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Everything about the Fellowship — pricing, mentorship, the job hunt, and what happens after you sign.

The Experience

Formation is best fit for engineers with 1-10+ years of full-time software engineering experience who are looking to level up and land mid-level or senior frontend, backend, and full-stack roles at top-tier companies and who have at least 5 hours per week to dedicate. At the moment, we're only able to support people who are legally authorized to work in the US and Canada.
Our platform was designed from scratch to be completely virtual. Your daily standups, mentor-led sessions, pairing sessions, mock interviews, industry speakers, and more will all happen via our platform and on Zoom, allowing you to progress and practice at your pace and on your time.

Unlike a lot of other solutions on the market, Formation has no fixed length. Once you join, we support you unconditionally until you land a job you love.

Some Fellows are with us for a quick stint while they master technical interviewing and land their next role. Others stay 4-6 months to brush up on and develop key skills, and some stay longer than 6 months to master foundational concepts and build community.

We work with you to understand your goals, timeline, and experience, then create a completely customized roadmap that works best for you.

No, though people sometimes mistake us for one. Most bootcamps offer classroom-style programs that help brand-new engineers land their first role. We offer personal coaching and mentoring for engineers who are significantly further along — typically with 1-5+ years of full-time industry experience — looking to level up into a top-tier company.

Unlike most bootcamps, we're also a software company at heart. Founded by Meta product engineers who saw the engineering tactics that went into optimizing Newsfeed, we've built a proprietary adaptive prep engine that assesses your skills and, like Newsfeed, adapts to you with each piece of content you interact with.

Formation also never locks you into a fixed group. Every engineer works differently and at their own pace, and batching you with peers working on a completely different set of skills would be a disservice.

Instead, we algorithmically pair you with Fellows for pairing sessions and with mentors for mentor-led sessions based on the exact topics you need to improve. If you already excel in an area, we speed you forward. If you need more time, we give you additional practice until you've truly mastered each topic.

Interview prep is just one part of what we do. Formation isn't singularly an interview prep platform, a skill development platform, or a bootcamp.

Formation is a holistic experience that helps engineers with 1-5+ years of full-time experience develop the exact skills and interview tactics they need to up-level their careers and land their dream roles — the in-demand skills other interview prep options fail to develop.

Formation was built by top-tier engineers who built Newsfeed at Facebook and conducted thousands of software engineering interviews. We know exactly what it takes to land the caliber of job you want, and we get you there through hyper-personalized reps powered by our adaptive prep engine, mock interviews and mentorship from hundreds of FAANG-level mentors, and unconditional job hunt support until you have a signed offer letter in hand.

Step One: Join
Our application process is quick — feel free to join to get the ball rolling.
Step Two: Benchmark
Next up, our free benchmark. This no-stress assessment helps both you and us get a feel for where your strengths and skill gaps are. The assessment takes 45 minutes — don't worry, no prep required. You're welcome to skip questions and retake it as many times as you'd like — this just allows us to create the most custom and valuable roadmap for you.
Step Three: Recruiter Interview
We'll hop on a quick call to understand more about your background, make sure Formation is a fit for your goals, and answer any questions you might have.
Step Four: Offer Call
We'll extend you an offer to become a Formation Fellow!
Step Five: Sign & Start!
Welcome! We're glad you're here 🥳
Formation is not one-size-fits-all. You will practice the exact skills you need to get to a top-tier hiring bar, including all topics in data structures and algorithms, frontend and backend web development, and systems design. We also have extensive job search support to help you craft an impactful application that cannot be ignored. See what you'll practice here.
At Formation, we accommodate both part-time and full-time Fellows. Should you join as a part-time Fellow, you'll be required to commit a minimum of 20 hours per week. As a full-time Fellow, the required minimum is 35 hours per week. However, we work around your schedule and dynamically adjust your plan every week, so when exactly you complete the required hours is totally up to you!
No lectures, no fixed track, and no one talking at you. We believe skill development is most effective when it is hyper-personalized and ultra-personal. All of your sessions will be practice-based mentorship sessions on very specific topics. They will be either 1-1 or small groups of up to 6 people where everyone must contribute to solving problems and understanding new topics.
The number of sessions you'll have per week will vary based on the topics you're working on, where you are in your job hunt, and your total time commitment to Formation. On average, full-time Fellows will have 5-15 sessions per week, and part-time Fellows will have 2-8 sessions per week.
No. Each week, your availability will dictate your Formation schedule. You'll be required to attend all your sessions and complete all tasks, but Formation flexes to fit within your lifestyle.
Our culture at Formation thrives on feedback. Fellows not only receive personalized feedback in live sessions but also through our active Mattermost community where people seek advice and help one another with everything from algorithms to career advice.

