12 Best Coding Interview Courses & Prep Platforms (2026)

Last updated: 1 November 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

Quick verdict

See our top pick on Udemy

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A coding interview tests three things at once: whether you know the core data structures and algorithms, whether you can recognize which one a new problem needs, and whether you can talk through your reasoning under time pressure. Senior loops add a fourth, system design. The courses below are ranked by how well they cover those skills for the learner each one suits. For the step-by-step plan, see our guide to how to crack a coding interview; for a fundamentals-first list, see the best data structures and algorithms courses.

How we picked

We started from the 14 courses on the previous version of this page, checked each one live on 1 November 2026, and added the strongest options we were missing. For every Udemy course we read the rating, rating count, student count and last-updated date from the course page that day; for Educative, Coursera, Zero To Mastery and DesignGurus we read lesson counts and prices from their own pages. We removed courses that had not been updated since 2018, a course whose rating had fallen to 4.1, and two LinkedIn Learning classes we could not verify. That leaves 12.

We also read three Reddit threads in r/leetcode and r/csMajors where engineers discussed what actually helped them prepare. Their consensus shapes the advice at the end: courses teach the patterns, but the practice volume comes from problem lists. Links to paid courses on Udemy, Coursera, Educative and Zero To Mastery are affiliate links; DesignGurus and the free resources are not.

Udemy figures read on each course page on 1 November 2026; Educative, Coursera, ZTM and DesignGurus figures from their own course pages the same day.

1. Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algorithms (Udemy / Zero To Mastery) — Best Overall

Andrei Neagoie’s course is the most complete single starting point: it teaches Big-O, every core data structure (arrays, hash tables, linked lists, stacks and queues, trees, graphs) and the main algorithm families (sorting, searching, recursion, dynamic programming), then shows how to use them in an interview, including what to do before and after the technical round. On Udemy it rates 4.7 from 40,922 ratings with 271,534 students, and it was updated in October 2026.

The same course is sold on Andrei’s own platform, Zero To Mastery, as a one-off $199 purchase or inside a ZTM membership from $25 a month; ZTM lists it at 21 hours and 270 lessons and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Buy it on Udemy if you want only this course on sale; choose ZTM if you will also take its FAANG course (#6) or other courses in the membership.

Who it is for: self-taught developers and bootcamp graduates who need the computer-science fundamentals a degree would have covered. Watch for: it teaches the foundations thoroughly but is not a pattern drill; pair it with #2 or a problem list.

See it on Udemy

See it on Zero To Mastery

2. Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns (Educative) — Best for Problem Patterns

Most coding-interview prep fails the same way: you grind hundreds of problems and still freeze on one you have not seen. This course, created by Educative co-founder Fahim ul Haq, teaches the 28 coding patterns behind most interview problems (sliding window, two pointers, topological sort and the rest) so you recognize the shape of a problem instead of memorizing its answer. It is large: 1,125 lessons and 17 AI mock interviews, all in the browser with no environment to set up.

Reddit is mixed on the Grokking approach, and the criticism is useful. Engineers in r/leetcode liked the way solutions evolve from one problem to the next within a pattern, but said the explanations can be hard to follow and the built-in test cases thin, and several used the course’s problem set alongside LeetCode’s own versions. One r/csMajors commenter warned that patterns alone are not exhaustive. Our take: it is the highest-leverage course here once you know the basics, and it works best as a map you practice against on LeetCode.

Grokking is part of an Educative subscription. Educative’s Standard plan lists at $298 a year; on 1 November 2026 its pricing page showed 50% off ($149 billed annually). See our Educative vs DesignGurus comparison for how this version differs from the original Grokking course at #12.

Who it is for: anyone with an interview booked who already knows the data structures. Watch for: not a first course for complete beginners.

See Grokking on Educative

3. The Coding Interview Bootcamp: Algorithms + Data Structures (Udemy) — Best for JavaScript Developers

Stephen Grider’s course works through the most common interview questions in JavaScript, explaining the trick behind each solution rather than only the code, and covers the data structures front-end and full-stack interviews tend to test. It rates 4.6 from 15,096 ratings with 107,519 students and was updated in February 2026.

Who it is for: JavaScript and front-end developers who want to practice in the language they will interview in. Watch for: it is narrower than #1 on theory; candidates for back-end or systems roles will want more depth on graphs and dynamic programming.

See the bootcamp on Udemy

4. Coding Interview Preparation by Meta (Coursera) — Best Free Start

Coursera lists this course as taught by Meta experts, and it is the final course in Meta’s professional certificates for developers on the platform. Its four modules are an introduction to the coding interview (communication, strategy and pseudocode), data structures, algorithms, and a final project. It rates 4.6 from 838 reviews and Coursera shows 117,463 learners enrolled. You can enroll free; a certificate needs a paid enrollment or Coursera Plus ($239 (normally $399)).

Who it is for: early-career developers who want an overview from an employer that runs these interviews, at no cost. Watch for: it is an introduction, not a full prep program.

