Disclosure up front: I built one of the six resources on this list. That is a real bias and you should read this with it in mind. What I have tried to do is give every option an honest description, including the parts where mine is the weaker choice, and cite prices and content facts you can verify yourself.
Hello Interview is a good product with a real following. People still look for alternatives, usually for one of four reasons: the price does not fit, they want deeper system design specifically, they want a book instead of a platform, or they came for the mock interviews and found out those ended.
That last one is the biggest recent change in this space and most comparison articles have not caught up.
What changed with Hello Interview
Hello Interview wound down its mock interview and mentorship programs on 31 May 2026. Unexpired credits were refunded.
For a long time the mock interview marketplace was Hello Interview's single most distinctive feature. You could book a vetted current or former FAANG interviewer, get a recording, and get written feedback. Sessions ran roughly $170 to $419. If that is what you came for, it is no longer available, and no amount of comparison shopping across this list will find you an exact replacement, because none of these six offer live human mocks either.
The founders' stated reasoning was that one-to-one work can only reach so many people. The platform has shifted toward guided practice and AI-assisted feedback.
What Hello Interview still is: a broad prep platform covering system design, low-level design and concurrency, coding including AI-assisted coding, machine learning system design, and behavioral. Written guides plus video deep dives, guided practice, a large question library, and an AI tutor. Pricing is $47 for a month, $79 for a year, or $279 lifetime. They have served over 100,000 engineers, and their free public guides are genuinely good.
The six at a glance
| Resource | Format | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hello Interview | Guides, video, guided practice, AI tutor | $47/mo, $79/yr, $279 lifetime | Breadth across every interview round |
| System Design School | Modules plus hands-on codelabs | Free tier, $45/yr, $99 lifetime | Cheapest paid option, practice-first |
| ByteByteGo | Illustrated guides, courses, newsletter | Subscription, books sold separately | Visual learners, ongoing reading |
| Alex Xu's books | Print and Kindle books | Roughly $30 to $40 per volume | People who want a book, offline study |
| Educative (Grokking Modern) | Interactive in-browser text | Educative subscription | Largest lesson count, in-browser style |
| Grokking the System Design Interview | Curriculum: text, video, diagrams | $148 once, lifetime | Depth on system design, senior prep |
1. System Design School
The closest thing to a direct budget alternative, and the comparison people search for most often after Hello Interview itself.
Built by ex-FAANG engineers, it runs roughly 100 conceptual modules, a set of worked case studies, and hands-on codelabs that run in Docker containers. The codelabs are the differentiator. Most system design resources have you read and think. This one has you build something.
Pricing is a free tier, $45 per year, or $99 lifetime, with a 7-day money-back guarantee. That makes it the cheapest paid option on this list by a wide margin.
Choose it if: you learn by doing, you want to spend the least, or you have already read a lot of theory and need practice.
Skip it if: you want a large catalog of worked end-to-end case studies, which is where its coverage is thinnest relative to the others.
2. ByteByteGo
Alex Xu's platform, distinct from his books. It offers illustrated courses across resume, coding patterns, system design, behavioral, object-oriented design, machine learning system design, mobile system design, and generative AI system design, plus a newsletter with over a million subscribers.
The illustrations are the reason to pick it. ByteByteGo's diagram style is the clearest in the industry and if you are a visual thinker, that matters more than lesson counts.
Choose it if: you think visually, you want ongoing reading rather than a finite course, or you want mobile and generative AI system design specifically, which few resources cover.
Skip it if: you want a structured start-to-finish path with a clear end point. It reads more like a well-illustrated library than a curriculum.
I wrote a longer head-to-head at Grokking vs ByteByteGo.
3. Alex Xu's books
The System Design Interview volumes are the best-selling books in this category, rated 4.6 from over 4,000 reviews. Volume 1 covers the fundamentals and core case studies, Volume 2 goes further into specific systems.
Books have real advantages that platforms do not: they work offline, they do not expire, they are cheap, and you can read them on a plane or a train without a subscription.
Choose it if: you want something permanent and portable, you are on a tight budget, or you simply prefer reading a book.
Skip it if: you want quizzes, video, interactive practice, or a structured progression that tells you what to do next.
Longer comparison: Grokking vs Alex Xu's books.
4. Educative's Grokking Modern System Design Interview
Worth listing because of its size and because of the name confusion. Educative's course runs 204 lessons, 140 quizzes, and 8 AI mock interviews across about 26 hours, organized around their RESHADED framework, rated 4.6.
