Educative Review 2025 – Is Educative a Good Place to Learn System Design in 2025?

Hello guys, System design interviews have become one of the biggest hurdles for software engineers aiming to land roles at top tech companies, especially for mid level and senior engineers. Whether you’re preparing for FAANG-level interviews, moving into senior engineering roles, or simply want to strengthen your architectural thinking, mastering system design is non-negotiable. Over the years, many resources have emerged—books, YouTube channels, bootcamps—but Educative.io has consistently stood out for its practical, text-based interactive courses.

Founded by ex FAANG engineers Fahim ul Haq, Educative.io is a great platform to learn technical skills, especially their Grokking courses which are great to master Coding and System Design interviews. 

I first come across this platform just before COVID and fell in love with their interactive platform. That time I used to spend lot of time watching YouTube videos and Udemy courses for learning new things but the ROI was not that great as I tend to forget whatever I learn very quickly, but after discovering Educative.io and their hands-on, interactive platform, my learning became better. 

In fact, it was their Grokking the System Design course which pulled me to the platform because at that time this was the only decent resource I could find to prepare for System Design interview. Since then a lot of water have flown under the bridge and many specialized platform have come across like  ByteByteGo, DesignGuru, Exponent, Codemia.io, Bugfree.ai and Udemy.

In 2025, with more engineers turning to self-paced learning, the question naturally arises: Is Educative still the best place to learn System Design in 2025?

Let’s dive into a detailed review of Educative, its subscription models, its most valuable courses for system design, and whether it’s worth your time and investment. Btw, if you are in rush then I highly recommend you to go and join Educative Unlimited Plan, you will thank me later as they are also providing 50% discount now on their annual and bi-annual plans. 

Why Educative Stands Out for Learning System Design?

If you ask me, most online learning platforms focus heavily on video-based content. While videos are great for storytelling, they often lack the depth and interactivity that technical learners need. Educative takes a different approach—it uses text-based, interactive lessons with embedded coding environments.

This has three major advantages for engineers preparing for system design interviews:

1. Faster Learning: You can skim, re-read, and digest concepts at your own pace without rewinding videos.

2. Hands-On Practice: Built-in coding sandboxes let you immediately test ideas and solutions.

3. Structured Roadmaps: Educative offers guided learning paths like Coding Interview Roadmap and System Design Roadmap, making prep less overwhelming.

With these advantages, it’s no surprise that Educative has become a go-to platform for engineers preparing for technical interviews.

Similar to ByteByteGo, they are also a great place to learn from visuals and explainer diagrams. For example, here is their latest System Design template which is a great resource to quickly revise essential System Design concepts and architecture.

Educative Plans and Subscription Options in 2025

Educative currently offers flexible pricing plans like standard, premium and premium Plus:

Educative Standard Plan

• Price: ~$15/month (annual billing) or ~$12/month (biennial billing)

• What you get:

  • Access to 900+ hands-on courses

  • Completion certificates

  • AI-powered learning

  • The Educative newsletter

• Best for: Learners who want affordable access to the entire course catalog without advanced career prep tools. 

• You can learn more about this plan here. 

Educative Premium Plan

• Price: ~$19/month (annual billing) or ~$17/month (biennial billing)

• What you get (everything in Standard, plus):

  • 310+ real-world projects

  • Personalized interview prep

  • 3 AI mock interviews per month

  • Personalized paths for career development

• Best for: Developers preparing for coding and system design interviews who want structured, hands-on practice.

• You can learn more about this plan here.

Educative Premium Plus Plan

• Price: ~$24/month (annual billing) or ~$19/month (biennial billing)

• What you get (everything in Premium, plus):

  • 250+ AWS Cloud Labs

  • 7 AI mock interviews per month

• Best for: Career growth and system design mastery, especially for engineers aiming at FAANG-level interviews or cloud-related roles.

• You can learn more about this plan here.

Recommendation: Go for Premium Plus

While Standard and Premium are good entry points, Premium Plus offers the most complete package. The extra AWS Cloud Labs and 7 AI mock interviews per month make a huge difference for anyone aiming to crack system design and cloud-heavy interviews in 2025.

If you are serious about long-term career growth and want the closest simulation to real-world interview prep, this plan easily justifies the slightly higher price. 

In 2025, they’re also offering up to 50% discount on subscriptions, making it a smart time to join if you’re serious about interview prep.

Here is the link to join their Premium Plan plan with discount - Join Educative.io with 50% OFF

Best Educative Courses for System Design Interviews

Many of you also asked me questions that after joining Educative which courses should they take to improve their System Design and Software Architecture knowledge. For those of you, here are the top Educative system design and coding interview courses I recommend in 2025:

1. Grokking the Modern System Design Interview – The flagship course that popularized system design prep online. Covers essentials like load balancing, caching, database sharding, and designing real-world systems like Twitter and Instagram.

2. Grokking the Low-Level Design Interview Using OOD Principles – Focuses on object-oriented design, UML diagrams, and common LLD patterns like designing a parking lot, elevator, or chess game. Perfect for engineers targeting companies that emphasize low-level design.

3. System Design Interview Prep Crash Course – A concise crash course if you’re short on time before interviews.

4. Grokking the Principles and Practices of Advanced System Design – Goes beyond basics, covering advanced topics like event-driven architecture, CAP theorem in practice, and distributed consensus algorithms.

5. Grokking the API Design Interview – A unique course focusing on designing scalable and maintainable APIs, an often-overlooked interview skill.

6. Grokking the Generative AI System Design – New in 2025, this course helps engineers prepare for interviews involving AI-driven system design, such as building ChatGPT-like applications.

7. Machine Learning System Design – Covers how to design large-scale ML systems, increasingly common in senior interviews.

8. Grokking the Machine Learning Interview – Complements system design prep by focusing on ML-specific challenges like feature engineering and deployment.

If you don't have access then you can get full access to all these courses at once by joining the Educative subscription now with 55% discount.

Is Educative Worth It in 2025?

The short answer: Yes—especially if you’re preparing for coding and system design interviews.

Here’s why:

• Comprehensive Coverage: From algorithms to advanced distributed systems, Educative has everything in one place.

• Up-to-Date Content: Courses like Grokking Generative AI System Design prove they keep pace with modern industry trends.

• Better Value Than Buying Individually: With a subscription, you get access to hundreds of courses for the price of one or two books.

• Time-Saving: Text-based lessons make it easier to learn efficiently, compared to long video lectures.

If you’re just looking to brush up on one or two areas, individual course purchases may work. But if you’re serious about long-term career growth, the Educative Unlimited plan is the smarter investment—it pays for itself in just a couple of courses and the best thing is that they are currently offering 55% discount offer for a limited time. 

Final Thoughts

That's all in this review of Educative.io for learning System Design and Software architecture in 2025. System design is one of the hardest skills to crack for software engineers, but it’s also one of the most rewarding. 

Whether you’re aiming for FAANG interviews, advancing into senior engineering roles, or simply want to level up your architecture knowledge, Educative.io remains one of the best platforms in 2025 to achieve your goals.

With structured roadmaps, hands-on practice, and courses trusted by thousands of engineers, it’s hard to go wrong. Plus, with their current discounts, it’s more affordable than ever.

👉 Start your Educative journey here
👉 Try the free trial
👉 Check Educative Unlimited

If you’re serious about mastering system design interviews in 2025, Educative is a platform I’d recommend without hesitation.