Pricing

Formation has different options and payment types depending on your goals and job hunt timeline. Check out our pricing page to get a breakdown.

Us and hundreds of Alum, Mentors, and Career Coaches sure think so. Fellows who complete Formation up-level their careers in terms of role seniority and company tier, and on average, Fellows see a $89k+ compensation increase from the time they started. See calculation details.

Still considering if it's worth it? Our ROI Calculator may help.

We offer two different options to join Formation so you can choose the best option for you. Both options, Monthly Membership & Unlimited Access, grant you access to absolutely everything Formation has to offer.

Should you choose to enroll in our Monthly Membership, your membership will renew each month until you decide to cancel. You can also choose to upgrade in your first month.

Should you choose to enroll in Unlimited Membership, you will remain at Formation and enjoy unconditional support for up to 15 months or until you land a role you love — all for one price based on your outcome, never determined by the amount of time you are here.

If you enroll in our Monthly Membership:

You can pay upfront, directly to Formation via a single invoice each month until you cancel your membership.

If you enroll in our Unlimited Membership option, we offer two ways to pay the upfront portion:

  1. You can pay upfront. Pay directly via single invoice, or split into a set number of interest free payments directly to Formation.
  2. You can split your cost into monthly payments through Affirm. This allows you to pay over time, often interest-free. This option is conditional upon approval from Affirm.
  3. Full payment terms and disclosures for Affirm are available at https://www.affirm.com/disclosures

You might also be eligible to choose a fixed rate, flat fee option for the Unlimited Membership and can ask the Formation Team more information about available payment methods and loan providers available to you for this option.

If you were enrolled in our Monthly Membership — great news, no other action! You've fully taken advantage of fast-tracking your job search and you've only paid for the amount of time you were with us 🤓

If you were enrolled in our Unlimited Membership plan, you won't be eligible for a refund, but we will support you in every way we can to strategize in your job hunt, prepare for the interviews, and negotiate your offer.

You can rest assured that our current and past Fellows LOVE us — just take a look at some of our success stories. With that said, we understand that priorities may change or life may get in the way. Monthly subscriptions can be cancelled at the end of each month.

For the Unlimited Membership option, the upfront payment is non-refundable. However, if you do not secure a new role within six months of leaving, you will not be required to pay any outcome-based fee.

If you opted for a fixed-price, flat fee, you might be eligible for a partial refund based on the duration of your time at Formation. Your contract will provide all the relevant details.

We get asked this a lot, and we can honestly say: yes. There's never a bad time to develop your skills — and in a tight hiring climate, engineers with top-notch skills and impressive interviews thrive above the rest. Formation makes you the best engineer you can be and gives you the resources to prove to hiring managers that you're the best addition to their team, even in a tight economy. Given the impressive roster of Fellows we continue to place, companies trust Formation to sharpen top-tier engineers and see us as a symbol of excellence — a signal of the caliber of hire they'll receive from our ecosystem.

Job Search & Landing a Role

We work closely with you to identify companies and specific roles that align with your skills and interests. We are a small team that is well-connected in the industry, so once we see a great match, we'll try our best to help you find a path to the right people.

