Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Exercism VS TryHackMe

Compare Exercism VS TryHackMe and see what are their differences

Exercism logo Exercism

Download and solve practice problems in over 30 different languages.

TryHackMe logo TryHackMe

TryHackMe is an online platform for learning and teaching cyber security, all through your browser.
  • Exercism Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-28
  • TryHackMe Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-27

Exercism features and specs

  • Free Access
    Exercism provides free access to a wide range of coding exercises and learning resources, making it accessible to everyone regardless of their financial situation.
  • Mentorship
    Offers personalized mentorship from experienced developers who can provide feedback and guidance on your code submissions.
  • Wide Variety of Languages
    Supports numerous programming languages, which allows users to learn and practice coding in multiple languages.
  • Structured Learning Tracks
    Organizes exercises into structured tracks, guiding learners through progressively challenging problems in a logical order.
  • Community Support
    Has an active community forum where users can discuss problems, share insights, and ask for help.
  • Open Source Contributions
    Encourages contributions to the platform itself, offering an opportunity for users to give back and improve the resources available to others.
  • Focus on Clean Code
    Emphasizes writing clean, well-documented code, which is beneficial for developing best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Exercism

  • Variable Mentorship Quality
    The quality of mentorship can vary, as it depends on the availability and expertise of volunteer mentors.
  • Learning Curve
    There can be a steep learning curve for beginners who may find some exercises too challenging without sufficient initial guidance.
  • Limited Interactivity
    Exercises are primarily text-based without interactive or visual learning aids, which might be less engaging for some users.
  • Dependence on Volunteers
    The platform relies heavily on volunteer mentors, which can lead to delays in getting feedback and may affect the consistency of support.
  • Interface Complexity
    Some users find the interface and workflow somewhat complex and unintuitive, particularly for those new to the platform.
  • No Real-Time Collaboration
    Lacks real-time collaboration features, meaning users cannot code together or get instant feedback.
  • Focus on Individual Learning
    The platform predominantly focuses on individual learning rather than collaborative projects, which can be a downside for those looking to develop team-working skills.

TryHackMe features and specs

  • Hands-On Experience
    TryHackMe provides practical, hands-on labs and challenges, allowing learners to gain real-world experience in cybersecurity and ethical hacking.
  • Wide Range of Topics
    The platform covers a broad spectrum of topics, from basic cybersecurity principles to advanced penetration testing techniques.
  • Guided Learning Paths
    Structured learning paths and tutorials make it easier for beginners to advance their knowledge in a systematic manner.
  • Cost-Effective
    Many of the rooms and learning paths are available for free, and the premium subscription is relatively affordable compared to other cybersecurity training platforms.
  • Interactive Community
    An active community of users can help with troubleshooting, provide tips, and foster a collaborative learning environment.
  • Certificates and Badges
    The platform offers certificates and badges upon completion of certain modules or challenges, which can be added to professional profiles.

Possible disadvantages of TryHackMe

  • Limited Advanced Content
    While the platform is excellent for beginners and intermediates, some advanced users may find the content lacking in depth or complexity.
  • Dependence on VM
    Most exercises rely on virtual machines (VMs), which can be resource-intensive and may not run smoothly on all computers.
  • Connectivity Issues
    Users sometimes experience connectivity problems with the platform's servers or VMs, affecting the learning experience.
  • Subscription Model
    Although affordable, some users may find it inconvenient to unlock certain valuable content behind a paywall.
  • Varied Quality of Rooms
    The quality of rooms and challenges can be inconsistent, as they are often created by different individuals with varying levels of expertise.

Analysis of Exercism

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Exercism is considered good for learning and improving programming skills.

Why this product is good

  • Exercism offers free access to a wide variety of exercises in over 50 different programming languages, catering to both beginners and experienced programmers.
  • The platform provides a unique mentorship model where volunteers review submitted solutions, offering personalized feedback and guidance.
  • The exercises are well-structured, facilitating both practice and mastery of language-specific concepts and problem-solving skills.
  • Exercism encourages learning through doing, promoting an active learning environment which can be more effective compared to passive learning styles.
  • The platform allows for self-paced learning, enabling users to progress at their own speed and revisit topics as needed.

