Gayle Laakmann McDowell

Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Gayle Laakmann McDowell in 2014
Born	Gayle Laakmann 1982 (age 42–43) [1]
Education	Episcopal Academy [2]
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania (BSE, MSE) Wharton School (MBA)
Known for	Cracking the Coding Interview
Scientific career
Fields	Recruitment Coding interviews Computer science Career development Software engineering
Institutions	Apple Google Microsoft CareerCup
Website	www.gayle.com

Gayle Laakmann McDowell (born 1982) ^[1] is a software engineer and author. ^[3] She is the lead author of the career development series of books: Cracking the X.

Education

McDowell was educated at the Episcopal Academy ^[2] and the University of Pennsylvania where she was received Bachelor of Engineering (BSE) and Master of Engineering (MSE) degrees in Computer Science in 2005. ^[4]

Career

Cracking the Coding Interview cover

After working as a software engineer for Google she joined a small venture capital-funded startup company as the Vice President (VP) of engineering before being awarded a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. ^[3] McDowell subsequently founded her own business, CareerCup.com, which helps people prepare for interviews at big tech companies. ^[3]

First self-published in 2008, her book Cracking the Coding Interview provides guidance on technical job interviews, and includes solutions to example coding interview questions. ^[5] A followup was published in 2025 covering issues in recruitment, job hunting and behavioral interviews alongside material on big O notation, leetcode, algorithms and data structures called Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview. ^[6]

McDowell has also co-authored the books Cracking the PM Interview (for product managers: PMs), ^[7] Cracking the PM career ^[8] and Cracking the Tech Career. ^[9] Mainstream media coverage of her work include articles in The New York Times , ^[10] The Guardian , ^[11] The Wall Street Journal , ^[12] USA Today , ^[13] U.S. News & World Report , ^[14] and Fast Company . ^[15]

McDowell gave the commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science Masters graduation in 2016. ^{[16] [17] [18]}

References

1. Gayle Laakmann McDowell at Library of Congress
2. Laakmann McDowell, Gayle (2012). "Technology — Past, Present, Future". youtube.com. YouTube.
3. Hess, Ken (2012). "Women in Tech: Gayle Laakmann McDowell excels beyond the stereotypes". ZDNet . Archived from the original on 2019-12-31.
4. Gayle Laakmann McDowell on LinkedIn
5. McDowell, Gayle Laakmann (2015). Cracking the coding interview : 189 programming questions and solutions (6th ed.). Palo Alto, CA: CareerCup, LLC (self-published). ISBN   978-0-9847828-5-7. OCLC   913477191.
6. McDowell, Gayle Laakmann; Mroczka, Mike; Lerner, Aline; Mamano, Nil (2025). Beyond Cracking the coding interview : Pass Tough Coding Interviews, Get Noticed, and Negotiate Successfully. Palo Alto, CA: CareerCup, LLC. ISBN   9781955706001. OCLC   1492398257.
7. McDowell, Gayle Laakmann; Bavaro, Jackie (2013). Cracking the PM interview : how to land a product manager job in technology. Palo Alto, CA: CareerCup, LLC. ISBN   978-0-9847828-1-9. OCLC   866799668.
8. Bavaro, Jackie; McDowell, Gayle Laakmann (2021). Cracking the PM career. Palo Alto, CA: CareerCup, LLC. ISBN   978-0984782895. OCLC   1239322919.
9. Laakmann McDowell, Gayle (2014). Cracking the Tech Career : Insider Advice on Landing a Job at Google, Microsoft, Apple, or any Top Tech Company. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. ISBN   978-1-118-96809-3. OCLC   890441660.
10. Lu, Yiren (2014). "Silicon Valley's Youth Problem". nytimes.com. The New York Times.
11. Holpuch, Amanda (October 3, 2012). "How to pass a Google interview: busting the brain teaser myth". theguardian.com. London: The Guardian.
12. Gellman, Lindsay (July 14, 2015). "The Workers Who Say 'Thanks, but No Thanks' to Jobs". wsj.com. New York: The Wall Street Journal.
13. Swartz, Jon (2011). "Tech jobs boom like it's 1999". usatoday.com. USA Today.
14. Smith-Barrow, Delece (2013). "Start a Business in B School". usnews.com. U.S. News & World Report.
15. Porter, Jane (February 5, 2016). "Former Employee Of Google, Apple, And Microsoft On How To Master The Tech Interview". fastcompany.com.
16. Gao, Laura (2017). "Gayle McDowell on Writing Code to Writing Books". thesign.al. Archived from the original on 2018-03-18.
17. Berger, Michele W. (2017). "Unique, dynamic speakers take part in Penn's 2016 graduation ceremonies: Penn Today". upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 2020-01-12.
18. Anon (2016). "Penn Engineering Masters 2016 Commencement Address: #SayYes". youtube.com. YouTube.