In addition, our adaptive prep algorithm goes well past identifying the highest-value reps for you at any given time. Once you enter our Job Hunt stage, our algorithm works to identify five job openings each day that uniquely match your profile and pipe them directly to you, so you can apply with confidence to roles you're a great fit for.

We understand — there are a lot of resources out there, even free ones. But time is of the essence when you're job hunting.

If you're employed and looking for a new role, you can't afford to waste a minute developing a skill you don't need or taking an interview you're not prepared for. If you're not employed, you may be up against a tight timeline, and time spent on anything not optimized exactly for you can add weeks or months to your job hunt.

That's where we come in — we're like a GPS for your job hunt. You tell us where you want to go, and we tell you the most streamlined, effective path to get there.

Instead of fumbling around on LeetCode or wasting real interviews as practice, we tell you exactly what to practice and when, provide uncapped resources and community to unblock you, and give you mock interviews so you're completely confident you're ready to nail your next one. We personalize your job hunt and land you amazing results — more efficiently than you can do on your own.

No. We empower our Fellows to make intentional career choices, and we work with them to land a role at their dream company. We do not have control over the hiring market, headcount, and job requirements at companies and while we will do our best to help you get interviews, we cannot guarantee you will get interviews.
No. Rather than focusing on the quantity of applications submitted, we help our Fellows craft high-quality applications with their dream opportunity in mind.
Formation provides unlimited access to as many mock interviews as you need to feel fully confident going into your real interviews. While other companies primarily cover DS&A interview content, Formation's mock interviews prepare you for 16 types of interviews candidates may encounter.
  • DS & Algorithms (Not Compiled / Whiteboard)
  • DS & Algorithms (Compiled)
  • AI-Assisted Coding
  • Build Project
  • Systems Design
  • AI-Assisted System Design
  • Technical Concepts
  • Product Systems Design
  • Front End Component Architecture Design
  • Debugging Real Code
  • Behavioral
  • Technical Behavioral
  • Group/Team Behavioral
  • Executive Behavioral
  • Technical Behavioral Presentation
  • Recruiter Screen
Definitely! Not only do we provide mock interviews, we give you access to as many as you need to build full confidence ahead of your job hunt. And that's not just 1 or 2 interview types like other options on the market — our mock interviews prepare you for 16 different types of interviews you may encounter.

We have no limit on the total number of mock interviews you can do during your time at Formation. That said, mock interviews are best used as a tool to assess skill level and progress, so we offer them at strategic times to maximize the efficacy of your prep.

Before you start actual interviews, we deliver personalized practice for the common interview types you'll face — DS&A, system design, behavioral, and more. Once you demonstrate mastery of an interview type's key topics, we'll give you a weekly mock interview testing your skills — as many as needed until a senior mentor verifies you can reliably perform at the bar for industry-level interviews.

Once you begin scheduling real-world interviews, you can schedule even more mocks to assess your readiness for those big moments. After each mock, your Mentor provides customized practice recommendations targeting your weak spots. To leave ample time to apply that feedback, we recommend one mock per interview type per week at this stage — and you can schedule as many as you need until you land the role you decide to accept.

No. We work with you until you land the right role. We also help you negotiate offers and even reject offers that are not the best opportunities for you.
Yes. If you already have interviews lined up, our team and Mentors will provide you with mock interviews where you'll receive actionable feedback. Afterward, we'll organize relevant sprints for any technical assessments you have coming up.
We are lucky to be founded by Facebook engineers who have interviewed thousands and thousands of candidates. We know exactly what the top companies are looking for and what skills you need to become an exceptional engineer, and we've built live practice sessions, mock interviews, and countless resources to help you build the confidence and skills required to absolutely nail your job hunt.

