AlgoExpert vs. HackerRank vs. LeetCode

There are numerous platforms that provide algorithm questions and mocking interview questions to this day. I chose three popular platforms, AlgoExpert, HackerRank, and LeetCode, to compare their differences.

AlgoExpert

Clément Mihailescu, a former software engineer at Facebook and Google, co-founded AlgoExpert.

When you buy multiple products, you will automatically receive a 25% discount. It is, however, not a one-time purchase. After purchasing, you will only have access for one year. Unlike HackerRank and LeetCode, AlgoExpert does not have an official or unofficial community.

AlgoExpert currently has 160 coding interview questions in 15 categories, with more being added all the time.

The instructors for the questions are Clement and Tim Ruscica (a.k.a. Tech with Tim). They are confident that those questions will give you a good chance of acing the interviews.

They also provide a Data Structure Crash Course with thirteen videos, four Coding Interview Assessments, five videos for Coding Interview Tips, and Mock Interview Questions, in addition to Coding Interview Questions. You can conduct a practise interview with a random AlgoExpert user or a friend.

Each question contains a Prompt, Scratchpad, Solution(s), and Video Explanation. In Vim, Sublime, and Emacs, the code editor supports keymaps. C++, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Python, Swift, and TypeScript are among the nine programming languages supported.

LeetCode

In 2015, Winston Tang founded LeetCode. LeetCode has both free and paid versions. Premium costs $35 per month or $159 per year. You will have access to exclusive premium content and extra functions on LeetCode if you upgrade to premium.

It currently has over 1800 problems and is still growing. LeetCode has a large, both official and unofficial, community. There is a discussion for each problem. Users contribute their solutions, ideas, explanations, and so on. LeetCode allows interviewers to create ten interview questions for their hiring process each month. FAANG-level companies provide three free Mock Assessments and 24 premium Mock Assessments. Aside from that, LeetCode hosts a weekly contest.

HackerRank

Vivek Ravisankar and Hari Karunanidhi founded HackerRank in 2009. It is geared towards both developers and employers.

HackerRank is free for developers, and employers can choose from four different pricing plans. There is no information on how many problems are in HackerRank, but the majority of problems are contributed by users, and all Contests are created by users. HackerRank has discussions on each problem as well, but the UI isn't as appealing as LeetCode's.

In addition, HackerRank offers Skills Certification for Angular, C#, Go, CSS, and other technologies. After passing the exam, you will be able to apply for jobs on HackerRank. There is a Jobs Board page, but the locations are limited.

Conclusion

Each platform has its own distinct features. In my opinion, if you are preparing for an interview with an FAANG-level company. AlgoExpert is the best option because it was designed for this purpose, but LeetCode's premium version is also a good option in this case.

If you want to train your algorithm skills, the free versions of HackerRank and LeetCode are ideal because they both have leaderboards, contests, and communities.

AlgoExpert and LeetCode are not expensive because if you could work for an FAANG-level company, the return on investment would be nearly 100x.
However, if you only want to learn or practise, there is no point in wasting money on these; don't lie to yourself that you will finish the questions once you spend.