RonitMar 06, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Good
Live classes are very well structured and the instructors take the time to make the concepts clear. Also, the mock interviews is a huge bonus when it comes to preparations.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Ronit, thank you for your encouraging feedback! We are glad to know that you found the program structure valuable in your journey during the program. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - Dhrumin DesaiSoftware Development Engineer • Graduate • Master Class (Default) Interview Course • San JoseMar 06, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
IK offers quality content
I joined IK in May 2021 and was able to receive 4 competitive offers in just 5 months and couple of them were from Tier-1 companies. It wouldn’t have been possible without IK’s quality curriculum and instructors.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Dhrumin, thank you for your encouraging feedback! We are glad to know that you found the program useful in your journey during the program. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program. - Vinayak PrabhuSenior Member of technical Staff • Applicant • San JoseMar 02, 2022Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Zero to getting offer at Microsoft and Amazon.
From my experience of zero to getting offer at Microsoft and Amazon.
Pros:
1. Training material:
- Good Detail Oriented training videos
- Good whole 1 day Weekend classes - Best
- All pre-corded and weekend classes recording available lifelong
2. Mock interviews
- Good professional mock interviews
- All interviewers are good
- Detailed feedback to improve
3. Support
- I personally could not use support effectively but its very good
- 1:1 a...From my experience of zero to getting offer at Microsoft and Amazon.
Pros:
1. Training material:
- Good Detail Oriented training videos
- Good whole 1 day Weekend classes - Best
- All pre-corded and weekend classes recording available lifelong
2. Mock interviews
- Good professional mock interviews
- All interviewers are good
- Detailed feedback to improve
3. Support
- I personally could not use support effectively but its very good
- 1:1 and Group classes on demand (must utilize by everyone)
Best part which helped me get the job is because I was allowed to have my Mock interviews taken beyond support period, the helped a lot. This is the time period I needed multiple Behavioral Mock interviews.
Not any major cons. Its upto us how much we make use of it.
Suggestions for everyone,
1. Dont just rely on their training, solve 300+ leetcode questions
2. Learn from your favorite you tubers leetcode solutions
3. Improve your thinking, think like person higher than what level you are applying for.Student Success Advocate of Interview Kickstart
Student Experience Team
Dec 06, 2022
Hi Vinayak,, thank you for your encouraging feedback! We are glad to know that you found the program valuable in your journey during the program. Please feel free to reach out to us at operations@interviewkickstart.com if you require our support on anything related to the program.
Interview Kickstart Alumni Outcomes
Recent Interview Kickstart News
Nat Davis
Updated September 23, 2024
The technical interview can be daunting for both new and experienced tech professionals. Nailing the tech interview requires practice, and interview prep programs exist to give their students the support and confidence-building they need to land their tech dream job. Whether you’re a coding bootcamp graduate, a self-taught software engineer, or an experienced developer, we’ve rounded up the 6...
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Interview Kickstart Alumni Reviews Summary
Based on 250+ Interview Kickstart alumni reviews on Course Report, positive feedback for the program centers on the detailed curriculum and effective preparation for technical interviews at top companies. One review praises the program, stating, "I gained way more in confidence and technical skill than the cost of the course." A contrasting view, however, points out that while the support team is exceptional, some of the technical prep materials could be improved.
Overall Experience
4.8
Instructors
4.7
Curriculum
4.8
Job Assistance
4.5
More Information
Guarantees Job
Job Assistance
Includes Housing
Offers Corporate Training
Accepts GI Bill
Recent Interview Kickstart News
By Nat Davis
FAQs
How much does Interview Kickstart cost?
The average bootcamp costs $14,142, but Interview Kickstart does not share pricing information. You can read a cost-comparison of other popular bootcamps!
What courses does Interview Kickstart teach?
Interview Kickstart offers courses like Advanced Data Science Course, Advanced Machine Learning Course, Advanced MLOps Course, Android Engineering Interview Preparation and 19 more.
Where does Interview Kickstart have campuses?
Interview Kickstart teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Interview Kickstart worth it?
Interview Kickstart hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 271 Interview Kickstart alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Interview Kickstart on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Interview Kickstart legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 271 Interview Kickstart alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Interview Kickstart and rate their overall experience a 4.78 out of 5.
Does Interview Kickstart offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Interview Kickstart offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Interview Kickstart reviews?
You can read 271 reviews of Interview Kickstart on Course Report! Interview Kickstart alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Interview Kickstart and rate their overall experience a 4.78 out of 5.
Is Interview Kickstart accredited?
While bootcamps must be approved to operate, accreditation is relatively rare. Interview Kickstart doesn't yet share information about their accreditation status.