Design Gurus

Design Gurus is an online course platform for software engineers preparing for technical interviews at large tech companies. Its homepage headline is "Tech Interview Prep, Built by Ex-FAANG Hiring Managers," and it offers "FAANG-engineer-led courses, mock interviews, and resume reviews." The company, Design Gurus, LLC, is the home of the Grokking course series, and it says its flagship courses "have helped over 500,000 engineers land roles at top tech companies." The approach in one line: "Learn the patterns behind every system design and coding interview question, then practice with engineers who have been on the other side of the table."

What learners actually get

The site's argument is that interviews are pattern-based: "Once you see the patterns, the questions stop feeling random." It says the team has "spent over a decade reverse-engineering what FAANG interviewers actually look for," turning that into "structured roadmaps you can complete in weeks, not months." The curriculum covers four interview rounds.

Coding interviews. The flagship is Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions, which teaches "The 24 essential patterns behind every coding interview question." It is available in Java, Python, JavaScript, C++, C# and Go, and the site calls it "The most comprehensive coding interview course with 543 lessons." The FAQ explains the method: "Focus on patterns rather than grinding random LeetCode problems. Master the 24 core coding patterns that cover most interview questions, then practice data structures and algorithms with timed mock interviews." Each pattern is taught "with worked examples" in the learner's chosen language.

System design. Grokking the System Design Interview is described as "The original system design interview course from DesignGurus," teaching learners to "master scalable systems, critical trade-offs, and 15+ real-world design problems with a repeatable interview framework." A company blog post by Arslan Ahmad lays out its four chapters:

• How to approach a system design interview: requirements, rough traffic and storage estimates, and a master template for any design.
• System design trade-offs: 24 short lessons on choices such as SQL vs. NoSQL, strong vs. eventual consistency, push vs. pull, and latency vs. throughput.
• System design problems: fifteen full designs, including a URL shortener, Instagram, Dropbox, Facebook Messenger, YouTube, Uber and Ticketmaster, each ending with a quiz.
• A glossary of basics: load balancing, caching, data partitioning, consistent hashing and replication.

Lessons are written text with diagrams, and "Ten of the fifteen designs also have a video walkthrough." The current edition adds interactive diagrams. The homepage adds that the course walks through "the 16 most-asked FAANG interview questions," covering distributed systems fundamentals, database sharding and caching strategies.

For beginners, System Design Fundamentals teaches "scalability, load balancing, caching, databases and the CAP theorem, explained for beginners with a quiz in every chapter." For senior and staff candidates, Advanced System Design Interview, Volume II "builds on the original course with harder designs."

Low level and object oriented design. The site says object oriented design rounds "appear in almost every senior loop and many mid-level loops," and its low level design track covers SOLID principles, the design patterns interviewers probe, and class-modeling exercises. A related course, Grokking the Object Oriented Design Interview, shows 60,674+ students and a 4.2 rating.

Behavioral interviews. A behavioral course teaches "the STAR framework, leadership principles preparation, and the specific story patterns FAANG bar raisers reward."

Mock interviews, resume reviews and roadmaps

Beyond courses, learners can "schedule a technical mock interview with our experienced FAANG engineers and the authors of the 'Grokking' courses, who have conducted hundreds of interviews." The resume review service offers "a tech-optimized resume crafted by FAANG engineers and 'Grokking' authors to highlight your coding skills and projects." The FAQ argues that "Practicing with a real FAANG interviewer surfaces communication gaps and time management issues that solo practice never reveals," and says "Most candidates need 5 to 10 mocks before they perform consistently under pressure."

Two roadmaps, the System Design Interview Roadmap and the Coding Interview Roadmap, sequence the courses, and the homepage links to an Interview Prep Dashboard. On timing, the FAQ says "Most candidates need 4 to 8 weeks of focused preparation," and that engineers with 3+ years of experience can move faster.

Prices, ratings and access

The homepage course cards show ratings, learner counts and a regional price:

• Grokking the Coding Interview: 4.6 stars, 194,243 learners, "Discounted price for Your Region $ 197"
• Grokking the System Design Interview: 4.7 stars, 188,183 learners, $ 148 for the region
• System Design Fundamentals: 4.5 stars, 91,732 learners, $ 123 for the region

Individual courses are a one-time purchase: the blog post says "You pay once and keep access to the course." That same post, written by the company, gives the system design course's price as 59, "reduced from a 148 list price," and states "Refunds are not offered, but the free chapters let you read real lessons first." Prices shown therefore vary with region and promotion, and every course has a "Preview course" link.

There is also an Annual Subscription that gives "instant access to all current and upcoming courses for one year," listing "Access to 50+ courses," "New content added monthly" and a "Certificate of completion," at $ 31.08 a month, billed annually.

What learners say

Testimonials come from software engineers. Steven Zhang wrote that the system design course "helped me immensely when I was interviewing from Tableau (very little system design exp) and helped me land 18 FAANG+ jobs!" Brandon Lyons: "I used this for my MSFT interviews and I was told I nailed it." Ashley Pean, on the coding course: "Instead of trying out random Algos, they break down the patterns you need to solve them. Helps immensely with retention!" Simon Barker: "They teach patterns rather than solutions." KAUSHIK JONNADULA: "I struggled a lot in design interviews, and Grokking System Design gave me an organized process to handle a design problem." MO JAFRI wrote that the Grokking courses "magically condense 3 years of CS in short bite-size courses and lectures."

The site also runs an affiliate program and a contributor program, a newsletter, and free articles on system design concepts, frameworks and questions.

Who it suits

Design Gurus suits working software engineers with an interview loop coming up, especially at mid-level and senior roles where system design and object oriented design rounds count. The pattern approach is built for someone who has ground through random problems and wants structure, and the six language options on the coding course mean most engineers can practice in the language they will interview in. The subscription makes sense for anyone planning to cover coding, system design and behavioral rounds together, and it adds a certificate of completion.

It suits less well a complete beginner who has not yet learned to program, since the courses assume coding ability, or someone wanting a broad software engineering education rather than interview preparation. Because the blog post says refunds are not offered, previewing the free chapters before buying is the sensible first step.