Educative.io vs DesignGurus.io: Which is better for System Design Interview Prep in 2025?

Educative.io or DesignGurus.io? Which one is a better place for System Design Interview Prep in 2025?

Educative.io vs DesignGurus.io: Which is better for System Design Interview Prep
credit — Designgurus.io

Hello guys, Preparing for system design interviews has become one of the toughest challenges for software engineers.

Unlike coding interviews that focus on algorithms and data structures, system design questions test your ability to architect large-scale systems, think about trade-offs, and apply distributed systems principles to real-world scenarios.

Over the past few years, several platforms have emerged to help engineers crack these interviews. Two of the most popular ones in 2025 are Educative.io and DesignGurus.io.

Both provide high-quality, hands-on content designed to teach you the fundamentals of system design while preparing you for real interview scenarios. But which one is the right choice for you?

In this article, I’ll give you a detailed comparison of Educative.io and DesignGurus.io, highlight their flagship courses, and help you decide which is the best platform for your system design interview prep this year.

Educative.io for System Design Interview Prep

Educative.io is well-known for its interactive, text-based learning platform. Instead of video lectures, Educative courses rely on in-browser coding environments, quizzes, and hands-on exercises, making them perfect for developers who prefer learning by doing.

For system design interviews, Educative offers some of the most popular courses in the industry:

  • Grokking the Modern System Design Interview– The flagship course that made Educative.io famous. It covers system design fundamentals, common interview problems, and step-by-step solutions to scenarios like designing YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

Grokking System Design Interview: Patterns & Mock Interviews

System Design Deep Dive: Real-World Distributed Systems – AI-Powered Course

Grokking the Low Level Design Interview Using OOD Principles

Why Choose Educative.io?

  • Ideal if you like interactive, self-paced text-based learning.
  • Covers both high-level and low-level design interviews.
  • Lifetime access to courses (no expiration once you purchase).
  • Great for developers who want a strong foundation in design concepts.
  • AI Mock interview and personalization

By the way, you would need an Educative subscription to join this course, which cost around $14.99 but also provide access to more than 1200+ courses, projects, and cloud labs to learn in-demand tech skills including web development.

Here is the link to join — 50% OFF on Educative Annual Plan

You can also use 7 days free trial to get this course for FREE.

DesignGurus.io for System Design Interview Prep

DesignGurus.io is a specialized platform focused entirely on interview prep for system design and distributed systems. Similar to Educative.io, DesignGurus offers a structured, text-based learning experience taught by engineers who have worked at FAANG and other top tech companies.

Their system design courses are designed to simulate the actual interview process, with mock problems, whiteboard sessions, and detailed trade-off discussions.

Here are the top DesignGurus.io courses you can join for System Design interview preparation in 2025:

  • Grokking the System Design Interview — Their flagship course that teaches the fundamentals of system design, covering everything from scalability and availability to databases, caching, and load balancing.

Grokking the System Design Interview | Video Course by Design Gurus

Grokking the Advanced System Design Interview | Real System Case Studies (Advanced Course)

  • Grokking Microservices Design Patterns — A recently updated course tailored to modern challenges like microservices, patterns like CQRS and Saga, real-time systems, and event-driven architecture.

Grokking Microservices Design Patterns | Design Scalable & Resilient Systems

Why Choose DesignGurus.io?

  • Perfect if you prefer text-based learning and instructor-led walkthroughs.
  • Great for simulating the real interview environment.
  • Focuses heavily on modern system design patterns (microservices, event-driven systems, etc.).
  • Mock interview by FAANG experts and ex FAANG engineers
  • Ideal for engineers targeting FAANG-level interviews.

And, if you like these Grokking interview courses from DesignGurus.io, you can get all of them for a big discount by purchasing their All course bundle. This bundle include their most popular Grokking courses like Grokking System Design Interview, OOP Design, Coding Patterns, as well Grokking Dynamic programming interview. You can also use code GURU to get 30% discount.

Educative.io vs DesignGurus.io: Head-to-Head Comparison

Here’s how the two platforms stack up against each other in 2025:

1. Learning Style

  • Educative.io: Text-based, interactive, self-paced.
  • DesignGurus.io: Text-based, self-paced.

2. Depth of Content

  • Educative.io: Strong fundamentals, covers both low-level and high-level design.
  • DesignGurus.io: Focuses more on high-level system design and real interview simulations.

3. Best For

  • Educative.io: Beginners or engineers who want to build conceptual clarity through interactive exercises.
  • DesignGurus.io: Engineers preparing for senior-level or FAANG interviews who need mock interview–style prep.

4. Course Updates

  • Educative.io: Regular updates, but primarily focused on evergreen content.
  • DesignGurus.io: Faster updates reflecting modern architecture trends (like Kafka, event-driven design).

5. Pricing

  • Educative.io: Buy once, own forever; or subscribe to their Educative Unlimited Plan for access to 1200+ courses.
  • DesignGurus.io: One-time purchase per course, with lifetime access.

Overall both platforms are very similar but Educative.io got a lot more courses than DesignGurus.io and its AI capabilities are also far better than DesignGurus.io, hence I think joining Educative.io make a lot more sense for System Design interview preparation. You can also join Educative.io now for 50% discount.

Here is the link to join — 50% OFF on Educative Annual Plan

Final Verdict: Which is Better in 2025? Educative or DesignGurus?

I f you are new to system design interviews, or you prefer interactive, text-based content with lots of practice problems, Educative.io is the better choice.

Their Grokking the Modern System Design Interview course is still the gold standard for beginners.

Grokking System Design Interview: Patterns & Mock Interviews

Though, If you already know the basics and want to prepare for senior-level interviews at companies like Google, Meta, or Amazon, then DesignGurus.io is the better option.

Their Grokking the System Design Interview and Grokking the Advanced System Design Interview courses will give you the real-world perspective you need.

In fact, many engineers actually combine both platforms — start with Educative.io for fundamentals, then use DesignGurus.io for advanced practice and interview simulations. This way, you’ll be prepared from all angles.

Other System Design and Coding Interview and Resources you may like

All the best for your System Design learning journey, if you have any doubts or questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

P. S. — If you just want to do one thing at this moment, join Educative Premium Plus and start learning System Design fundamentals and you will thank me later. It’s one of the most comprehensive resource for System Design interview now.

Educative Unlimited: Excel with AI-Powered Learning

Educative.io vs DesignGurus.io: Which is better for System Design Interview Prep in 2025? was originally published in Javarevisited on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This post first appeared on Read More

Related Posts