The 7 Best Tech Interview Prep Programs

Table of Contents

• What is a technical interview?
• Coding Bootcamps vs Interview Prep Programs
• The Top 7 Interview Prep Programs
• 4 Tips to Make the Most of Your Interview Prep Program

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 best interview prep programs to accelerate your career!

What is a technical interview?

Unique to the tech field, technical interviews consist of specific technical coding challenges, whiteboard problems, brainteasers, and specific questions regarding programming languages. The interview process for tech roles usually consists of a phone interview, followed by a whiteboarding session, an opportunity to pair program, and a take-home assignment for further review. 

While technical interviews vary depending on the company you are interviewing for, these four prompts are often asked in an interview:

1. Utilize a well-known algorithm 
2. Implement a lesser-known algorithm
3. Solve a brain teaser
4. Answer a language-specific question 

What is whiteboarding?

Whiteboarding is a process within technical interviews that includes either an actual whiteboard or a pen and paper, where the interviewee is asked to draw out their answer by hand. With whiteboarding, an interviewee proves what they know about algorithms and data structures. 

Why is it important to prepare for a tech interview?

Preparing for a technical interview is important because it will give you the confidence to show what you know during the interview. If you’re unprepared for a technical interview, it can be easy to buckle under the pressure. Having a solid gameplan, practice under your belt, and questions and answers ready to go will help you enter and leave your tech interview with confidence. 

Coding Bootcamps vs Interview Prep Programs

Coding bootcamps are specialized programs often geared towards career changers and/or those looking to break into tech. Coding bootcamps educate bootcamp students on all of the programming languages and tools they will need to start working as a developer or software engineer, plus help students gain the software engineer or developer mindset. 

Interview prep programs are intended as a “last-mile” program for someone who already has programming experience and/or a coding bootcamp graduate who may need extra help with interviewing. Interview prep programs are not a replacement for a coding bootcamp! 

While many coding bootcamps include career services in their curriculum, some coding bootcamp alumni may want extra career support after bootcamp graduation. Interview prep programs are designed to prepare students for interviews through: 

• Mock interviews - 1:1 practice interviews with personalized feedback
• Whiteboard practice - Writing out your code and then receiving feedback from a career coach
• Algorithm practice - Rehearsing commonly used algorithms to show you can solve problems 

The Top 7 Interview Prep Programs

1. Big Machine
2. Exponent
3. Interview Cake
4. Interview Camp
5. Interview Kickstart
6. Logicmojo
7. Udemy's Coding Interview Bootcamp

It’s important to evaluate interview prep programs to find a quality program that works for you. Many interview prep programs are asynchronous, allowing you to watch videos and perform practice tests in your own time, while other programs may be more structured with live class instruction time. Regardless, a quality interview prep program should include:

• Career skills development
• Personalized feedback
• Salary negotiation
• Intensive mock interviews
• 1:1 career support
• Variety of techniques (live sessions, videos, practice problems)
• Industry-specific guidance, including realistic interview questions
• Practice problems, including algorithms
• Access to career materials and/or support after program completion

To find out more about a program, reach out to the program’s admissions team who will be able to answer all of your questions about curriculum and coaching.

1. Big Machine's Coding Interview Bootcamp 

Length: 5.5 hours
Curriculum: Video-based curriculum that covers data structures and algorithms with practice problems, whiteboard, and tech interview strategies.  
Cost: $49

2. Exponent

Length: Varies by course
Curriculum: Video-based curriculum and online coaching that targets interview prep for specific tech roles, such as software engineer, data scientist, product manager, and more. Coaching may include mock interviews, resume review, and salary negotiation. Membership include access to Exponent's job referral platform. 
Cost: $144 for annual membership 

3. Interview Cake

Length of program: 3 weeks (Crunch Time), 3 months (Full Course)
Curriculum: The Full Course curriculum covers algorithmic thinking; array and string manipulation; hashing and hash tables; greedy algorithms; sorting, searching, and logarithms; trees and graphs; dynamic programming and recursion; queue and stacks; linked lists; system design; general programming; bit manipulation; combinatorics, probability, and other math; and JavaScript.
Cost: $149-$249

4. Interview Camp

Length of program: Self-paced
Curriculum: Interview Camp offers 60+ hours of video content and a 2-hour weekly live coaching session. The curriculum covers algorithm problems and system design topics.
Cost: $250 for yearly membership

5. Interview Kickstart

Length of program: 14 weeks
Curriculum: Interview Kickstart is an intensive program that offers 17 different interview prep courses, including back end engineering, full stack engineering, front end engineering, data science, test engineering, and more. Each course includes 2 weeks of career coaching, mock interviews, personalized feedback, salary negotiation, and career skills development.
Cost: Price varies by course — 💸 Interview Kickstart is now offering an exclusive $500 scholarship to Course Report readers!

6. Logicmojo

Length of program: 16-28 weeks (live) or self-paced
Curriculum: Logicmojo offers live-taught interview prep courses in data structures, algorithms, and problem-solving. Self-paced, online interview prep courses in topics such as Python, Java, and C are also offered. 
Cost: Price varies by course

7. Udemy’s Coding Interview Bootcamp

Length of program: 12 hours
Curriculum: Modular-style program curriculum includes string reversal, palindromes, integer reversal, and JavaScript.
Cost: $89.99

4 Tips to Make the Most of Your Interview Prep Program

1. Take advantage of your interview prep program’s library. Many are curated from experienced industry professionals with unique insight that know exactly what companies are looking for in an employee. 
2. Ask questions! By asking questions you’ll ensure you’re getting the most support out of your experience.
3. Prioritize your interview prep program. Even though many of these programs are self-paced, it’s important to prioritize your study so you truly hone your interview skills and land your dream tech job!
4. Practice, practice, practice. The only way you will nail your tech interviews with ease is to know with confidence that you are prepared.