HackerRank is a popular technical interview preparation website focusing on competitive programming challenges and interview prep resources for developers, while also offering corporations a platform to hire tech talent.
Programmers submit solutions to programming challenges. In this article, we will be covering a few features that make this online platform stand out in the market amongst its competitors and the top 7 HackerRank alternatives that you can go for.
Features of HackerRank
1. Multiple Programming Language Support
HackerRank supports a great variety of programming languages, making it unnecessary to learn a new language to solve HackerRank’s programming questions.
2. Tutorials
HackerRank also has a series of tutorials that cover coding, interview prep, and even statistics as well.
3. Multiple Practice Topics
HackerRank categorizes most of its programming challenges into several core computer science domains, including databases, data structures, mathematics, artificial intelligence, algorithms, functional programming, and machine learning. This makes HackerRank extremely convenient by providing challenges on topics apart from software engineering too.
4. Comfortable Interface
HackerRank has a pleasing user interface: it gives clear instructions for each question, lets you select your desired programming language, offers hints in case you get stuck on a problem, and provides a small introductory challenge to familiarize yourself with the content before you go on to tackle the larger problem.
5. Job Offers
Your HackerRank profile and your overall performance on programming questions and coding contests are visible to companies using HackerRank as a hiring platform. This means that, if you perform well, you may also receive job offers from companies including Amazon, Bloomberg, Evernote, GoDaddy, HBC Digital, Yelp, Walmart Labs, Visa Inc., Uber, Quora, and many more, on the platform.
Top 7 HackerRank Alternatives
1. TestGorilla
TestGorilla is a pre-employment testing platform that claims to “identify the best candidates and make your hiring decisions faster, easier, and bias-free” – and is one of the best alternatives to HackerRank. Users can browse and select tests from a wide range of subjects to add to their assessments, including soft skills like leadership and critical thinking, to more technical ones like Microsoft Excel or HTML. If the tests available aren’t specific enough, users can add custom questions to fine-tune each assessment as necessary.
Pros
- Easy to Set Up
- Unbiased Testing
- Ability to weed out unqualified candidates
Cons
- Some tests are focused on entry-level positions
2. CodeSignal
CodeSignal is another great option amongst HackerRank competitors with a technical recruiting software system that helps users assess the skills of potential hiring candidates. CodeSignal claims to help “fast-growing companies go beyond resumes in technical recruiting by structuring, automating, and calling interviews without a technical assessment platform”. CodeSignal accomplishes this with an interview process with live coding tools including a terminal, file system, and advanced IDE all within the same window and system.
Pros
- Scalability is a huge advantage for users
- Daily challenges and practice interviews are available for candidates
Cons
- Some users dislike the security measures
3. Codility
Codility is an applicant tracking system (ATS) that was built specifically for assessing and recruiting engineering candidates. It features code challenges to draw in potential candidates in an engaging, competitive format. Coding assessments narrow down who has the specific skills for specific jobs. Lastly, interview tools give you the ability to review coding critiques and challenges from within the meeting itself. It is another great option to go for if you are looking for websites like HackerRank but don’t have any coding background.
Pros
- Comfortable Interface
- Coding assessments can be set for specific types of roles with varying degrees of difficulty
- The coding assessments help HR and recruiters who don’t have coding experience
Cons
- More tests for different positions and skills levels (especially for advanced users) have been requested
- initial set-up can be time-consuming since all tests have to be created at once
4. HackerEarth
Another great platform amongst the alternatives to HackerRank is HackerEarth. It is an online skill assessment platform for conducting coding tests to assess developers. It allows you to create custom coding assessments to test technical skills and effectively recruit for technical roles.
Pros
- AI proctoring ensures accurate results
- Automated test creation
- Supports international languages
Cons
- Pricing is not reasonable compared to the features
5. Coderbyte
Coderbyte provides you with modular courses to prepare for related programming challenges. The coding challenges cover ten programming languages. On completing, you can match your answers against the official solutions and also the top solutions from users. This comparison helps you benchmark your skills against the best solutions to problems.
Pros
- Comfortable Interface
- Good Quality of Pre-made tests
Cons
- Pricing is not reasonable compared to the features
6. CoderPad
CoderPad is a technical interview platform that helps evaluate candidates through live, collaborative coding sessions through their online IDE, screen them through asynchronous take-home assignments, and leverage their online whiteboard tool to chat through system design problems.
Pros
- Supports international languages
- Allows for intractability between interviewer and interviewee
Cons
- Code editor should be more responsive to autosuggestions
- A transparent and publicly available pricing
7. CodinGame for Work
CodinGame lets recruiters, tech leaders, and programmers evaluate and shortlist technical talent quickly with confidence. Being easy to set up, it enables companies to effortlessly create technical tests regardless of their technical knowledge. They help them eliminate tedious manual scoring, guesswork, and bias in their hiring processes, reduce their hiring costs while ensuring a great candidate experience, and shorten their time-to-hire so they can secure in-demand tech talent.
Pros
- Create ad-hoc technical assessments within minutes.
- Supports email bulk invites
- Candidates to get instant feedback
Cons
- Cannot register yourself on the platform outside of personalized invitations.
- Additional reporting and analyzing capabilities required
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1 Is HackerRank better or LeetCode?
Ans: HackerRank has more frequent contests and covers a wide range of topics, making it better than LeetCode.
Q2 Which is better Codewars or HackerRank?
Ans: Choose Codewars for a better social experience when practicing your coding skills. HackerRank would be a better option for you if you want to prepare for coding interviews and require more structured learning.
Q3 What is better HackerRank or HackerEarth?
Ans: HackerEarth is preferred over HackerRank, thanks to its huge library of over 13,000 coding questions and comfortable user interface.
Q4 Which competitive programming site is good for beginners?
Ans: TestGorilla, CodeSignal, Codility, HackerEarth, Coderbyte, CoderPad, and CodinGame for Work, are some of the popular programming sites suitable for beginners.
Conclusion
The level of preparation of candidates is ranked globally on the HackerRank leader board earning them badges based on their accomplishments. HackerRank’s programming challenges can be solved by a variety of programming languages like Java, C++, PHP, Python, SQL, JavaScript, etc., and span multiple computer science domains.
The HackerRank alternatives included in this article work in a similar fashion and have different pros and cons, which may help one decide which one to go for.
