Is Neetcode.io Worth it? (The Ultimate Review)
This is my SUPER in-depth review of the popular coding interview prep course & platform, Neetcode.io.
In this review, I’ll be digging deep into Neetcode in terms of;
- How Neetcode can help you as a software engineer
- The best and worst features
- What’s inside Neetcode Pro
- The cost
- And what some students’ reviews have to say about it
I’ll also compare how Neetcode stacks up against Leetcode: another popular coding interview prep course platform.
Then I’ll give you my verdict on whether Neetcode is worth it or not.
So if an in-depth Neetcode review is what you’re looking for, this post is for you.
Let’s get started.
Overview Of Neetcode
Neetcode is a coding interview prep platform with tons of courses to help both beginners and experienced developers learn the coding skills they need to pass technical coding interviews.
The platform focuses on coding problems that have the highest chances of coming up in real-life coding job interviews.
For instance, questions like: What is Data Structure and Algorithm? What is Array? Linked List? Stacks? Binary Search Tree? Graphs? And more.
Then you have the omnipresent Object Oriented Programming. And then specialized software engineering courses like System Design.
But Neetcode is not a blog where you learn what these programming concepts are via reading.
It is a coding platform with hands-on solving of coding Challenges on topics that big tech companies like Meta, Netflix, Google, Amazon, etc will ask you in their coding interview.
The Neetcode platform as a whole, is currently being used by over 1 million developers worldwide.
And we can attribute the popularity to two factors:
- Neetcode has a booming coding interview prep YouTube platform with almost 450k developers subscribers strong
- The courses on the interview prep platform are offered in up to 14 different programming languages including JavaScript, Python, C++, C#, and Java.
Who Is Behind Neetcode?
The face behind Neetcode is still unidentified after two years.
Neetcode first started as a YouTube channel that posts the best coding solutions for Leetcode questions.
In many of his videos and according to his bio on Twitter and Instagram, he calls himself Former Neet and claims to be a software engineer at Google.
I’ve tried searching for him on LinkedIn and found two leads: Neet Shah and Neethu Joseph. But as it turns out, the former works at Meta, while the latter is a woman SWE at Google.
So at the time of writing, we do not know who is behind Neetcode. Hopefully, he’ll reveal himself in the future.
How Does Neetcode Help You As A Software Engineer?
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced software engineer, Neetcode will help you a lot when it comes to the technical aspect of coding job interviews.
Most of the programming questions asked in FAANG companies are identical to those found in Leetcode.
The Neetcode YouTube channel and website have tons of FREE tutorials on solving these Leetcode coding challenges.
Let’s start with the YouTube channel;
Neetcode YouTube Channel
When the Neetcode YouTube channel first launched in 2021, it was one of the biggest hubs for cracking easy, medium, and hard Leetcode questions.
Now it’s one of the most popular programming YouTube channels with over 400k subscribers.
The channel has at least 15 playlists dedicated to different programming concepts: Data Structures & Algorithms, Trees, Arrays, Linked Lists, graph problems, Stack Problems, and more.
The best part is these questions are labeled by the names of the companies that are most likely to ask them.
But if you want to get the most out of the free resources on his YouTube channel, there’s one playlist I’d recommend you focus on the most: Leetcode BLIND 75 Solutions.
As the name implies, the playlist contains 75 videos walking you through the 75 most asked Leetcode questions by FAANG companies.
Here he teaches — in detail — both the brute force and optimal solutions for these coding challenges.
One reason why I love Neetcode’s videos is that he not only shows you the best solutions to the questions but also makes sure to walk you through the algorithm behind the solution.
That way even if you’re to use a different programming language, you’ll still know how to solve these questions with ease.
Then we have…
Neetcode.Io Website
Aside from his YouTube channel, Neetcode has tons of free content on his official website: neetcode.io.
Let’s get into the details of what they have to offer.
Algorithm Roadmap
What makes NeetcodeIo stand out from other free programming tutorial platforms out there is that it gives you a study roadmap that will guide your Algorithm learning journey.
So instead of jumping from one Algorithm concept to another and getting stuck in a learning-without-progress cycle, you have a definitive roadmap that goes like this;
- Arrays & Hashing
- Heap Priority Queue
- Graphs
- I-D DP
- Two Pointers
- Sliding Windows
- Stacks
- Intervals
- Greedy
- Advanced Graph
- Bit Manipulation
- 2-DDP
- Maths and Geometry
Practice Questions
With the Algorithm roadmap in place, NeetcodeIo backs it up with 100s of practice questions labeled easy, medium, and hard.
And you can practice all the questions for free.
These coding exercises are categorized into three sections: Blind 75 (with 75 practice problems), Neetcode 150 (with 150 practice problems), and Neetcode All (with 300+ practice problems).
This is how it works: Each topic as shown in the Algorithm roadmap has tons of practice problems under it.
- You have a status bar that allows you to keep track of the solutions you’ve solved.
- Then the problem name with a link to the actual problem on Leetcode.
- Next, there’s the video solution where Neetcode walks you through the solution. You can either view it on the website or navigate to YouTube.