Enroll free on Coursera

5. Grokking System Design Interview (Educative) — Best for System Design

Coding rounds are only half of a mid-level or senior loop. The system design interview is where many candidates come unstuck, because it has no single correct answer and rewards structure over recall. This course gives you that structure through a named 45-minute framework (RESHADED), builds up the components first (load balancing, sharding, caching, consistency trade-offs) and then assembles them into full designs. Educative lists 220 lessons, 20 worked case studies and 10 AI mock interviews with scoring rubrics.

Who it is for: engineers with two or more years of experience interviewing for mid-level and senior roles. Watch for: new graduates rarely face this round; spend the time on #1 and #2 instead.

See Grokking System Design on Educative

6. Master the Coding Interview: Big Tech (FAANG) Interviews (Zero To Mastery) — Best for Big-Tech Loops

The follow-on to #1, co-taught by Andrei Neagoie and fellow ZTM instructor Yihua, focuses on the harder problem types and the interview format used by the largest tech companies. ZTM lists it at 38 hours and 300 lessons, available as a one-off $199 purchase or inside a ZTM membership. ZTM is a direct affiliate program for us, and it is on this list on merit: it is one of the few courses built specifically around big-tech loops by the instructor of the best-rated fundamentals course.

Who it is for: candidates who have finished the fundamentals and are targeting large tech companies. Watch for: take #1 first; this course assumes it.

See the FAANG course on Zero To Mastery

7. The Complete Data Structures and Algorithms Course in Python (Udemy) — Best Python Foundations

Elshad Karimov’s course builds every major data structure from scratch in Python and then works through interview-style problems on each. It rates 4.6 from 11,582 ratings with 104,856 students and was updated in July 2025. Python is the most common interview language for good reason: it is short to write on a whiteboard and easy to read aloud.

Who it is for: Python developers, data engineers and career-changers who learned Python first. Watch for: it is long; skim the structures you already know.

See the Python course on Udemy

8. 50 Days of LeetCode in Python (Udemy) — Best Daily Practice Plan

This course turns LeetCode practice into a schedule: about 29 hours of video across 63 sections, each one a real interview question labeled by company and difficulty, solved step by step in Python and meant to be worked through over 50 days. It rates 4.5 from 1,732 ratings with 22,827 students and was updated in July 2025. It suits people who know they need practice volume but lose momentum choosing problems on their own.

Who it is for: learners who want accountability and a fixed schedule. Watch for: the same practice is free on LeetCode with a list like NeetCode 150; you are paying for the explanations and the plan.

See the 50-day course on Udemy

9. 11 Essential Coding Interview Questions + Coding Exercises (Udemy) — Best Short Refresher

YK Sugi’s course is short and focused: eleven classic questions on arrays, strings, two-dimensional arrays, linked lists and trees, each solved step by step with exercises. It still rates 4.7 from 4,505 ratings with 25,369 students, but it was last updated in August 2019, so treat it as a refresher on durable fundamentals rather than a full plan.

Who it is for: experienced developers warming up for an interview next week. Watch for: it assumes you already know breadth-first search, linked lists and trees.

See the refresher on Udemy

10. Decode the Coding Interview in Python (Educative) — Best for Real-World Framing

Educative’s Decode series takes standard interview problems and frames each one as a feature in a real product, such as a search suggestion or a feed ranking, which helps if you find abstract puzzles hard to stay motivated on. The Python version has 389 lessons. It is included in the same Educative subscription as #2 and #5.

Who it is for: learners who already subscribe to Educative and want practice with context. Watch for: it overlaps heavily with #2; you do not need both unless you want the extra problems.

See Decode the Coding Interview on Educative

11. Algorithms for Coding Interviews in C++ (Educative) — Best for C++ Candidates

If your interviews will be in C++, for game development, embedded systems, trading or systems roles, practicing in the language matters, because memory handling and the standard library change how you write solutions. This Educative course, created by Coderust, has 153 lessons and 51 coding challenges covering complexity analysis, brute force, greedy, divide-and-conquer and dynamic programming, sorting and searching, and graph algorithms (BFS, DFS, topological sort, shortest paths), all in C++. It is part of the Educative subscription.

Who it is for: C++ developers. Watch for: it is algorithm-focused; for data structures in C++ you will need a second resource.

See the C++ course on Educative

12. Grokking the Coding Interview (DesignGurus) — Best One-Time Purchase

This is the original Grokking course, by DesignGurus founder Arslan Ahmad, which popularized the pattern approach before Educative built its own version. DesignGurus now titles it “42 Patterns, 500+ Problems” and lists 671 lessons. On 1 November 2026 it cost $79 as a one-time purchase (shown against $197), or $149.20 a year for every DesignGurus course. We have no affiliate relationship with DesignGurus; it is here because some learners prefer to own a course outright rather than subscribe.

Who it is for: people who want the pattern method without an ongoing subscription. Watch for: the Educative (#2) and DesignGurus versions are now different courses with different authors; our comparison covers which to pick.

See Grokking on DesignGurus (not an affiliate link).

