u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Hey, I'm the co-founder of Formation!
So there are a range of competitors you can look at. Honestly the session structure where dynamically create your ideal schedule every week is completely unique so if that is the most appealing thing, I haven't seen another program offer that, but if you want to have structured practice here are some other options:
Interview Kickstart: I think it's similarly priced but a few thousand dollars less. More structured program, not unlimited support
Outco.io: shorter, peer mock interviews, cheaper, has unlimited support
Pathrise: focuses almost exclusively on the job hunt side and probably isn't a good option for you, it's also generally much more expensive.
Coachable: a very small program run by a few people but focuses on DS&A, more individual practice and less community vibe. Also similarly priced or more than Formation.
Interviewing.io: pay as you or bundled number of mock interviews. It's VERY expensive per interview, but the idea is to only do a few sessions and overall pay less.
Free or cheap options like Neetcode, Structy, Exponent.
**I'm obviously extremely bias**, but I think Formation is by far the best value for your dollar because you get ongoing technical training, career coaching and job support until you get a job and there's not fixed curriculum or fixed length of training - if you keep doing your part and showing up and doing the training you'll get your skill level to a top tier bar on whatever timeframe works for you. I also think our full time staff is incredible, with numerous 10+ FAANG engineers and recruiters who have not just done hundreds of interviews, but trained FAANG interviewers and created interview types. We have a few hundred senior-FAANG/ex-FAANG engineers and recruiters as mentors who run sessions and mock interviews.
The downsides are that everyone has a unique experience at Formation and a unique path, unique schedule, some things that overlap and some that don't, so it's a hard program to understand and wrap your head around. If your skill level is already very high and you are coming ONLY for job hunting, it's not the ideal place right now. I think our job hunt support is fantastic, but the market is tough and we can't work miracles... most of what you do day to day is pretty intense problem solving practice by yourself, with pairs, in groups, etc...