- And lastly, you have the code of the final solution in your programming language of choice.
Yes, while most of the video tutorials are solved in Python, NeetcodeIo shows you how it is solved in other programming languages.
In fact, you have up to 14 languages to select from, including Python, Java, JavaScript, C++, Go, Swift, C#, Rust, Typescript, Kotlin, Dart, etc.
Neetcode Public Discord Server
We can’t talk about how Neetcode can help you as a software engineer without mentioning the free Neetcode Discord Community.
On Neetcode Discord you can become friends, mentees, and mentors of other aspiring and professional software developers.
Most of the software developers in this server were aspiring self-taught programmers that were able to land the tech job of their team — courtesy of Neetcode.
Here you can ask and answer programming questions, talk about job interviews, encourage each other, and learn how to think like a programmer. It’s an awesome community.
PS: As you can see, Neetcode has tons of helpful free resources. In fact, most Neetcode users have testified to getting job offers from companies like Microsoft and Amazon with the help of his free content. But wait till you see what’s in stock for you in Neetcode Pro.
What’s Inside Neetcode Pro
The free resources on Neetcode’s platforms are mainly chunks of videos that — while super helpful — are all over the place.
If you’re looking for not just a tutorial on programming concepts that will be asked in coding interviews, but also a full course that covers them in-depth, you might want to look at Neetcode Pro.
Neetcode Pro consists of 5 courses dedicated to DSA, System Design, and Object Oriented Programming.
They are:
- Algorithms & Data Structure For Beginners (8.5 Hours Videos)
- Advanced Algorithms (8 Hours Videos)
- System Design For Beginners (5 Hours Videos)
- System Design Interviews (4.5 Hours)
- Object-Oriented Design Interview (2 Hours)
Let’s get into the details.
Algorithms & Data Structure For Beginners
As the name implies, this DSA course is for total beginners.
This means if you are new to the concept of Data Structure and Algorithm or you want a refresher, by the end of this course you’d have learned the fundamentals of data structure and algorithms.
Remember those DSA topics from the Algorithm roadmap?
Well, the modules in this 8.5 course will introduce you to each of them using well-written articles, practical coding exercises, and as usual: detailed walk-through explainer videos.
Advanced Algorithm
This advanced algorithm course is labeled hard — and rightfully so.
In this course, Neetcode dives into the advanced concept of Data Structure and Algorithms.
In the beginner course, Neet was teaching basic concepts like dynamic arrays, queues, bucket sorting, and search.
But in this advanced course, he dives into high-level concepts like Kadane’s algorithm, iterative DFS, topological sorting, 0/1 knapsack, palindrome, and more.
By the end of these two courses, you’d have become proficient in solving just about any Leetcode DSA problem — regardless of the programming language.
This is because, as usual, Neet will first help you understand the logic behind the solution using lots of whiteboard illustrations, even before writing the first line of code.
System Design For Beginners
If you want to get any backend developer job, your understanding of system design principles will surely be tested.
That’s why Neetcode made sure to create a System Design course for Neetcode Pro.
This System Design For Beginners course starts from the very basics with free modules on Computer & Application Architecture.
Here you’ll learn how computer software affects computer hardware, especially on the server side.
There are a lot of real-life web development skills to learn from this course. From computer networking, APIs, and Caching to Proxies, Storage, and Big Data.
It’s computer science 101.
System Design Interviews
The System Design Interviews course is 100 percent practical.
As the name implies, this course is all about real-life system design questions that tech companies will ask you.
How do Big tech companies build billion-dollar scalable applications without crashing their server? “The how” is what you’ll learn in this course.
Talking about practicality, Neetcode will show you how to answer System Design Interview questions by building the logic behind the system of popular web applications.
These projects include designing:
- A Rate Limiter
- TinyURL
- Discord
- Google Drive
- YouTube
- Google Maps
And more!
Object-Oriented Design Interview
Like the System Design Interview course, the Object-Oriented Design Interview course is fully practical.
Object-oriented programming makes code more reusable, maintainable, and understandable.
That is why every technical coding interview will test your understanding of this concept. Regardless of whether you’re a frontend or backend developer.
I love how this Neetcode Pro course is fully practical.
You’ll build 5 projects that will help you grasp both the basic and advanced concepts of OOP. This includes:
- A game called Connect Four
- Another game called Black Jack
- A Parking Lot System
- A Bank
- And a movie recommendation app
How Much Does Neetcode Pro Cost?
My Neetcode Pro review wouldn’t be complete if I don’t talk about the pricing.
The good thing is unlike other coding interview prep platforms I’ve reviewed in the past, NeetcodeIo has the most precise pricing plans.
Two tiers with amazing offers: Lifetime & Yearly Plans.
Lifetime Plan
Buy once; own forever. At the moment of writing, the Neetcode lifetime plan cost $149.
Here’s what you get from this package;
✅ Lifetime Plan ($149/once)
✅ Unlimited Access To All current and future courses
✅ Private Discord Server Invite
✅ Beginner-Friendly Video Lessons With No Fluff
✅ Detailed Well-Written Articles
✅ Language Support for Python, Java, JavaScript, C++, and Swift.
