OpenAI·Software Engineer

OpenAI Software Engineer interview experience

Got offer

Hard

Positive

San Francisco, CAPosted Aug 2023 · Candidate report, summarized by Dataford

I went into this process with an interview loop that started with a quick introduction—basically a brief chat right at the beginning.

Then the main part turned into a focused coding exercise.

I was given a class called Cell and asked to create a new method that updated a cell’s value and also propagated changes to other dependent cells, in a way that felt similar to how spreadsheets update formulas. After I worked through the coding portion, they asked me to explain my approach and why I made particular choices, and I had the chance to ask questions too.

Overall, it felt like a hard technical evaluation where understanding tradeoffs mattered. I left feeling like I’d done the core work, but I didn’t get an offer from this

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