Jan 30

8 min read

Is Grokking the Coding Interview Pattern in Java on Educative worth It?

If you want to learn essential coding patterns which can be used to solve 100s of LeetCode and HackerRank problems then this course is definitely worth it.

Hello guys, if you are looking for a great course to start your coding interview preparation or you have heard about Educative’s popular Grokking the Coding Interview Pattern course but not sure whether its worth it or not then you have come to the right place.

Earlier, I have shared best Coding Interview courses, books, websites, and Coding interview questions and in this article, I am going to review one of favorite Educative course, Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions.

Before finding this course, I have attended many course on coding interviews on Udemy, Pluralsight, and YouTube, most of the courses will teach you how to solve common coding problems like finding duplicates in array, reversing the linked list, and many Leetcode style problems but this course is different.

Instead of teaching you common coding problem and how to solve them, this course will teach you common coding patterns like sliding window, fast and slow pointers, two pointers, merge intervals and top K elements which can be used to solve 100s of coding problem not just from LeetCode or HackerRank but also from Google, Amazon, and Facebook interviews.

For me this simple fact was enough to join this course as I have never seen such courses which teaches coding interview patterns and I must say I learned a lot and I highly recommend this course to all programmers, both beginners and experienced. Now that’s the TLDR of this article, now will review this course in depth and find out whether its worth it or not.

Before I tell you whether Grokking The Coding Interview Pattern on Educative is really worth it or not, let me tell you more about what it really is. As you must know already, if you want to clear a software engineer interview, you need to have a very specialized skillset.

And you may have different opinions about the effectiveness of these interviews, but the fact of the matter is that these interviews are part and parcel of the major software companies.

Grokking The Coding Interview Pattern in Java, Python, Course Review

As someone who has been regularly using this platform for the last couple of years, I can safely say that this is a very valuable resource, especially for software engineers and data scientists. Using Educative, you will be able to increase your programming and coding skills. You will become more effective in your current job.

This is especially important if you are in a job that requires you to keep learning about new software engineering opportunities. This course is created by Design Gurus and it has helped 30k+ people to land a job in top companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, NetFlix, and Microsoft.

For starters, Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions is basically an interactive interview preparation course on the Educative platform. It is a perfect course for software engineers looking to land their dream job or level up their skills. The course is essentially made up of almost 16 interview patterns that will massively help you in mapping and solving big, complex problems.

You must know about a lot of interview prep platforms like HackerRank and Leetcode and AlgoExpert. Hell, you may even have used some of them. But what exactly makes Grokking The Coding Interview different from all the other competitors in the market? Let us see.

What Languages Does This Course Support?

You can think of the interactive platform in Grokking as basically coding playgrounds where you can try out Java, Python, C++, and JavaScript straight inside your browser.

This is a very handy feature which means that you do not need to set up a specialized coding environment. You also do not need to keep clicking from app to app, even if you are using a single screen.

What Sets This Course Apart?

But arguable the greatest advantage that Grokking The Coding Interview has on other competitors like Leetcode and HackerRank is the fact that in Grokking The Coding Interview, you get access to clear and concise strategy along with the 16 coding interview patterns.

What this essentially means is that you do not have to jump straight into random coding sessions that are way too complex for your level. You are able to go step-by-step and develop gradually by learning different patterns, before finally solving these problems by using the patterns.

Grokking The Coding Interview also has a lot of visual aid and other interactive elements that will help you massively. You will get full lifetime access to 1000 coding playgrounds, 220 illustrations, 125 challenges, and 184 lessons. Additionally, a Help section is also there for each section that you can use if you are stuck in a challenge.

The Educative platform also has a vibrant community of students who will help you by giving feedback on your projects. You can connect with other students by using the Online Forums. There is also a wide selection of cheat sheets that you can access for refreshing your fundamentals.

Grokking The Coding Interview Patterns is an excellent option if you are experienced in coding and looking to learn more. In most cases, it can be difficult to know where to start, especially if you are busy with your job. But Grokking The Coding Interview makes everything easier.

You can basically create an account in under 2 minutes and start learning right now. In short, Grokking The Coding Interview is an excellent choice if you are not really new to coding and are looking for an easy and affordable learning experience

16 Essential Coding Patterns Every Programmer Should Learn

As I said above, you will also get access to almost 16 amazing patterns that will teach you everything you need to know.

Some of these patterns are

1. Merge Intervals,

2. Two Pointers,

3. Sliding Window,

4. Tree Breadth-First Search,

5. Two Heaps,

6. Subsets,

7. Top ‘K’ Elements,

8. Topological Sort,

9. Pattern : 0/1 Knapsack (Dynamic Programming)

10. Pattern: K-way merge

11. Pattern: Topological Sort (Graph)

12. Pattern: Bitwise XOR

Do not worry if all of these sound big and complex right now. You will master all of these by the time you are done. In addition to the help section, there are also snippets of solutions that are provided along with all the challenges. These snippets will make sure that you are not stuck and that you are on your way to expertise.

To be honest with you, these patterns are the single most reason I joined Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions course, they are simply invaluable.

Who Should Take This Course?

All of this essentially means that this course is perfect for those who are looking to land a dream job at a major software company. But a word of warning. Do not take this course if you are really new to coding. You will soon get overwhelmed.

Pricing

The course creators say that you can complete Grokking The Coding Interview in as little as 50 hours. Coming to the pricing, there are different options available for you. You can also join this course individually or you can take an Educative subscription which gives you access of all of Educative text-based interactive courses for $14.9 per month.

You are able to subscribe weekly, monthly, or yearly. Obviously, as a subscriber, you will also get access to all the other hundreds of courses on the Educative platform. A yearly subscription will set you back almost $60.

The course catalog in Educative is also pretty easy to navigate. This is because you can sort the courses according to language or the subjects taught. Each course also has a quick introduction that will tell you about the different reasons why you should learn a particular language.

Educative is also known for offering new and up-to-date courses to its students. If you subscribe, the Pro version gives you access to all the courses in all the languages. So what the hell are you waiting for? Start learning now.

You also have the option of buying individual courses on the Educative platform. If you want to go down this road, be prepared to shell out at least $80 for Grokking The Coding Interview course. If you ask me I suggest go for Educative Unlimited, its much more flexible and cost saving then buying single course and you can also join other popular Educative courses like Grokking the System Design Interview and Grokking the Object Oriented Design Interview.

Verdict

In conclusion, I will say that Grokking The Coding Interview is a practical and challenging course where you will learn many essential coding patterns which can be used to solve 100s of coding problems, even those which you have not seen so far. It is a perfect option for aspiring software engineers.

It will be insanely helpful if you are preparing for an interview and its completely worth it given its price and the value it provide. Along with Grokking the System design Interview, this course is my favorite coding interview course on Educative and I highly recommend this coding interview course to every programmer of all experience level.

Other Programming Articles and Tutorials you may like

Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find this course and my review useful then please share with your friends and colleagues.