Design Gurus
Design Gurus is a bootstrapped online education platform founded in 2016 by ex-FAANG engineers that sells self-serve "Grokking" courses teaching pattern-based coding and system design interview prep to software engineers globally, monetizing via one-time course sales, subscription, and mock interview services.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded-
- HeadquartersRedmond, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Design Gurus does
Design Gurus monetizes through a multi-tier model: one-time course purchases priced $49.98–$197 with lifetime access and free updates, discounted roadmap bundles ($341–$675, 17% off), an annual subscription at $31.08/month ($373/year) covering 50+ courses, and professional services including mock interviews and resume reviews conducted by ex-FAANG engineers. Distribution is entirely direct-to-consumer through designgurus.io, supported by a content marketing engine (blog, YouTube, Substack, social) and an affiliate program. The company operates with a fully remote team of 1–10 employees, primarily engineers based in Pakistan, and serves customers across the USA, India, the UK, and additional global markets. Bootstrapped and founder-owned, Design Gurus has reached 500,000+ cumulative learners with course ratings of 4.6–4.8 stars.
Design Gurus firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Design Gurus
- Legal name
- Design Gurus, LLC
- Website
- https://designgurus.io
- Company type
- Private
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Design Gurus is a bootstrapped online education platform founded in 2016 by ex-FAANG engineers that sells self-serve "Grokking" courses teaching pattern-based coding and system design interview prep to software engineers globally, monetizing via one-time course sales, subscription, and mock interview services.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Design Gurus industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Technical Interview Preparation
- NAICS
- Business Schools and Computer and Management Training (6114), Exam Preparation and Tutoring (611691)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Software Development (Programming, Frameworks, Dev Tools) (EDABAFAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Learning Content Bundling & Subscription Passes (All-Access Libraries) (MPACALAL), Certification & Credentialed Creator Programs (MPACALAI)
Keywords
Where Design Gurus is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Redmond
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Design Gurus business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Individual Course Sales: One-time payment for lifetime access to individual courses. Prices range from $50 to $197 depending on course depth and content volume. Includes free updates and certificate of completion.
- Learning Roadmaps/Bundles: Comprehensive roadmap bundles combining multiple courses at discounted prices (17% off). Includes System Design Interview Roadmap ($462/$557), Coding Interview Roadmap ($341/$411), FAANG Coding Interview Roadmap ($440/$530), Engineering Manager Interview Roadmap ($560/$675).
- Annual Subscription: Annual subscription offering instant access to all current and upcoming courses for one year. Priced at $31.08/month billed annually ($373/year). Includes access to 50+ courses with new content added monthly.
- Professional Services: Mock interviews and resume reviews conducted by FAANG engineers and Grokking course authors as additional paid services.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Grokking the Coding Interview: 543 lessons, 24 patterns, multiple languages |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Grokking the System Design Interview: #1 system design course for FAANG |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Grokking System Design Fundamentals: Essential knowledge for beginners |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Advanced System Design Interview Volume II: L5/L6 preparation |
| Subscription | Annual | Annual Subscription: All courses access |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | System Design Interview Roadmap bundle |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Coding Interview Roadmap bundle |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels6 records
Design Gurus product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Design Gurus operates an online learning platform that sells pattern-based courses for software engineering technical interview preparation. Its flagship Grokking series teaches the 24 essential coding patterns and 16 most-asked FAANG system design questions across Java, Python, JavaScript, C++, C#, and Go. The company also delivers paid mock interviews and resume reviews conducted by FAANG engineers, with revenue generated from one-time course purchases, discounted roadmap bundles, and a $373/year all-access annual subscription.
Product overview
Design Gurus operates a comprehensive online learning platform for tech interview preparation, offering over 40 courses organized into learning roadmaps. The core flagship products are Grokking the System Design Interview and Grokking the Coding Interview, which together form the foundation of the curriculum. The platform provides specialized tracks including System Design (covering fundamentals, advanced L5/L6 content, microservices patterns, and scalable systems), Coding Interview (covering data structures, algorithms, dynamic programming, company-specific courses for Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Oracle), Behavioral/Leadership (covering STAR framework, engineering management, and salary negotiations), Databases (SQL and fundamentals), and Foundational Programming (Python, JavaScript). The platform also expanded into AI education with Grokking Modern AI Fundamentals and Grokking Prompt Engineering courses. Additional services include mock interviews with FAANG engineers and resume reviews.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Grokking Series: The company's flagship learning roadmap series of courses for tech interview preparation, including Grokking the System Design Interview, Grokking the Coding Interview, and related courses.
Products and services
- Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions Flagship coding interview preparation course teaching 24 essential coding patterns across multiple programming languages, with 543 lessons, designed as a pattern-based alternative to LeetCode grinding. Priced at $197 with one-time purchase and lifetime access.
