Interview KickstartReviews of interviewkickstart.com

I am a software engineer with 4+ years in the industry. I joined IK's Forward Deployed Engineering Program a month ago to pivot my career and within the first month of taking classes in the program, I already landed an FDE role at a highly reputable company. My favorite feature in IK programs is the ability to get personalized help from a human outside of classes and get all my queries answered. IK is really an amazing way to learn and upskill with world class instructors that are working in top companies that I was targeting. Huge shoutout to the IK team for all their help and support and looking forward to finishing the program.

Very disappointing refund experience with Interview Kickstart. I enrolled in their program only after their representative gave me a special two-week trial in writing. I canceled on the communicated deadline and requested the promised $6,700 refund, but IK claimed the trial had ended two days earlier using a different, previously undisclosed start date. I ultimately had to pursue a lengthy credit-card dispute, which was resolved in my favor. I have also seen similar public complaints about difficulties obtaining refunds from IK. Based on my experience, keep every refund/trial promise in writing and be very cautious about relying on assurances from this business.

I have paid thousands of dollars toward this program, yet my account has been blocked repeatedly, preventing me from accessing it. An additional payment remains pending. My attempts to reach customer support through the listed contact numbers have been unsuccessful. The repeated access issues and lack of accessible support have made this an extremely frustrating experience. After such a substantial payment, I expected reliable access and clear communication. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend this program.

I have asked these guys to put me on Do not call list multiple times. But they keep calling me again and again my multiple numbers. I was interested in their program - I would have considered, but given the level of sales push and marketing - I am totally against it.

I am about half way through my IK experience. This is the second time. The first time (about 6 years ago) it was well worth it. My review on 2026-09-09 is changed from 4 starts to 3 due to another bad experience. As of 2026-09-09 here is a one sentence version: They try very hard, and in some ways they DO deliver. However, for N thousand dollars (I forget precisely what I paid and the price changes over time), I do not like it when my urgent requests are handled by bots that do not work. They are supposed to be in the AI teaching business yet they can not make a bot work. It is ok to test things and have problems, but if you haven't fully vetted your bot, then please provide a human backup. At present there is no such backup. When an issue arises and they handle it diligently, but then then they ask me, repeatedly for a good review. More history: My original review here (written on 2026-08-24) was only two stars. It turned out this was because of a communications hiccup - the way they route queries changed - they kindly reached out pretty soon after the issue, but I was very busy and could not meet with tme. My schedule finally cleared, we met, and and my issue was resolved on 2026-09-04. so I changed my review to 4 stars. Update 2026-09-10 I'm lowering my review to 3 starts because the same communication problem happened again. They are trying to automate their processes for dealing with students. Well, the bot does not work well at all. Like I said above at 2026-09-04 I did speak with someone who was helpful and they said if the bot is unhelpful, there is something I can do to obtain human assistance. I needed human assistance (to determine what time my coaching session was, the bot nor the tab called "Schedule" could answer this question). I am likely to miss my coaching session now. This is a probably for people who are very busy. In my current program I have completed all of the technical courses, which were pretty good. With my current program there are also unlimited forms of private coaching for both technical and behavioral aspects. I have not used these yet but I am looking forward to them (The one on one's here are brief - 20 min, and there are also 1 hour sessions but other students sometimes drop in). I love the unlimited nature of these sessions. I have also not yet done any mock interviews in my current enrollment. These are 1 on 1 and much deeper than the sessions I mentioned in the previous paragraph. From the last time I took IK, I found the practice to be *extremely* helpful the first time I took IK. Last time I waited too long to take them and so did not use up all 16. This time I sure hope I start them early enough. I like the fact that they allow me to pause the program - so if work or other aspects of life get too intense partway through, rest assured that you can take a break and come back when your life calms down.

The good: Excellent training and support. The bad: My landlord won't take payment in training and support, and IK's job placement assistance have proven unable to get me so much as a job stocking shelves at my local supermarket, never mind the $500K FAANG offer in the email they sent me. You might get better results than I did, O Reader, but it's a gamble that I regret making.

Title: Not worth a penny ($8k wasted) – Misleading sales team and terrible support! I finally signed up for Interview Kickstart on May 15th, 2026, after six months of relentless daily emails and phone calls from their sales team. From day one, I doubted it and resistred to sing up and brought up my concern with the sales and they misguided me. I realized it was a huge mistake from day 1. English is my second language, and I struggle to understand heavy Indian English accents. I raised this specific concern with the sales team before signing up. They manipulated me and assured me that while a few instructors were Indian, the program was diverse, and most students were American. Relying on their promises, I trusted them and paid $8,000. That was completely false. Three months in, every single session has been led by instructors with heavy accents, and 99% of the students are Indian as well. It even gets worse: they all talk over each other, and teachers can not mange the online class by simply muting students and giving them access one by one to talk! (To be clear: this isn't an attack on Indian culture; it's strictly a communication barrier on my end as an ESL speaker). When I reached out to Support, Sales, and Operations, I got caught in an endless loop of automated emails. Every reply I sent was met by a new agent asking the same questions. Even my assigned "Student Success Manager" just dumped me back into the Operations email void. When another non-Indian student and I brought it up during a live class, the instructor just told us to "contact Operations." It’s been three months of complete exhaustion, zero progress, and $8,000 down the drain. The concept is decent, but the execution is a disaster, and the sales team will lie to get your money. Their student support team is another disaster of receiving a million spam calls and emails instead of receivng a right on point support. Save your money and do not trust them!

In 2024, I signed up for this program after being laid off. After going through the program, I realized that it is primarily designed for people without a computer science background. The curriculum focuses heavily on fundamental concepts, and it can take anywhere from 3–6 months to complete all the material. I also found it difficult to stay engaged with the lengthy and somewhat repetitive lectures. More importantly, there wasn't enough practical, job-interview-focused coding or system design preparation. Based on my experience, I would not recommend spending this much money on the program. I don't feel that it provides enough value to significantly improve your chances of landing a job, especially if you already have a CS background or professional software engineering experience. Instead, I would recommend using platforms like NeetCode or Hello Interview to review and strengthen your fundamentals. They provide much more focused and practical preparation for coding interviews and system design. Also, keep in mind that completing this program is not the same as completing a university-accredited curriculum, so I don't think it adds significant value to a resume or LinkedIn profile.