Yearly Plan
For the yearly plan, you get access to everything in the Lifetime plan except that your access is limited to a year and you would have to subscribe every year.
But no worries, you cancel anytime too.
Well, I don’t think you need to ask me. The Lifetime plan is clearly the winner and no-brainer choice here.
Students’ Reviews Of Neetcode Pro
In this section, we’ll be looking at what Neetcode students have to say about NeetcodeIo.
The bottom line is that Neetcode is living up to its standard.
Lots of students have testified to landing developer jobs in top tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft.
We’ve seen students who even when they do not land the job for some unknown reason — were told by their HR that they did a great job at the interview, which they felt for themselves too.
Search for people’s opinions on Neetcode on one of the dubbed world’s most toxic social platforms, Reddit and all you’ll see are good reviews:
Even on Twitter, lots of students are raving about the platform:
(images of Twitter testimonials)
And then we have veteran developer and best-selling author of System Design Interview, Alex Xu praising Neetcode:
Cons Of Neetcode (Complaints)
While Neetcode is a great platform, there are two issues I have with the platform.
The first one could sabotage the user experience.
And the other could cost you your programming interview.
Here are my complaints about NeetcodeIo:
1. No Built In Code Editor
Even though Neetcode.io is 100% practical in solving coding challenges, there’s no built-in code editor to ease the process.
This means if I want to work with any code, I’ll have to copy and paste it into my local text editor, which is not so convenient if you ask me.
I guess built-in code editors are default features on all coding challenge platforms. I’m still surprised that there is no one yet on Neetcode.
2. No Behavioural Prep Interview Course
Behavioral questions are a must-encounter aspect of tech interviews, meant to test your soft skills and how good you are at teamwork.
And it is not available on Neetcode.io.
I’m not surprised though. Neetcode is fully focused on the technical aspects of coding challenges.
And it did a great job of making students proficient in solving those coding challenges.
Nevertheless, Neetcode has made it clear that his course is a living course. This means he’ll be adding even more new courses — not tutorials — to the platform.
And I trust he’ll listen to us and add a behavioral prep course in the future.
Is Neetcode Pro Worth It?
My thought is: “Whether Neetcode is worth it or not depends on your current level of software development”.
If you’re new to web development I wouldn’t recommend it as a must to purchase Neetcode Pro.
There are already tons of free resources on his YouTube channel and website that can help you become conversant with some programming concepts.
But if you see yourself applying for software development jobs in the near future, I recommend Neetcode Pro to you with my full chest.
I know Neetcode has tons of tutorials on his YouTube channel. But you cannot compare those tutorials to the courses on Neetcode.io.
If you have to purchase those 5 courses separately, you’ll be spending a fortune that will be more than Neetcode’s $149-lifetime plan price tag.
So yes, because of the courses, Neetcode Pro is worth it.
What’s more? If you get the lifetime deal, you’re in for a priceless treat: Neetcode has promised to upload more non-job-related courses on the platform in the future.
At the moment, this includes courses on:
- Full-stack web development, and
- How to build web apps that users can pay a subscription fee for like Neetcode.
It will be a priceless deal for you in no time.
Neetcode Vs Leetcode — Which Is Better?
Leetcode is a big name among all levels of developers for getting interview-focused coding challenges.
In fact, the problem exercises are so high quality and trusted that FAANG companies scrape their interview questions from the site.
Even Neetcode acknowledges that “One Leetcode challenge per day keeps unemployment away”.
But: Leetcode vs Neetcode, which is better?
Straight up: Leetcode has more hands-on coding challenges than Neetcode.
With over 1000+ coding challenges, Leetcode dwarfs Neetcode’s 300+ coding challenges. It even has the built-in editor that Neetcode lacks.
But that’s all it is. Leetcode is all for practicing coding problems: nothing more or less.
It doesn’t have any courses on Data Structure & Algorithm, System Design, or Object Oriented Programming.
If you are to choose which platform to pay for between Leetcode and Neetcode Pro, I would recommend you go for Neetcode Pro.
You can find as many coding challenges as your lifetime allows you to solve on various trusted coding challenges platforms like [names here]. And most of them are free.
But you can’t find Neetcode Pro’s type of DSA, System Design, and OOP explanations or method of teaching elsewhere.
If you want to stand toe to toe with computer science grads when it comes to DSA, you’ll need Neetcode, not Leetcode.
Why I Recommend Neetcode Pro Over Other Programs
Neetcode Pro is currently one of the best and cheapest platforms for software engineers to master Data Structure & Algorithms.
The one reason I’d recommend Neetcode is that he doesn’t just solve programming questions.
He explains the logic behind the solution and his thought process while solving it.
This is him training you on what the interviewer wants to see when they interview you.
He’ll train you to think like a programmer.
If you are serious about getting a software engineering job, Neetcode is just the right coding interview prep platform for you.
And the fact that of all his millions of users, no one has come out to criticize his platform shows that with NeetcodeIo, you’re in safe hands.
