Scaler Academy Is A One-Stop Learning Portal For Software Engineers

In the last few years, programs that promise to upskill students and working professionals have come up aplenty. As ed-tech has found more takers, the offerings have become far richer in terms of both knowledge and tangible outcomes. But when it comes to upskilling software engineers, there’s one that has been ahead of the curve. In this Scaler Academy review, we take a look at what makes them stand out.

But before this deep dive into the program, some pertinent questions need answering:

What is Scaler Academy?
Scaler Academy is an online learning program for engineers to help them master problem solving & system design skills.

Who is it for?
Software engineers with any number of years of experience can choose to join the Scaler Academy program.

Who founded it?
Anshuman Singh and Abhimanyu Saxena founded InterviewBit, which then became the base for Scaler Academy. After graduating from IIIT Hyderabad, both had enviable jobs in the US. Anshuman led the Messenger team at Facebook, and Abhimanyu served as the engineering lead at Fab.com, a fashion e-commerce unicorn. In their respective organisations, both experienced the skill gap that exists in the country's engineering graduates. They left their cushy jobs to help fix it.

Is it trustworthy?

According to the students' testimonials we found in our research, it seems like they very much are.

Let's get into the details to understand more about Scaler Academy and its offerings.

Mentors From Top Companies
Scaler Academy's mentor program comes right on top of our list. Simply because of the differentiation, it brings to the table. While several other programs may offer similar content, the personalised mentorship available to learners is unique to Scaler Academy. These 'mentors' are identical in principle to the 'Gurus' of ancient time, working with learners as their life and career coaches, helping them to become better individuals and professionals. Most of these mentors are current software developers at Tier-I product companies, making the allure of this feature sweeter for the learners.

Interestingly, even the process of choosing a mentor is one where a lot of thought seems to have gone in. Each learner gets a personalized set of mentors to choose from, based on their own backgrounds, so as to ensure a certain level of relatability.

World Class, Relevant Teaching
One look at the teaching army at Scaler Academy, and you’d know why there are so many testimonials raving about the curriculum and content. Starting with Anshuman himself, the instructors are all experienced folk who have built world-class products for world-class companies.

What they teach is industry-vetted and reverse-engineered by analysing what it takes to be a great engineer in these times. So, no more studying what is no longer required by the industry, only what will help you grow.

Access To Peers & Alumni
For a program that has already seen over 1,500 people getting placed at some of the best tech companies, something as simple as access to such an alumni group for incoming and current learners is significant value addition in itself.

Scaler Academy has built an excellent internal communication platform that ensures that all its learners, current and former, have easy access to each other, creating a community of like-minded, talented software developers.

Be it interview experiences, job referrals or even inducing a sense of belonging in everyone, this platform is where meaningful and fruitful conversations flow, helping all their learners. Imagine a chat group of the best folks in your college, and this is that but bigger and better.

Easy Doubt Resolution
While learning is one part of things, what about the part where you get stuck while solving a problem that the instructors have asked you to solve?

Scaler Academy has a solution for that as well, that ensures all learners need only focus on working hard on upskilling themselves. The program has a large team of teaching assistants (TAs) who are almost always around to help solve doubts.

All a learner needs to do is raise a ‘Help Request’ on the platform. It gets circulated both within the peer community as well as the TA community. The learners can choose if they are okay to work with peers on their request. Alternatively, they can engage in a 1:1 conversation with the TA to clarify all doubts.

Scaler Academy TAs come from solid problem-solving backgrounds, and they work closely with instructors to help learners with practice problems and assignments. Depending on the availability, accessibility and scope of the query, they connect with learners via chat or video call, allowing all learners to get a hands-on problem-solving experience with them.

Immense Flexibility
Allowing learners to manage their workload while they upskill, the Scaler Academy program is flexible and convenient. They conduct two live classes per week, and the learner batch themselves decide the timing of these sessions. All the sessions are recorded and can be accessed by learners at their convenience. But that’s not even the best part! A learner can choose to move between batches in case of a professional or personal emergency at no extra cost.

Career Support
Scaler Academy also offers its learners various career support services such as resume building and editing, placement support, and practice/mock interviews. The focus is not just on learning but also on helping their learners become better at their jobs.

Outcomes of Scaler Academy
The mark of an excellent educational or upskilling course is how good their learners are after the program. In the case of Scaler Academy, which has operated for a little over two years, the numbers are simply phenomenal -
â¦Â Over 1,500 learners have already placed at some of the top product companies.
â¦Â 43.8 percent of these learners are in SDE-2 positions or higher, clearly reflecting the amount of progress they have achieved.
â¦Â Amazon hired more from Scaler Academy than India's top 20 engineering colleges last year, including the IITs.
â¦Â CTC buckets (post-program completion): With less than 3 years of experience: INR 16.5 LPA, between 3-7 years of experience: NR 22.5 LPA and for those with more than 8 years of experience: INR 39.5 LPA.
â¦Â The highest salary package secured by a learner was INR 1.5 crore per annum!
â¦Â The average return on investment for most learners is 4.5X.

And finally, let us look at what Scaler Academy alumni have to say about the program.

There is Mayur Kharche, who, in his review of the program, had this to say: "Scaler exceeded my expectations in a way I had never even thought possible. I expected a single mentor from Scaler, but I ended up getting several people who guided me throughout my tenure. Whenever needed, I could connect to Anshuman. I mailed him several times, and he replied every single time, which stood out to me. The instructors and teaching assistants were also there whenever I needed any help." Currently, SDE-3 at Walmart, Mayur has benefited tremendously from Scaler Academy's proprietary mentorship feature.

And then, there is Sandeep Sinha Mahapatra, Software Development Engineer at Ajio. In his heartfelt testimonial, he writes, "I was in a place where I could truly learn. There was no match for Scaler Academy's content, the structure, the topics, and the questions. It was exhaustive!"

Like Sandeep and Mayur, learners have talked about their experience across various platforms, giving a clear answer to the question which began this piece.

Scaler Academy is definitely worth it!