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Forward Deployed Engineer courses in India (2026): fees, format and how they compare

By Venkata Vishnu Vardhan Raju Chakravarthula · 5 November 2026 · 8 min read

A year ago there were almost no Forward Deployed Engineer courses. In 2026 there are a dozen, with published fees from under ₹10,000 to ₹3,99,000. Below are the numbers as the providers publish them, then how to choose. We make one of these courses, so we also say plainly what ours does not include.

Published fees and formats

Fees for the Indian programmes below are as published on each provider’s page and compiled by InterviewBit Varsity, which read them on 17 September 2026.¹ Build Fast with AI and Zero to FDE were read from their own pages on 5 November 2026.² Fees change: check the provider’s page before you pay.

Programme	Provider	Published fee	Duration	Format
AI Forward Deployed Engineer Program	Scaler	₹3,99,000	12 months, 14 modules	Live, mentor-led
Advanced Certificate in AI Forward Deployed Engineering	IIT Delhi CEP, with InterviewBit Varsity	₹1,65,000 + 18% GST	6 months, 145 hours	Online weekend classes, optional 2-day campus visit
AI FDE Program	CodeKerdos	₹89,999	Not prominently stated	Live classes and recordings
Forward Deployed Engineer Course	School of Core AI	₹65,000	5 months	Live online
PG Certificate Program in Forward Deployed AI Engineering	CEC IIT Roorkee, with Futurense	₹45,000 + 18% GST	3 months, 85+ hours	Hybrid, weekends
Forward Deployed Crash Course	Build Fast with AI	US$399	2 weeks	Live cohort, weekend evenings IST
Forward Deployed Engineer Master Programme	Isha Training Solutions	₹9,900 (offer price)	30 hours	Live weekend sessions
Zero to FDE	Zero to FDE	₹2,999 once	12 core weeks + 4 optional	Self-paced, code runs in your browser

Two more worth knowing: Futurense’s FDE Academy is a 32-week programme that has not published its fee,³ and Maven hosts a free 45-minute lesson on the FDE skills roadmap by Priyanka Vergadia.⁴

What the price differences buy

An institute-backed certificate. The IIT Delhi CEP and IIT Roorkee CEC programmes are offered through an IIT continuing-education centre. If an institute-backed certificate matters to your employer, that is a real reason to pay more.
Live teaching and mentors. Scaler’s programme is live and mentor-led, with placement assistance, over 12 months. Live programmes suit people who learn best with a fixed schedule and a human to ask.
Speed. Build Fast with AI’s crash course covers agents, RAG with citations, multi-agent systems, evals and a capstone in two weeks of live sessions, aimed at people who already write code and work with APIs.²
Depth for the money. This is where Zero to FDE sits.

Where Zero to FDE fits

Price: ₹2,999 once, the lowest of the paid programmes above, with a 7-day full refund.
Try before paying: Week 1 is free and complete, no card: five lessons and a tested FastAPI service on GitHub.
Scope: backend Python, Git, SQL and HTTP, FastAPI, LLM APIs and tool calling, RAG that cites its sources, agents with step limits, MCP, multi-agent systems, evaluation, guardrails, observability and deployment, then a portfolio and interview preparation. The full roadmap lists every week.
Proof, not attendance: every week ends with a deliverable you push to GitHub.
Fits around a job: self-paced, no batch dates, start any day.

What it does not include: no live classes, no mentors, no certificate and no placement service. If you need any of those, one of the live programmes above is the better choice.

How to choose

If you…	Look at
need an institute certificate for your employer	IIT Delhi CEP or IIT Roorkee CEC programmes
want live mentoring and placement help, and the budget allows	Scaler
already build with APIs and want a fast, live sprint	Build Fast with AI
want the full skill set, self-paced, at low cost, and proof on GitHub	Zero to FDE
are not sure the role is for you	Maven’s free lesson, or Zero to FDE’s free Week 1

Whichever you pick, judge it by what you will have built at the end, not the hours of video. Hiring managers for FDE roles ask you to walk through a system you shipped.

Sources

Zero to FDE is a 90-day path, for working engineers and AIML graduates, to the work Forward Deployed Engineers do: backend basics, LLMs, RAG, agents, evaluation and deployment, with a shipped deliverable every week. Week 1 is free and complete, no card needed.

Start Week 1 free