- Grokking the System Design Interview Flagship system design interview preparation course built by ex-FAANG hiring managers, covering the 16 most-asked FAANG system design questions including distributed systems fundamentals, database sharding, and caching strategies. Priced at $148 with one-time purchase and lifetime access.
- Grokking System Design Fundamentals Entry-level system design course designed to equip software engineers with the essential knowledge and skills required to design large, complex systems. Covers foundational distributed systems and software architecture concepts for engineers new to system design. Priced at $98 with one-time purchase and lifetime access.
- Advanced System Design Interview, Volume II Advanced system design interview course for experienced engineers targeting L5/L6 senior roles. Deep dives into the internals of distributed systems such as Dynamo, Cassandra, Kafka, BigTable, GFS, HDFS, and Chubby. Includes 142 lessons and 400 quizzes across 36 hours of content, priced at $123.
- System Design Interview Crash Course Time-boxed system design interview preparation course covering 30+ real-world problems through a 14-step framework, designed to be completed in approximately two weeks for last-mile interview prep.
- Grokking Modern AI Fundamentals Foundational AI course covering AI models, large language models, generative models, agentic AI, neural networks, and ethical considerations, with hands-on coding demonstrations to help software engineers build AI literacy for their portfolios and careers.
- System Design Interview Roadmap Comprehensive learning roadmap bundle preparing software engineers for system design interviews through case studies, practical exercises, and guided coverage of scalability and distributed systems. Bundled at $462 (17% off the regular $557).
- Coding Interview Roadmap Comprehensive learning roadmap bundle covering algorithms, data structures, and problem-solving techniques using pattern-based learning with coding challenges for FAANG interview preparation. Bundled at $341 (17% off the regular $411).
- FAANG Coding Interview Roadmap Companion roadmap product for cracking FAANG coding interviews, focusing on pattern-based learning across key patterns that solve the majority of coding questions from Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle. Bundled at $440 (17% off the regular $530).
- Engineering Manager Interview Roadmap Comprehensive learning roadmap bundle covering the multifaceted landscape of FAANG engineering manager interviews, including people leadership, team management, project execution, system design, communication, and stakeholder collaboration. Bundled at $560 (17% off the regular $675).
- Design Gurus Annual Subscription (All-Access) Annual subscription tier providing instant access to all current and 50+ courses (including new content added monthly) for one year at $31.08 per month billed annually ($373/year). Includes certificates of completion and is intended as the all-access alternative to one-time course purchases.
- Mock Interviews with FAANG Engineers One-on-one technical mock interview service in which learners are interviewed by experienced FAANG engineers and authors of the Grokking courses who have personally conducted hundreds of interviews. Marketed as a paid professional service alongside the course catalog.
- Tech Resume Reviews Resume crafting and review service conducted by FAANG engineers and Grokking course authors, focused on highlighting coding skills and projects in a tech-optimized format tailored to FAANG and top-tier technology company applications.
Quantifiable outcome
- 500,000+ engineers landed roles at top tech companies using the courses
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Design Gurus
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Design Gurus technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature3 records
Design Gurus partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- TechGrindminorTechGrind provides objective course rankings, system design glossaries, FAANG roadmaps, and cutting-edge AI architecture guides. Partnership focuses on helping engineers build, ship, and grow with curated resources.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Design Gurus competitors and assessment
Company assessmentMarket position
Competitive moat5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Design Gurus social profiles
Digital presenceDesign Gurus financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Design Gurus leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Design Gurus funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Design Gurus M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Design Gurus
What does Design Gurus do?
Design Gurus operates an online learning platform that sells pattern-based courses for software engineering technical interview preparation. Its flagship Grokking series teaches the 24 essential coding patterns and 16 most-asked FAANG system design questions across Java, Python, JavaScript, C++, C#, and Go. The company also delivers paid mock interviews and resume reviews conducted by FAANG engineers, with revenue generated from one-time course purchases, discounted roadmap bundles, and a $373/year all-access annual subscription.
Is Design Gurus a public or private company?
Design Gurus is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Design Gurus founded?
Design Gurus was founded in -1. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Design Gurus based?
Design Gurus is headquartered in Redmond, United States, in the North America region.
How does Design Gurus make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Individual Course Sales are the primary driver. The others are learning Roadmaps/Bundles, annual Subscription and professional Services.
Does Design Gurus have an API?
No public API is recorded for Design Gurus.
What industry is Design Gurus in?
Design Gurus's product category is Technical Interview Preparation. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDABAFAA, Software Development (Programming, Frameworks, Dev Tools), with a secondary code of MPACALAL, Learning Content Bundling & Subscription Passes (All-Access Libraries). Its NAICS code is 6114 and its SIC code is 7371.