The best free coding interview resources

You can prepare well without paying. The free resources engineers recommend most:

• NeetCode: free roadmaps built around the Blind 75 and NeetCode 150 problem lists, with video explanations for each problem. A paid Pro tier adds courses.
• Tech Interview Handbook: free preparation material from the author of the Blind 75 list, covering resumes, the Grind 75 study plan, behavioral interviews and offer negotiation.
• LeetCode: the free tier holds most of the classic problems; Premium adds company-tagged questions and more editorial solutions.
• Coursera: the Meta course at #4 is free to enroll in.

In the Reddit threads we read, the most common advice was a combination: learn a pattern from a course, then do several problems of that pattern on LeetCode until you can solve a new one without hints. Avoid anyone offering paid courses “free online”; those are pirated copies, and the free resources above are better anyway.

How to prepare for a coding interview: a six-week plan

This is the short version of our full guide, assuming about 10 hours a week:

• Weeks 1–2: fundamentals. Big-O, arrays and strings, hash tables, linked lists, stacks and queues, recursion. Course #1 (or #7 in Python) to the end of the data-structures sections.
• Weeks 3–4: patterns. Two pointers, sliding window, binary search, trees and graphs (BFS and DFS), heaps. Work through #2 or the NeetCode roadmap, two to three problems a day.
• Week 5: harder families. Backtracking, dynamic programming, topological sort, intervals. These are the topics candidates most often skip, and the ones interviewers like.
• Week 6: interview conditions. Timed problems at 30 to 45 minutes each, explained out loud as if to an interviewer. Do at least two mock interviews with a person, and prepare four or five stories for the behavioral round.

Add system design (#5) in parallel from week 3 if you are interviewing for mid-level roles or above.

Course, problem list, or bootcamp?

They solve different problems. A course teaches the ideas and gives you a sequence, which is what most people lack at the start. A problem list (Blind 75, NeetCode 150, LeetCode) gives you volume and timing practice, which is what gets you through the room. A bootcamp teaches you to program in the first place; if you cannot yet build a small application, start with our best coding bootcamps guide and come back here later. Structured paid prep platforms, such as the one in our Coding Ninjas review, sit between a course and a bootcamp.

How to choose a coding interview course

• Match your gap. Shaky on fundamentals: #1 or #7. Know the basics but freeze on new problems: #2 or #12. Interviewing above junior level: add #5.
• Match your language. Practice in the language you will interview in: JavaScript (#3), Python (#7, #8, #10), C++ (#11). Course #1 explains ideas language-agnostically.
• Match your timeline. A week away: #9 and a problem list. A month or more: #1 then #2, using the six-week plan above.
• Prefer recent courses. Interview content ages slowly, but tooling and formats change; we flag the one older pick (#9) above.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best coding interview course?

For most people, Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algorithms by Andrei Neagoie. It rated 4.7 from 40,922 ratings on Udemy and was updated in October 2026, and it covers the fundamentals a computer-science degree would. Once you know those, Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns on Educative is the best next step.

How do I prepare for a coding interview?

Learn the core data structures and Big-O first, then the common problem patterns such as two pointers, sliding window, BFS and DFS, then practice timed problems out loud. About six weeks at 10 hours a week is a realistic plan, with mock interviews in the final week and system design added for mid-level roles.

Is Grokking the Coding Interview worth it?

For candidates who already know their data structures, yes: it teaches 28 recurring patterns so you can recognize new problems. Reddit users say its explanations and built-in test cases are weaker than its problem selection, so use it as a map and practice the same problems on LeetCode.

Can I prepare for coding interviews for free?

Yes. NeetCode’s free roadmaps, the free tier of LeetCode, the Tech Interview Handbook and Meta’s Coding Interview Preparation course on Coursera, which is free to enroll in, cover everything you need. Paid courses add structure and explanations.

How many LeetCode problems should I do before an interview?

There is no fixed number. A curated list such as Blind 75 or NeetCode 150, solved until you can do a new problem in each pattern without hints, is a better target than a raw count.

Which programming language is best for coding interviews?

Use the language you are most fluent in. Python is popular because solutions are short and readable, but most companies accept JavaScript, Java, C++ and others. Practice in the language you will actually use.

Do I need to learn system design for coding interviews?

Not usually for internships and new-graduate roles. For mid-level and senior roles the system design round often carries as much weight as the coding rounds, so start it about halfway through your preparation.

Are coding interview certificates worth anything?

Not much on their own. Interviewers judge how you solve problems in the room, not course certificates. Choose a course for what it teaches, not for the certificate.

Related guides

• How to crack a coding interview
• Best data structures and algorithms courses
• Best YouTube channels for data structures and algorithms
• Educative vs DesignGurus
• Coding Ninjas review
• Best coding bootcamps
• Best coding websites
• Best coding courses
• Best Scrum courses

Start with our top pick

Dynamic programming is the interview topic most candidates find hardest. Our guide to the best dynamic programming courses ranks the Educative, Coursera and free options and lists the core DP patterns.