To be clear about the naming: this is Educative's own separately authored course, not the original Grokking course, which is mine. They share a name for historical reasons. Full explanation in Grokking Modern vs the original.
Choose it if: you already pay for Educative, or you want the largest raw lesson count and like in-browser interactive text.
Skip it if: you want lifetime ownership rather than a subscription.
5. Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Not really an interview prep resource, but it comes up constantly so it deserves an honest mention. Martin Kleppmann's book is the best explanation of distributed systems fundamentals that exists. It is also not organized around interviews at all, and reading it cover to cover before an interview in three weeks is a mistake I have watched engineers make.
Choose it if: you have months, not weeks, and you want to genuinely understand the material rather than pass a round.
Skip it if: your interview is soon. Use it after you have a job, or alongside interview prep over a long horizon.
Longer take: Grokking vs Designing Data-Intensive Applications.
6. Grokking the System Design Interview
Mine, so weigh accordingly.
83 lessons across 5 chapters, 237 quizzes, about 20 hours. The structure is an introduction, a 20-lesson glossary of building blocks, a 23-lesson trade-offs chapter, 15 end-to-end design problems, and an appendix. $148 once for lifetime access, rated 4.7 from 60,815 ratings, with over 440,000 learners across both platforms it has lived on.
The two things I would point to as genuine structural differences: the trade-offs chapter, which treats trade-off articulation as a skill in its own right rather than something covered incidentally, and the progression into Volume II for senior and staff candidates, which carries 142 lessons and deep dives into Dynamo, Kafka, Cassandra, GFS, and BigTable.
Choose it if: system design is the round you are actually worried about, you are senior and need trade-off depth, or you want to pay once and keep it.
Skip it if: you need coding and behavioral prep in the same purchase, or $148 does not fit your budget right now. Hello Interview's bundle or System Design School's $45 are the honest answers in those cases.
Picking by situation
You want the cheapest thing that works. System Design School at $45 per year, or Alex Xu's Volume 1.
You need every interview round covered by one purchase. Hello Interview. That is its strongest argument and it is a real one.
System design is the round you are worried about. Grokking or ByteByteGo, depending on whether you want a curriculum or a visual library.
You are senior or staff and trade-offs are the risk. Grokking, then Volume II. This is the case where I think the answer is clearest, and also the case where my bias is strongest, so read the review and decide for yourself.
You want live mock interviews. None of these six. Hello Interview ended theirs, and no one else on this list runs a marketplace. Source mocks through peers, a dedicated mock platform, or your own network. It remains one of the highest-leverage things you can do regardless of which course you buy.
You have months and want to actually understand distributed systems. Designing Data-Intensive Applications, alongside anything else here.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Hello Interview alternative?
It depends what drew you to Hello Interview. For a cheaper practice-first option, System Design School. For visual learning, ByteByteGo. For depth on system design specifically, Grokking. For a book, Alex Xu. There is no single best answer, which is why this post lists six.
Does Hello Interview still do mock interviews?
No. Hello Interview wound down mock interviews and mentorship on 31 May 2026 and refunded unexpired credits. Any article recommending it primarily for mock interviews is out of date.
System Design School vs Hello Interview: which is better?
System Design School is much cheaper at $45 per year against Hello Interview's $79, and it is more hands-on with its Docker-based codelabs. Hello Interview is broader, covering coding, behavioral, and ML system design as well, and has better free public material. Pick on breadth versus price.
Hello Interview vs ByteByteGo?
ByteByteGo is the better choice if you learn visually and want ongoing illustrated reading, and it covers mobile and generative AI system design that Hello Interview does not. Hello Interview is more structured as interview preparation with guided practice and an AI tutor.
How much does Hello Interview cost?
$47 for one month, $79 for one year, or $279 lifetime, against list prices of $59, $99, and $349. Free public content is also available.
Is Grokking better than Hello Interview?
Grokking goes deeper on system design specifically and has a clearer senior-level progression. Hello Interview covers more interview types for one price. I built Grokking, so treat that comparison accordingly and read the full head-to-head.
Related reading
- Hello Interview vs Grokking the System Design Interview. The detailed head-to-head.
- Grokking vs ByteByteGo. Curriculum versus illustrated library.
- Grokking vs Alex Xu's books. Course versus book.
- Grokking Modern System Design Interview vs the original. Clearing up the Educative naming.
- Every Grokking course explained. The full catalog map.
Want to try mine before deciding? The free tier on DesignGurus.io includes introductory lessons and fundamentals, enough to tell whether the format suits you: Start free · See the full curriculum