TL;DR: Buy the Design Gurus version if you want the original course with all 42 patterns in one purchase. It costs $79 once, with lifetime access. Consider Educative only if you already pay for its subscription for other content. The Educative course is a different product with a similar name: 28 patterns, sold per language, and access ends when you stop paying.
First, the disclosure. I created Grokking the Coding Interview, and Design Gurus is my company. Read this comparison the way you would read any vendor comparing itself to a rival. Every number below is public, so you can verify each one on both sites in a few minutes.
Second, the thing most buyers do not know. These are not two copies of one course. They are two different courses that share a name. The original launched on Educative, then we moved it to our own platform. Educative later built its own pattern courses with its in-house team. The full history is in Which Grokking the Coding Interview Is the Official One?. This article assumes you know that story and just want to compare the two as products.
What each product is
Design Gurus sells the original course. One course, one purchase. It teaches 42 coding patterns (31 common + 11 advanced) across 50 chapters. Each chapter teaches a pattern first, then walks through hand-picked problems in rising difficulty. There are more than 300 problems, and every problem has solutions in Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, Go, and C#. You read, then run code in the built-in playgrounds.
Educative sells its own pattern courses. The flagship is called Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns, written by Educative's team. It is sold as separate editions per language: Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, Go, and C#. The Python edition lists 28 patterns and 228 problems, plus mock interview features. You do not buy it. You subscribe to the Educative platform and get access while you pay.
The price difference
This is the largest practical difference, so here are the real numbers.
Design Gurus: the course is a one-time purchase of about $79 (discounted from the $197 list price). You keep it forever. There is also a platform subscription that covers every Design Gurus course: $49.20 per month or $149.20 per year. A $435 one-time option covers all courses for life.
Educative: access requires a subscription. The standard plan is about $59 per month or about $149 to $199 per year, depending on the running promotion. Cancel, and access to the course ends.
Now do the interview math. Most candidates prepare for two to four months. On a monthly Educative plan, that is $118 to $236 for one prep cycle. When you cancel, you keep nothing. The one-time $79 course costs less than two months of that subscription, and it is still there when you interview again in three years.
A subscription is the better deal in one case: you want to study many topics on one platform for a long period. That is a real use case. It is just not the interview-prep use case most readers of this page have.
The content difference
Both products teach patterns before problems, which is the method the original course introduced. The differences are scope and packaging.
Pattern count. The original covers 42 patterns; Educative's edition lists 28. The extra coverage in the original is mostly the advanced tier, which is where harder onsite questions come from. The full list of all 42, with links to free deep dives, is in the pattern guide.
Languages. The original ships all six languages inside one course, on every problem. Educative splits languages into separate editions, so switching from Python to Java means switching courses.
Problem count. More than 300 in the original versus 228 in Educative's Python edition. Raw counts matter less than sequencing, but the direction is the same.
Authorship. The original is maintained by the people who invented the method, and it keeps growing. The pattern list went from 25 to 42 under the same authors. Educative's version is written by its in-house content team.
I have not taken Educative's course, and I will not pretend to review its teaching quality. Weigh what its own students say. What I can state are the facts above, because both course pages state them.
Head to head
| Design Gurus (original) | Educative | |
|---|---|---|
| Course | Grokking the Coding Interview | Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns |
| Authors | Original creators | Educative in-house team |
| Patterns | 42 (31 common + 11 advanced) | 28 |
| Problems | 300+ | 228 (Python edition) |
| Languages | 6, in one course | 6, sold separately |
| Price model | $79 one-time, lifetime | Subscription, ~$59/mo or ~$149-199/yr |
| Keep it after you stop paying | Yes | No |
| Free preview | Yes, introductory lessons | Varies |
Who should pick which
Pick Design Gurus if you want the original course, or you expect to interview more than once in your career. The one-time price is the whole argument: prep is a recurring event, and lifetime access means the second and third prep cycles are free. Start with the free introductory lessons and judge the teaching yourself.
Pick Educative if you already have an active Educative subscription for other courses. In that case the pattern course is a free add-on to something you are paying for anyway, and using it costs nothing extra.
Pick neither yet if your fundamentals are weak. A patterns course assumes you know arrays, hash maps, and basic recursion. If you do not, start with Grokking Data Structures or any free fundamentals material first.
If your real question is Grokking against a free resource rather than Grokking against Educative, read Grokking vs NeetCode. The free tier of NeetCode is the strongest no-cost option, and that comparison is honest about it.
The takeaway
One name, two products. The original Grokking the Coding Interview lives at Design Gurus: 42 patterns, 300+ problems, six languages, $79 once, yours forever. Educative's similarly named course is its own product: 28 patterns, per-language editions, and access that lasts as long as the subscription does. If you came here because of the course's reputation, that reputation belongs to the original. If you came here to compare products, the table above is the comparison, and every row of it is checkable.
The original, from the source: Grokking the Coding Interview is a one-time $79 for lifetime access, with free introductory lessons to try first. Short on time? Grokking 75 is the 6-week version.
FAQs
Is Design Gurus the same as Educative? No. They are separate companies. Design Gurus is the company founded by the creators of Grokking the Coding Interview, and it hosts the original course. Educative is a course marketplace where the original once lived, and it now sells its own pattern courses under similar names.
Why does Educative still rank for "Grokking the Coding Interview"? The original course spent its early years on Educative, so years of old links, reviews, and Reddit threads point there. Search engines still follow those links. The original course itself moved to designgurus.io, where its authors maintain it.
Is Educative's Grokking course bad? Nothing here says that. It is a separate course by a different team, and its own students review it on its own site. This comparison covers what is verifiable from both product pages: authorship, scope, languages, and price model.
Which is cheaper, Design Gurus or Educative? For interview prep, Design Gurus. The original course is $79 once, with lifetime access. Educative's standard subscription is about $59 per month or about $149 to $199 per year, and course access ends when the subscription does. A typical two-to-four month prep cycle costs more on subscription than the one-time course.
Does the Design Gurus version include a free trial? The introductory lessons of every chapter track are free, so you can judge the teaching style before paying. The start here index on this site also links every free guide we publish.