OpenAI Software Engineer interview experience

During the onsite, the recruiter kept changing which interviews I would have, and eventually they scheduled a different set than what I’d been told.

To make it worse, one of the interviewers asked me to design a database as part of the programming interview, but didn’t give instructions, context, or even test cases. The lack of framing made the whole task feel like a trap rather than an evaluation. I ended up with a rejection, and it felt intentional—like the process was gatekeeping me instead of assessing my skills.