OpenAI’s Interview Process & Questions

The info below is based on conversations with OpenAI engineers.

OpenAI's Interview Process for Software Engineers: 3-4 Steps

Mid to senior-level engineers interviewing at OpenAI can expect the following process:

• Recruiter call (30 minutes)
• Technical phone screen (1 hour)
• Possible 2nd technical screen or assessment, where the format depends on the role (1 hour)
• Onsite (4-6 hours)

General tips:

• Your recruiter will give you detailed tips on what to prepare for before some interviews. Take the tips seriously!
• The coding questions you’ll get are more practical than LeetCode. They are algorithms and data structures questions, but they are actual things that you might do at work.
• Prepare slides for the presentation part of the onsite (even though it’s not required).
• Be prepared to discuss ethics and safety in AI. Read their blog!

The hiring process at OpenAI is decentralized, with a lot of variation in interview steps and styles depending on the role and team you are interviewing for. You will get some sort of technical assessment before the onsite, and it can be anything from a technical phone screen, an asynchronous assessment, or a take-home project. It may even be two separate steps. We’ve heard they use HackerRank for asynchronous coding tests but CoderPad for live interviews. This guide will assume that there will be two live technical phone screens, but your mileage may vary depending on team and role – check out OpenAI’s own interview guide for more info.

At OpenAI, there is some flexibility in terms of which role and team you might end up on – you might apply to one role but have them suggest others as you move through the process. Your interviewers will probably come from multiple different teams. Prepare for it to feel chaotic.

From one of our users who recently interviewed with Open AI:

“Everything they did made them seem wildly disorganized. They didn’t stay in touch through the process. A lot of radio silence."

The entire process can take 6-8 weeks, but if you put pressure on them throughout you can speed things up, especially if you mention that you have other offers.

AI Usage

AI use in OpenAI interviews is strictly prohibited.

Step 1: Recruiter Call

OpenAI’s recruiter call lasts 30 minutes, and it’s pretty standard fare – they’ll ask you about your previous experience, why you’re interested in OpenAI, your understanding of OpenAI’s value proposition, and what you’re looking for moving forward.

In this round, your recruiter will also tell you what to expect in the next round, given how much variability there is in the interview process for different roles and teams. Your recruiter will also be in touch throughout the interview process to prep you for what’s coming up next.

It’s really important, at this stage, to not reveal your salary expectations or where you are in the process with other companies. We’ve written a detailed post about salary negotiation that lays out exactly what to say if recruiters pressure you to name the first number.

Step 2: Technical Phone Screen

OpenAI’s first technical phone screen lasts about an hour and is conducted in CoderPad. This is an algorithms and data structures style interview, but the questions are more practical than questions you’d find on LeetCode. We will cover what we know of their question style in the section called “Types of Interview Questions to Expect at OpenAI” below.

Step 3: Second Technical Phone Screen or Assessment

The format of this round varies by role and will be more domain-specific than the previous round. For instance, you may get an asynchronous exercise or a take-home assignment. Or you may have to do another technical phone screen.

We expect that for many of our readers, who tend to be senior, back-end focused engineers, this round will be an architecture interview. See the System Design section below for more details on question types.

If you have more information about this part of the process or see anything that’s incorrect, please fill in our form

Step 4: Onsite

Onsite interview loops also vary slightly depending on the role and seniority, but the below is generally what you’ll get:

• Behavioral interview with a senior manager (45 mins) This is a phone call with a hiring manager, typically someone quite senior at the company. For more detail about the kinds of questions to expect, see the Behavioral section below.
• Presentation (45 mins) You’ll be asked to prepare this in advance. For more detail, see the Presentation section below.
• Coding (1 hour). This interview will be conducted in your own IDE with screen-share or in CoderPad. Your choice. For more detail about the kinds of questions to expect, see the Coding section below.
• System design (1 hour). You'll use Excalidraw for this round. For more detail about what kind of questions to expect, see the System Design section below.
• Behavioral interview focused on working with teams (30 mins). This and the hiring manager screen above are both behavioral. For more info about what questions to expect, see the Behavioral section below.

Bonus Video: Conversation with an OpenAI Engineer

Types of Interview Questions to Expect at OpenAI

All of OpenAI’s interview questions have a degree of practicality and are usually language agnostic.

Coding

OpenAI’s onsite coding interviews will be more practical than many companies’. Although you will still get algorithmic questions, they are going to be about stuff you might actually do at work.

“You’re not going to get questions on string manipulation.”

In these interviews, they are looking for your ability to write code that is going to be fast enough now but flexible enough to scale and adapt in the future.

You can choose the language for the coding rounds, and the questions are picked based on whichever language you choose.

Below are the technical topics you’re likely to encounter in OpenAI interviews. To compile this list, we did two things. First, we spoke to some current and former OpenAI engineers. Then we cross-referenced all the anecdotes we heard with Glassdoor data AND our own data-set of mock interviews:

First, here’s a list of more niche technical topics that are, in our experience, specific to OpenAI:

• Time-based data structures
• Versioned data stores
• Coroutines in your chosen language (multithreading, concurrency, etc.)
• Object-oriented programming concepts (abstract classes, iterator classes, inheritance, etc.)

And here are technical topics that you’re likely to find at other companies as well (for these we’ve created detailed write-ups of their own):

System Design

You may get two system design rounds during the interview loop, one before the onsite and one during.

If you get one before the onsite, expect something practical – you might be asked to design Yelp, Foursquare, Twitter, or a notifications system.

In this round, they probe for depth of knowledge and will ask a bunch of follow-up questions. It’s also best not to name-drop names of tools:

“If you call out any specific technologies during this round, be prepared to go into detail about them! It may be best not to bring up specific examples as they seem to like drilling into the pros and cons of your choice.”

Although a more domain-specific interview may pop up for some roles, most engineers will get another system design round during the onsite. You will likely be prepped well for the topic of this interview, so pay attention to any tips they give you beforehand. If you got a system design round before the onsite, the style of question that you get in the onsite round will be very similar, though they may ask you to get into more detail.

We have heard that OpenAI might ask you to code in this interview. One user told us that they designed a solution to the problem that was posed to them but were then asked to code up a new solution using a different method.

Check out our guide to system design interviews to help you prepare.

Presentation

You’ll be asked to present a project you worked on to a senior manager. You won’t specifically be asked to prepare slides, but it’s a very good idea to do so. Be prepared to discuss the technical and business aspects and impact of the project, as well as your level of contribution, what tradeoffs were made, what other team members were involved, and what everyone’s responsibilities were. You may get some behavioral questions about how you worked with the team.

Behavioral

Senior Manager Call

This is often with someone pretty high up at OpenAI. Our sources tell us it can be an interesting call. Although a lot of the questions will be standard, you may also be asked to delve deeper into something on your resume that catches the eye.

From one source who interviewed with OpenAI recently:

"This interview was with John Rizzo, who is a well-known employee at OpenAI. It wasn’t an intense call, and John asked me some great questions about my background. It felt like he might have had veto power, but I enjoyed the call."

It’s also a good idea to read OpenAI’s blog, particularly any articles that discuss ethics and safety in AI. They want to know that you’ve thought about the topic, so prepare yourself!

Working with Teams

This is another type of behavioral interview you might encounter. Expect questions about times:

• You had to work cross-functionally across teams
• You’ve experienced conflict between teams or roles
• You’ve had competing ideas to move a project forward within your own team.

All of these questions are meant to get at your ability to work collaboratively.