Recommended for

  • Beginner programmers seeking practical coding exercises to reinforce their learning.
  • Intermediate and advanced developers looking to hone their skills or learn new programming languages.
  • Individuals who appreciate personalized feedback and mentorship to improve their coding practices.
  • Students and educators searching for supplementary resources to support coursework or syllabus requirements.
  • Professionals aiming to practice coding interview problems and enhance their problem-solving abilities.

Analysis of TryHackMe

Overall verdict

  • Yes, TryHackMe is a good platform for both newcomers and experienced individuals who want to enhance their skills in cybersecurity. Its combination of practical exercises and theoretical knowledge makes it an effective tool for learning.

Why this product is good

  • TryHackMe is considered a good platform due to its accessible approach to learning cybersecurity. It offers interactive, themed rooms, guided challenges, and a wide range of topics from beginner to advanced levels. The platform also provides hands-on, practical experience which is essential for understanding real-world cybersecurity scenarios.

Recommended for

  • Beginners looking to start a career in cybersecurity.
  • IT professionals seeking to upgrade their cybersecurity skills.
  • Educators needing resources to teach cybersecurity concepts.
  • Anyone interested in cybersecurity and ethical hacking.

Exercism videos

Learn with Exercism.io

More videos:

  • Review - JavaScript Exercise | Learn JavaScript with Exercism | #0 Setup
  • Review - exercism.io 01 hello-world

TryHackMe videos

Hackthebox, TryHackme, Hacker101: Which one to choose? #hacking #bugbounty

More videos:

  • Review - TryHackMe Overview | Cybersecurity 101

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Exercism and TryHackMe)
Online Learning
100 100%
0% 0
Training & Education
0 0%
100% 100
Online Education
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Exercism and TryHackMe. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Exercism and TryHackMe

Exercism Reviews

LeetCode Alternatives: Top platforms for coding practice
What are LeetCode and LeetCode alternatives good for?LeetCode๐Ÿ’กInterested in leveling up your career? Apply to the Formation Fellowship today!ApplyHackerRankCodeSignalAlgoExpertCodewarsGeeksforGeeksEdabitExercismTopCoderShould you use LeetCode for advanced interview prep?Get holistic interview prep with Formation
Source: formation.dev
8 Best LeetCode Alternatives and Similar Platforms
Exercism is the alternative to LeetCode learning platform, with over 4000 activities in up to 52 popular programming languages. It is very different from other comparable programming websites in that it emphasizes solo practice and also mentor-based learning. The greatest part about this software is to have an active developer community that assists novices all around the...
The 10 Most Popular Coding Challenge Websites [Updated for 2021]
Exercism is a coding challenge website that offers 3100+ challenges spanning 52 different programming languages. After picking a language that you'd like to master, you tackle the coding challenges right on your machine (Exercism has their own command line interface that you can download from GitHub).
Top 25 websites for coding challenge and competition [Updated for 2021]
Best qualities: Exercism starts off with language tracks that allow users to choose their preferred languages. Moreover, there are human mentors who will check your code and help you improve as you progress. This makes the platform perfect for total beginners who want to deepen their understanding of a new programming language.

TryHackMe Reviews

Hack the Box vs TryHackMe โ€“ A Comparative Analysis
In the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity, the need to learn and evolve has never been greater. Security enthusiasts, pen-testers, and cybersecurity professionals need to stay ahead of potential adversaries. For this reason, platforms like Hack The Box (HTB) and TryHackMe (THM) have come to the fore, providing immersive environments to practice and learn cybersecurity...
Source: nextdoorsec.com
Top 5 Cyber Security Online Courses to Make a Good Pay
TryHackMe provides information for persons new to cybersecurity courses and covers a wide range of subjects, including offensive and defensive security training. Capture the Flag activities with walk-through write-ups by contributing users that show members how to approach and solve difficulties are also available on TryHackMe. There are four tiers to choose from:
Get Your Cybersecurity Career Started: The Best Websites for Newbies to Practice Cybersecurity
TryHackMe is an online platform that offers a wide range of cybersecurity courses and challenges. The platform is designed to be beginner-friendly and offers hands-on experience with real-world cybersecurity scenarios. TryHackMe covers topics such as Linux, networking, web application security, and more.

