Looking to find the best coding challenge websites to improve your coding skills and land that next job? Well, look no further, because today we are going to break down the top coding platforms to improve your coding skills!
While all of these challenge sites aim to improve your algorithm & data structure skills, only a few are successful. Additionally, every coding challenge site seems to focus on different aspects that make each platform unique and useful in its own way.
As a developer trying to teach yourself how to code, it’s important to be using the right tools to make the learning process easier and faster. By understanding the benefits and drawbacks of each platform, you can be sure you are being as efficient with your time as possible.
So without further ado, let’s jump right in and discover some of the best coding challenge sites to improve your skills.
Best Coding Platforms
1. HackerRank
Let’s start things off with one of my favorite challenge sites, HackerRank. HackerRank’s mission is to help prepare software developers for technical interviews and improve their coding skills with a series of coding challenges in major divisions of coding.
The platform has a well-defined area to teach algorithms and data structures that any self-learner would be satisfied with. What really makes HackerRank stand out, however, is that you can also learn specific programming languages and mathematic concepts as well.
You can check out all of the available subjects below:
HackerRank does a great job of connecting developers and employers through their job board, has exceptionally well-organized coding challenges, trusted high-quality free content, a realistic coding environment, and best of all, is fun to use!
If you want to learn more about HackerRank, you can check out our review here.
2. Codewars
Codewars is another one of the best coding challenge websites in 2023. The site features a ton of great challenges that will push your abilities and increase your skills as a programmer. It also features one of the largest language supports of any site on this list. Codewars supports 29 core languages and 26 additional beta languages!
A big difference between Codewars and HackerRank is that Codewars seems to focus more on building a community than HackerRank. Users are motivated to create their own challenges, monitor the site, and join clans. The site basically maintains itself because of the members that use it.
If you are looking for a coding challenge website that focuses more on social aspects, Codewars is probably the coding site for you.
You can check out our full review of Codewars here.
3. LeetCode
LeetCode is the golden standard for technical interviews and our favorite coding challenge site for landing your next job. We found that LeetCode’s thousands of free challenges were the best laid out of all the sites on this list. It features a tagging system that makes it easy to practice algorithmic challenges related to each other and the description of the challenges is also very easy to understand.
In addition, they have lists of the most popular tech interview questions on their site. Including questions asked at top tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Comparing LeetCode to Codewars, it’s obvious that LeetCode lacks the social aspect you may find in Codewars. However, if you want a no-nonsense coding challenge site to improve your skills, look no further than LeetCode!
4. CodeChef
If competitive programming is your style, CodeChef is the coding platform for you! Among the typical algorithmic challenges you’ll find on all of these sites, CodeChef also offers many coding competitions. You can find the most recent challenges to show off your skills here.
Competitive coding aside, there isn’t much at CodeChef that you can’t find a better version of in the coding sites above. While CodeChef will certainly improve your coding skills, if you aren’t looking for competitive coding, you may be wasting your time with CodeChef.
If you want to learn more about CodeChef, check out our review here.
5. CheckIO
CheckIO gives an interesting approach to coding challenge platforms. Instead of setting out a list of coding challenges laid out by a tag system, CheckIO treats learning how to code like a game!
CheckIO’s main purpose is to be used as supplementary material for teaching a class. For that reason, it isn’t a great option if you are preparing for an interview. However, if you want a fun, interactive way to learn how to code, CheckIO may be the right coding platform for you.
If you are a teacher it also offers an admin section that allows you to track and understand the progress of your students. A feature that is not available in any other coding platform in this list!
It’s a cool approach and we recommend you check out the full CheckIO review here.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, there are a ton of great options available to you in the realm of code challenge sites. Some of these are better geared towards nailing your coding interviews, while others are focused more on social community, learning languages, or competitive programming. Which coding site will you choose to improve your coding skills?
