# Aline Lerner

> Aline Lerner is the founder and CEO of interviewing.io, an anonymous technical interview platform that has hosted over 100,000 practice sessions and helped engineers get hired at companies like Facebook, Uber, Dropbox, and Lyft. A former MIT engineer who spent years as a professional cook before returning to tech, she ran hiring at Udacity, launched her own recruiting firm, and discovered through data that resume typos predicted candidate quality better than Ivy League credentials. Her data-driven writing on the dysfunction of technical hiring has been read by millions and featured in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company (which named her one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2018). In January 2025, she co-authored Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview, the official sequel to the seminal CtCI book, co-written with Gayle Laakmann McDowell.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at interviewing.io
- **Organizations:** interviewing.io, Aline Lerner LLC, Udacity
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- **Known for:** Founded interviewing.io, which has hosted over 100,000 technical interviews, Named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business (2018), Raised $10M Series A from M13 in October 2021

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Graduated from MIT with a Computer Science degree
- **2004-2007** — Worked as a software engineer in tech industry
- **2007-2010** — Left tech to work as a professional cook in New York City and San Francisco for approximately 3 years
- **2010-2013** — Returned to tech; worked as a software engineer and engineering manager; later ran hiring at Udacity
- **2013** — Founded Aline Lerner LLC, her own technical recruiting firm, with clients including Airbnb, Dropbox, and Lyft
- **2015** — Co-founded interviewing.io with Andrew Marsh; launched the anonymous technical interview practice platform
- **2018** — Named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business
- **2021** — Raised $10M Series A led by M13 while 7 months pregnant; gave birth 3 weeks early during final negotiations
- **2024** — Co-authored Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview with Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Mike Mroczka, and Nil Mamano
- **2025** — Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview published in January 2025

## Achievements

- Founded interviewing.io, which has hosted over 100,000 technical interviews
- Named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business (2018)
- Raised $10M Series A from M13 in October 2021
- Co-authored Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview (official sequel to CtCI), published January 2025
- Data-driven hiring research featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company
- Built platform converting candidates to hires at 10% vs. industry standard 0.5%
- Ran the largest blind engineering hiring experiment for 6 years, discovering that 46% of top performers at FAANG didn't come from top schools
- MIT lecturer on technical recruiting topics
- Over one-third of Bay Area engineers have used interviewing.io

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview officially published; co-authored with Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Mike Mroczka, and Nil Mamano. Book adds 150+ new problems and 13 new technical topics.
- **2025-02** — Made 9 chapters of Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview free for everyone online.
- **2024-09** — Announced co-authorship of Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview on her blog.
- **2023-11** — LinkedIn deleted her account after she posted content critical of LinkedIn's certification features; account was reinstated after investor intervention.
- **2021-10** — Raised $10M Series A led by M13, six years after founding interviewing.io.

## Links

- Website: https://blog.alinelerner.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alinelerner
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/alinelernerllc
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLr9GRk2reY
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/intervewingio/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/aline-lerner
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-14