Social recommendations and mentions

TryHackMe might be a bit more popular than Exercism. We know about 376 links to it since March 2021 and only 318 links to Exercism. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Exercism mentions (318)

  • AI made me lazy. I didnโ€™t notice until it was too late.
    Exercism.org structured deliberate practice, no AI required. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Free Python Resources
    Providing free coding exercises and mentorship, Exercism helps developers practice and improve their programming skills step by step. Their Python Track offers a series of exercises that guide learners from beginner to more advanced levels. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Collaboration Circles for Developers (2026)
    Exercism is a code practice + mentoring platform in 74 languages. Why it can work: although it is not exclusively focused on groups of five, its mentoring and peer review model allows forming mini-circles where participants give each other mutual feedback. Limitation: it is not originally intended as a "venting circle" (My favorite), but more technical-practical. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Cracking Blackjack with Go: A Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Move
    Keep practicing, keep coding, and most importantlyโ€”have fun with it! If you enjoyed this exercise, explore more challenges on exercism to continue building your Go skills. As always, you can find the complete code in my GitHub repo: https://github.com/RubenOAlvarado/algorithms. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Ask HN: What book should my CS1 students read?
    (concepts/topics) : The New Turing Omnibus, 66 Excursions in Computer Science[1] Code Complete [2] Debugging The 9 Indispensable Rules of Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems [3] Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software [4] -- backround stories on how 'computer' things came to be -------- [1] : https://www.amazon.com/New-Turing-Omnibus-Sixty-Six-Excursions/dp/0805071660... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

TryHackMe mentions (376)

  • About Me - An Outreachy Blog
    When they cut out our internet in about 2017, I have always fantasized about being a hacker and finding a way to restore it completely ๐Ÿ˜‚. I think this was one of the things that led me to explore Cybersecurity. I began my cybersecurity journey with tryhackme.com, and was later accepted into the CyberGirls Fellowship program, a rigorous one-year program designed to encourage women to enter the field of... - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Logs Fundamentals for Cybersecurity: What Every Analyst Should Know
    ๐Ÿ“ More resources available on GitHub ๐Ÿ”— Connect on LinkedIn โœ๏ธ Prepared by moh4med404 โ€” inspired by the Cybersecurity 101 path on TryHackMe. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Timeline: My Career Shift from Mechanical Engineer to Cybersecurity
    If you are willing to spend some on learning, I recommend subscribing to tryhackme.com. For me, they have the best materials for beginners. If you are on a budget, you may start looking for cybersecurity roadmap in roadmap.sh. They curate roadmaps for many IT careers and within nodes are free learning sources. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2024)
    TryHackMe | Full-time | Remote | with annual team retreats | https://tryhackme.com/ TryHackMe is the fastest-growing online cyber security training platform. Our mission is to make learning and teaching cyber security easier by providing gamified security exercises and challenges. Having only been around for a handful of years, we've grown to more than 3 million community members and our growth isn't slowing down!... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Exploiting Active Directory: How to Abuse Kerberos
    This will be a write-up post for the Attacktive Directory room on TryHackMe. It's a learning room in the Cyber Defense path, under the Threat Emulation section. The idea is to attempt to exploit a vulnerable Domain Controller in Active Directory. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Exercism and TryHackMe, you can also consider the following products

Codecademy - Learn the technical skills you need for the job you want. As leaders in online education and learning to code, weโ€™ve taught over 45 million people using a tested curriculum and an interactive learning environment.

Hack The Box - An online platform to test and advance your skills in penetration testing and cyber security.

Treehouse - Treehouse is an award-winning online platform that teaches people how to code.

VulnHub - VulnHub provides materials allowing anyone to gain practical hands-on experience with digital security, computer applications and network administration tasks.

edX - Best Courses. Top Institutions. Learn anytime, anywhere.

PentesterLab - Learn all about web hacking through online courses spanning the basics to advanced vulnerabilities