LeetCode vs. Codewars: Which Is Better For Coding Interviews?
LeetCode is a website that is often compared to another website called Codewars because of its similar offerings in terms of providing a coding interview preparation platform for software engineering candidates. For instance, both of these platforms allow you to solve coding interview questions on their platforms, submit questions to evaluate for correctness, and learn about common patterns that are asked within coding interviews.
In this article, we’ll discuss what Codewars is in detail, explaining the different features between Codewars and LeetCode. We’ll also discuss whether LeetCode is better than Codewars in terms of its costs and the quality of the questions.
What Is Codewars?
Codewars is an online platform that provides users the ability to create and complete coding challenges called “katas.” Multiple programming languages like JavaScript, Python, Java, and C++ are supported, and it’s a community-driven platform that helps teach software engineers how to code through small coding exercises.
Codewars is often compared with LeetCode, another coding interview preparation platform, for the purposes of interview preparation because they both provide a way for candidates to practice numerous questions that are similar to what is asked on coding interviews on their sites.
What Features Are Different Between Codewars and LeetCode?
The main features that are different between Codewars and LeetCode are the way the questions are structured, organized, and provided to their users.
Codewars’ questions are all crowdsourced, meaning that its user base creates the questions (called katas) for other users to solve. LeetCode’s questions are all created and curated by its administrative staff. This means that coding problems on Codewars’ are more creative than the problems on LeetCode because LeetCode’s questions are vetted and tailored specifically for practicing coding interview problems (similar to competitive programming questions).
What Are Other Alternatives To Codewars and LeetCode?
Alternatives to Codewars and LeetCode include platforms like HackerRank, Codecademy, AlgoExpert, CodeForces, Khan Academy, and Project Euler. These alternatives each have their specific advantages in terms of what they provide. For instance, CodeForces provides rigorous problems for the hardest coding interviews and Khan Academy provides a platform that can be used for learning about the fundamentals of computer science and programming.
It’s important to leverage the top 7 alternatives to LeetCode to help you strengthen your weaknesses in interview preparation.
Is LeetCode Better Than Codewars?
LeetCode is better than Codewars overall if your goal is to learn and practice as many relevant coding interview questions as possible. The LeetCode platform is tailored specifically for this purpose while the Codewars platform has other focuses that aren’t strictly related to candidates practicing for technical interviews like practicing coding overall.
However, whether LeetCode is better than HackerRank depends on your own personal goals. Some of the other criteria to consider are whether LeetCode is more expensive than Codewars and whether LeetCode has higher quality questions than HackerRank.
Is LeetCode More Expensive Than Codewars?
No. LeetCode is not more expensive than Codewars. Both platforms are free to use. However, you can upgrade to premium on both platforms for a monthly fee. LeetCode premium costs about $35 per month and Codewars Red (their premium version) costs about $5 per month, making LeetCode more expensive than Codewars if you factor in premium.
It’s important to understand that Codewars Premium doesn’t offer much more than what you’d get in the free version with their paid version. The notable features you’ll get are an ad-free experience and the ability to see a ranking comparison of your code vs. other people’s code. If you are paying for a premium version of a coding interview platform, LeetCode premium may be worth it.
Does LeetCode Have Higher Quality Questions Than Codewars?
Yes. LeetCode has higher quality questions than Codewars in terms of what would be asked during real phone and onsite interviews, the most important coding interviews for deciding whether or not to hire a candidate. However, Codewars questions are generally easier and better to do if you’re still learning about the basics of coding in a new programming language.