Support & Our Community

Formation Fellows have a huge support network. The Formation Team is made up of engineers from top-tier companies, and all of our Mentors are invested in our Fellows' success. In addition, Fellows have access to our internal messaging system that provides a direct line of communication to Mentors, Formation Team, Alumni, and current Fellows.

At Formation, our top priority is to provide you with the path to achieving your goals. Our team understands that joining Formation is a significant investment in your career. Because of that, we believe it's our responsibility to provide you with unconditional support at every step of the process as long as you are regularly completing tasks, attending sessions, and actively looking for a new role.

In the event that you are unable to regularly commit to these elements of the Fellowship, we will attempt to formally discuss your personal situation and goals to get back on track. If you are not able to fulfill your commitments, you may be asked to exit. As long as you are dedicating time and attention to progressing through your prep, we provide you with the resources you need to get a signed offer — and we will not stop a minute sooner.

The Formation Community is extremely robust and dedicated to seeing Fellows succeed. All of our internal team members, Mentors, and Formation Alumni are available to our Fellows for the support they need. Whether it's an ad-hoc meeting with our internal UX/UI team to prepare for an interview, or a scheduled code review session with a Mentor, everyone on the Formation team is unwaveringly devoted to supporting our Fellows.
Our goal at Formation is to help you find fulfilling engineering work and ensure your long-term career success. We have a robust network of top-tier engineering Mentors and Alumni who are all active on our internal chat and available for support even when your time at Formation ends. We help our Alums receive promotions, get familiarized with new tech stacks, and connect with other Fellows through our alumni events.

Our Mentors

Regular interaction with our senior and staff-level Mentors is one of the most important parts of the Formation experience. We dynamically match you with a variety of mentors throughout your time at Formation so you get diverse perspectives and expertise. You'll work with senior engineering Mentors weekly in formats like small group sessions and 1:1 mock interviews — how many sessions per week depends on your hourly commitment, the interview types you're preparing for, your progress, and availability.

Beyond face-to-face mentorship, you'll also be a member of our Mattermost (chat) channels, where you can ask questions and discuss topics directly with Mentors on demand. Fellows and Alum often report that the availability and dedication of their Mentors was one of the most beneficial and unexpected parts of their time as a Fellow.

All of our Mentors are top-tier software engineers or recruiters who have, collectively, interviewed thousands of software engineering candidates at FAANG or other top-tier companies. Our Mentors are hand-picked based on their deep desire to help Fellows land their dream roles and to support their long-term career success.
Yes. 1-on-1 sessions are between you and one of our Mentors; group sessions with Mentors have an average of 3 Fellows. Both of these session types allow Fellows to develop meaningful relationships and get personalized feedback from our Mentors.
We believe the power of community is an integral aspect in career development. That's why we do not limit the amount of sessions or exposure you have to Mentors — you get unlimited access to Mentor support and Mentor sessions while you're a Fellow. While others may give you a set allotment or make you pay per session, our Mentors are at your disposal without limits or session caps.

Our Fellows

We support all of our Fellows' preferred languages and focus on helping Fellows understand concepts over mastering a language. However, sessions will be run in Python or JavaScript, so we encourage all Fellows to be familiar with one or the other. While those are the main languages, sessions do not cover language-specific topics nor are they syntax-focused — instead, they are focused on problem solving and the structure of code. For project work, we use React, Node, and React Hooks and adapt the stack to modern trends.

We look for Fellows who have grit, curiosity, and are looking to build the change they want to see in the world. Our Fellows come from diverse and nontraditional backgrounds. Many of them are software engineers with some industry experience looking to accelerate their careers.

More specifically, Fellows we accept must have a minimum of 1 year of full-time software engineering experience who score above 470 on our entrance benchmark assessment. While that is our minimum, we've worked with Fellows with up to 20 years of experience for more senior roles. At the time, we can only support Fellows located in, or with permanent work authorization to work within, the United States or Canada.

Last updated 7/1/2026, content subject to change at any time and may contain errors.